Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 20:2 (Fall 2023)
Article: John Clarke: His Contributions To His Church And State
Author: Rex D. Butler

John Clarke: His Contributions To His Church And State

Rex D. Butler

Rex Butler is Professor of Church History and Patristics and occupies the John T. Westbrook Chair of Church History at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Introduction

In 1638, John Clarke led a group of religious dissenters to settle in the colony of Rhode Island. A few years later, he constituted the church which he pastored as a Baptist church, one of the earliest in America. He wrote an influential defense of the Baptist doctrines, believers’ baptism and religious freedom. Among his many public services was the negotiation of a charter which procured liberal prerogatives for Rhode Island citizens and inspired American founding fathers. History, however, has paid him scant attention, partly because in each of these accomplishments he was preceded by another, Roger Williams.

Roger Williams arrived in Rhode Island two years prior to Clarke. He founded a Baptist church five years earlier than Clarke, although he left the Baptist faith, never to return, only a few months later. Williams’ The Bloudy Tenet of Persecution was published in 1644, attacking religious persecution but omitting baptismal doctrine. In 1643, he won Rhode Island’s first charter, but it lasted only twenty years whereas Clarke’s charter lasted for more than a hundred years of colonial life and even beyond.

In short, Williams preceded Clarke, while Clarke endured beyond Williams. Nonetheless, historians have focused on Williams to the neglect of Clarke. In a 1989 journal article, Edwin S. Gaustad bemoaned Clarke’s fated obscurity in twentieth-century histories.1 To be sure, earlier historians, Wilbur Nelson and Thomas Bicknell,

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wrote eulogistic biographies in praise of Clarke, and Baptist successionist, J. R. Graves edited an apologetic for Clarke’s priority over Williams. A critical monograph of Clarke’s accomplishments, however, did not appear until 1999 with the publication of Sydney V. James’ John Clarke and His Legacies, edited by Theodore Dwight Bozeman after James’ death. James utilized primary sources to present a thorough, balanced critique of Clarke’s life and accomplishments.

This research project draws heavily on James’ work, the only recent monograph on Clarke, but also uses classic histories and journal articles. The goal is to survey Clarke’s life and work, focusing primarily on his contributions to the Baptist faith, the royal charter of 1663, and the struggle for religious freedom.

Early Life From Suffolk To Newport

The Geneva Bible of the Clarke family records the genealogical data of the c...