The Man Behind the Story

Historical companion to the novel

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John Clarke — The Fight for Soul Liberty is inspired by the extraordinary life of Dr. John Clarke. The novel is a work of historical fiction based on actual people, documented events, surviving writings, court and colonial records, and family histories.

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John Clarke was born in Westhorpe, Suffolk, England, in 1609 and died in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1676. Between those two dates, he became a physician, minister, scholar, colonial founder, statesman, and diplomat—and one of the most consequential early advocates for freedom of conscience in America.

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The major events portrayed in the novel are rooted in the historical record, including Clarke’s departure from England; his involvement with the religious exiles in Massachusetts; the founding of Portsmouth and Newport; the Portsmouth Compact of 1638; his ministry in Newport; the 1651 arrest of Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and John Crandall at Lynn, Massachusetts; Clarke’s imprisonment; the brutal public whipping of Holmes; the publication of Clarke’s Ill Newes from New-England in 1652; his more than twelve years in England representing Rhode Island through the political and religious turmoil of the Commonwealth, Cromwell’s Protectorate, the Restoration of the monarchy and the Regicide Hunts, the persecution of religious dissenters, and the execution of his friend Sir Henry Vane; his repeated petitions to the Crown and defense of Rhode Island against Connecticut’s territorial claims; and his successful effort to secure the Rhode Island Royal Charter of 1663 from King Charles II.

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The Charter gave legal permanence to an idea Clarke had spent much of his life defending: that government should not compel religious belief and that people should be free in matters of conscience without fear of persecution.

 

Where documented evidence survives, I have followed it closely. Clarke’s own words, surviving letters, published writings, legal documents, colonial records, and contemporary accounts have been particularly important in telling John’s story and reconstructing the world in which he lived.

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​Dr. John Clarke (1609–1676)

Born: October 3, 1609 — Westhorpe, Suffolk, England
Baptized: October 8, 1609 — St. Margaret’s Church, Westhorpe
Died: April 20, 1676 — Newport, Rhode Island
Age: 66

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The Legacy of Dr. John Clarke

Physician • Cambridge & Leiden Educated • Baptist Minister • Scholar • Author • Medical Pioneer • Founder of the First Free Public School • Author of the Portsmouth Compact (“Bodie Politick”) • Co-Founder of Portsmouth • Co-Founder of Newport • Co-Founder of Rhode Island • General Treasurer • Legislator • Three-Time Deputy Governor • Diplomat and Colonial Agent to England • Defender of Freedom of Conscience • Author and Principal Architect of the Royal Charter of 1663 • Founder of America’s Oldest Active Testamentary Trust • Established Charity Farms for the Education of Children and Relief of the Poor • Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame Inductee • Honored by the Newport Medical Society • Namesake of the Dr. John Clarke Award • Namesake of SS John Clarke and Clarke Science Building • Honored Annually by the State of Rhode Island with John Clarke Day

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Education & Scholarship

• University of Cambridge — 1627–1632

• University of Leiden, Holland — 1632–1635 — continued his studies in medicine in the Netherlands, completing his Leiden education in July 1635.

• Fluent in both written and spoken biblical languages—Latin, Ancient Greek, and Hebrew

• Physician and medical scholar

• Theologian and biblical scholar

• Author of Ill Newes from New-England (1652) — his account of the persecution of religious dissenters in Massachusetts and a major defense of liberty of conscience.

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John Clarke’s Family

• John Clarke was born into the family of Thomas Clarke and Rose Kerrich Clarke of Westhorpe, Suffolk. The Clarke and Kerrich families had deep roots in the Suffolk countryside, and surviving parish registers, wills, and genealogical records provide an unusually detailed picture of the family into which John was born.

• John grew up among a large family of brothers and sisters, including Carew, Thomas, Margaret, Mary, William, and Joseph Clarke. Carew, Thomas, Mary, and Joseph were among the family members whose lives became connected with Newport and the developing Rhode Island colony.

• John married three times during his lifetime. His first wife, Elizabeth Harges Clarke, shared more than thirty years of his life, from their years in England through the founding of Newport and his long mission in England on behalf of Rhode Island. They had no children.

• Following Elizabeth’s death, John married Jane Fletcher in 1671. Their daughter was born on February 14, 1672. Jane died on April 19, 1672, only two months after the birth of their child. Their daughter died the following year, on May 18, 1673, at approximately fifteen months of age.

• John later married Sarah Davis, widow of Nicholas Davis. Sarah survived John, who died in Newport on April 20, 1676. He left no surviving children.

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Physician & Medical Pioneer

• Physician in Newport and England

• One of the earliest physicians in Rhode Island

• Medical pioneer in the Anne Hutchinson case — 1638 — Clarke attended Hutchinson during her extraordinary pregnancy and documented what has subsequently been identified as a hydatidiform or molar pregnancy.

• Clarke continued practicing medicine while simultaneously serving as a minister, colonial leader, diplomat and statesman.

 

Ministry & Freedom of Conscience

• Baptist Minister and one of America's earliest prominent Baptist leaders

• Founder and Pastor of the Baptist Church at Newport

• Champion of Soul Liberty and Freedom of Conscience

• Opposed government-compelled religion and maintained that civil magistrates should not control an individual's religious conscience.

• Arrested and imprisoned in Massachusetts — 1651 for conducting religious worship.

• His experience contributed directly to Ill Newes from New-England, published in London in 1652.

 

Portsmouth, Newport & Rhode Island

• Leader among the religious exiles from Massachusetts

• Author of the Portsmouth Compact (“Bodie Politick”) — 1638 — credited with composing the agreement by which the Aquidneck settlers incorporated themselves into a political body.

• Co-Founder of Portsmouth — 1638

• Co-Founder of Newport — 1639

• Co-Founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

• Helped establish a civil society in which people of differing religious convictions could live under the same government without religious conformity being imposed upon them.

 

Education & the First Free Public School

• Founder of the First Free Public School in America — Newport

  • Robert Lenthal — schoolmaster/teacher associated with the school

• Helped establish the principle of publicly supported education in the new settlement.

• His commitment to education would continue through the charitable provisions of his estate.

 

Statesman & Public Servant

• General Treasurer of the Colony

• Colonial Legislator

• Commissioner

• Three-Time Deputy Governor of Rhode Island (He did not want to be Governor)

• Statesman and diplomat

• Participated in the development and codification of Rhode Island's laws.

• Continued serving Rhode Island's government after returning from his long mission in England.

 

Diplomat & Colonial Agent to England

• Traveled to England with Roger Williams to represent Rhode Island's interests.

• Remained in England after Williams returned to Rhode Island.

• Served for twelve years as Rhode Island's principal representative in England.

• Represented the colony through the political upheavals of the Commonwealth, Cromwell's Protectorate and the Restoration of the monarchy during the Regicide Hunts.

• Defended Rhode Island's territorial rights against competing claims, particularly those of Connecticut.

• Petitioned the English government repeatedly on Rhode Island's behalf.

• Ultimately succeeded in obtaining the Royal Charter from King Charles II that permanently secured the colony's political and religious liberties.

 

The Rhode Island Royal Charter of 1663

• Author of the Rhode Island Royal Charter of 1663

• Petitioner to King Charles II on behalf of Rhode Island

• Secured the Royal Charter from King Charles II — July 8, 1663

• Secured Rhode Island's right of self-government.

• Secured the right of Rhode Islanders to elect their own government.

• Secured extraordinary written legal protection for Freedom of Conscience.

• Established the colony's historic “Lively Experiment.”

• Obtained the Charter's guarantee of “full liberty in religious concernments.”

• The Charter became Rhode Island's fundamental governing document and remained in force for approximately 180 years, surviving the American Revolution.

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Return to Rhode Island — 1664

• After more than twelve years in England representing Rhode Island, John Clarke returned to Newport in 1664. The Royal Charter he had secured from King Charles II had already crossed the Atlantic. Entrusted by Clarke to Captain George Baxter, the Charter was carried to Rhode Island and formally received at Newport on November 24, 1663, where Baxter read it before the assembled people.

• Clarke returned to the life and community he had left more than a decade earlier, resuming his ministry and medical practice while continuing to serve the colony in public office. He represented Newport in the General Assembly, served as Deputy Governor three times, helped shape colonial law, and continued to defend Rhode Island’s interests and territorial boundaries.

• His public service continued until the final days of his life. During King Philip’s War, as Rhode Island faced one of the most devastating conflicts in its early history, the General Assembly met on April 4, 1676, and called upon Clarke as one of sixteen respected leaders whose advice and counsel were sought for the good of the colony.

• Just sixteen days later, on April 20, 1676, Dr. John Clarke died in Newport at the age of sixty-six.

• The Charter he had spent years fighting to secure survived him by generations. It remained Rhode Island’s governing document through the American Revolution and until 1843.

 

Charity Farms & America's Oldest Active Testamentary Trust

The John Clarke Trust — 1676 to Present 

Founder of America’s Oldest Active Testamentary Trust — 1676 — In his Last Will and Testament, John Clarke placed his estate in trust and directed that its proceeds be used:

“for the relief of the poor or bringing up of children unto learning from time to time forever.”

He further instructed his trustees to have “a special regard and care to provide for those that fear the Lord.”

• 1676 — John Clarke established his perpetual charitable trust, leaving property for the relief of the poor and the education of children according to the provisions of his will with special regard and care to provide for those that fear the Lord. 

• 1721–1722 — Mismanagement of Clarke’s estate prompted government intervention. Rhode Island enacted “An Act to Redress Misemployment of Property Given to Certain Charitable Uses” following the misapplication of property left under Clarke’s will. Proceedings were subsequently brought against his trustees, who were ordered to administer the estate according to its intended charitable purposes and answer for “injuries and waste” involving the property.

• The Charity Farms endured for generations. Approximately 160 acres in Middletown, known as the Charity Farms, remained associated with Clarke’s charitable estate and generated income for its charitable purposes.

• 1966 — Trustees obtained judicial authorization to sell Clarke Trust lands. The Charity Farms began to be sold, with proceeds increasingly invested in securities rather than retained as land. Former Clarke properties subsequently became sites for schools, churches, the YMCA, the John Clarke Retirement Center and other development.

• 2008 — The Rhode Island General Assembly recognized the John Clarke Trust as “America’s oldest active testamentary trust” and reported that it was distributing 90 educational scholarships annually to Rhode Island children.

• Present Day — The John Clarke Trust continues to exist, nearly 350 years after Clarke’s death.

 

Honors & Continuing Legacy

• Newport Medical Society Memorial — 1885 — honored Clarke prominently as “John Clarke, Physician” and commemorated his role in the founding of Newport and Rhode Island's civil polity.

• John Clarke School — named in his honor.

• SS John Clarke — a World War II Liberty ship named in his honor.

• Clarke Science Building at Rhode Island College — 1963 — named in his honor.

• Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame — 1997 — posthumously inducted for his contributions to medicine, religion, government and the founding of Rhode Island.

• Dr. John Clarke Award — Rhode Island Medical Society — established in his name to recognize exceptional civic leadership and contributions to public health.

• Historical monuments and plaques in Newport preserve his legacy.

• Clarke family burial ground in Newport preserves his final resting place.

 

John Clarke Day

In 2008, following efforts by the John Clarke Society to secure greater recognition of his legacy, the Rhode Island General Assembly established the first Monday of October as John Clarke Day, commemorating Clarke's contributions to Rhode Island.

The General Assembly recognized his role in:

• Establishing religious liberty and separation of church and state

• Securing the Royal Charter of 1663

• Advancing Rhode Island's experiment in representative self-government

• Establishing what the legislature described as America's oldest active testamentary trust

• Providing continuing support for the education of Rhode Island children

The General Assembly characterized the work of John Clarke and the principles embodied in the Royal Charter as being of “immeasurable benefit” to Rhode Island.