Jeremy Clarke (Politiker)

Jeremy Clarke (also known as Jeremiah Clarke) (1605–1652) was an early colonial settler and President of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Born into a prominent family in England, he was a merchant who came to New England with his wife, Frances, and four stepchildren, settling first at Portsmouth in 1638, but the following year joining William Coddington and others in establishing the town of Newport. Here he held a variety of civic positions until 1648 when Coddington's election as President of the colony was disputed, and Clarke was chosen to serve in that office instead. He was the father of Walter Clarke, another colonial governor of Rhode Island, and also had family connections with several other future governors of the colony.

Immigration to New England

Born in central Kent in southeastern England, Jeremy Clarke was the son of William Clarke and Mary Weston. His maternal grandfather was Sir Jerome Weston, Baron of the Exchequer, and his uncle was Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland, Lord High Treasurer of England.Vorlage:Sfn Clarke was a merchant in London before sailing to New England.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn While in England he married Frances (Latham) Dungan, the widow of William Dungan, and the daughter of Lewis Latham, and she and her four Dungan children accompanied Clarke to the American colonies. They first settled on Aquidneck Island (later Rhode Island), and Clarke was listed as an inhabitant there in 1638.Vorlage:Sfn In April 1639, while living in Portsmouth he was one of nine men who signed a compact, agreeing to establish a government just prior to settling in Newport.Vorlage:Sfn In Newport he held a variety of positions from 1639 to 1649, including treasurer, constable, and assistant.Vorlage:Sfn In March 1640 he had 116 acres of land laid out for him in Newport, and the same year he was one of three appointed to lay out remaining lands in Newport.Vorlage:Sfn In 1642 he was chosen lieutenant of the military in Newport and in 1644 he became captain.Vorlage:Sfn

Colonial Presidency

In 1648 Clarke was Newport's assistant to the governor, but became President Regent, or acting governor, of the entire colony (four towns) when accusations were made against William Coddington, who had been elected to that position that May.Vorlage:SfnVorlage:Sfn Coddington did not particularly care for the patent that Roger Williams had obtained from the crown in 1644; he much preferred autonomy for the two Rhode Island towns of Portsmouth and Newport, or even their union with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Also, Coddington was a Royalist, supporting the King, Charles I, while most of the Rhode Island settlers supported the Puritan Party in England.Vorlage:Sfn For these, and probably other reasons not made clear in the court records of the day, Coddington was suspended from the office of President to which he had been elected, and Jeremy Clarke became the governor in his place.Vorlage:Sfn

One of the most important events of Clarke's administration was the granting of a charter to the town of Providence on 14 March 1649. Though first settled in 1636, this was the first recognition of organized government in what was called Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay in New England.Vorlage:Sfn This charter of civil incorporation gave the free inhabitants of the town full power and authority to govern and rule themselves.Vorlage:Sfn

Civil records do not show Clarke serving in any official capacity beyond his presidency.Vorlage:Sfn He became a Quaker (Society of Friends), whose records indicate that Clarke was buried "by the street by the waterside in Newport" in the "11th month, 1651," which is January 1652 in the current calendar.Vorlage:Sfn While the location of his burial is no longer known, he has a governor's grave medallion next to the marker for his son Walter Clarke in the Clifton Burying Ground in Newport, where a number of prominent Quakers are buried. His widow later married William Vaughan, dying early in September 1677 "in the 67th year of her age.Vorlage:Sfn She is buried in the Common Burying Ground in Newport, with the inscription on her marker reading, "Here lyeth ye body of Mrs. Frances Vaughan, Alius Clarke, ye mother of ye only children of Capt'n Jeremiah Clarke." Vorlage:Sfn

Family

Clarke and his wife Frances had seven children together, the oldest of whom was Walter Clarke, a future colonial governor of Rhode Island. Their oldest daughter, Mary, married John Cranston, another future governor of the colony, and their son Weston married Mary Easton who was a granddaughter of two other governors, John Coggeshall and Nicholas Easton.Vorlage:Sfn Their youngest child, Sarah, married the future colonial governor Caleb Carr as her second husband.Vorlage:Sfn

Ancestry

The ancestry of Jeremy Clarke was published by Alfred Justice in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register in 1920.Vorlage:Sfn Through his great great grandmother, Elizabeth Ferrers, Clarke descends from King Edward I of England and his wife Eleanor of Castile.Vorlage:Sfn

16. James Clerke (died 1554)

8. George Clerke (c.1510 - 1559)

17. Elizabeth Ferrers

4. James Clerke (c.1540 - 1614)

18. Thomas Wilford

9. Elizabeth Wilsforde

19. Elizabeth Colepeper

2. William Clerke (died 1610)

10. Sir Edward Saxby (died c.1562)

5. Mary Saxby

11. Elizabeth Fisher (died c.1564)

1. Jeremy Clarke (1605 - 1652)

24. (probably) John Weston

12. Richard Weston (1510 - 1572)

6. Sir Jerome Weston (c.1550 - 1603)

26. Anthony Catesby

13. Wiburga Catesby

27. Wiburga Pigott

3. Mary Weston (baptized 1579)

14. Anthony Cave

7. Mary Cave

15. Elizabeth Lovett

See also

• List of colonial governors of Rhode Island
• List of early settlers of Rhode Island
• Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

References

Bibliography

• John Osborne Austin: Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island. J. Munsell's Sons, 1887, ISBN 978-0-8063-0006-1 (google.com). 

• Thomas Williams Bicknell: The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Vol.3. The American Historical Society, 1920, S. 994–5 (google.com [abgerufen am 12. April 2011]). 

• Alfred Rudulph Justice: Genealogical Research in England: Clarke. In: The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 74. Jahrgang, 1920, S. 68–76, 130–140 (google.com). 

• G. Andrews Moriarity: Additions and Corrections to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island. In: The American Genealogist. XIX. Jahrgang, Nr. 3, Januar 1943, S. 131. 

• Gary Boyd Roberts: The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States...with a 2008 Addendum. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2008. 

External links

• Find-a-grave for Jeremy Clarke
• Chronological list of Rhode Island leaders