Jeremy Clarke (politician)

Jeremy Clarke , also called Jeremiah Clarke , (born December 1, 1605 in East Farleigh , England , † January 1652 in Newport , Rhode Island ) was an English trader, politician and officer . He served as President of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations .

Early years

Jeremy Clarke, son of Mary Weston and William Clarke was in the reign of James I in the county of Kent born. 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. Nothing has been recorded about Jeremy Clarke's youth. Clarke was a trader in London before sailing to New England . In England he married Frances (Latham) Dungan , widow of William Dungan and daughter of Lewis Latham. She accompanied Clarke to the American colonies with her four children from Dungan. They settled on Aquidneck Island (later called Rhode Island). Clarke is first listed there in the 1638 records. He lived in Portsmouth , where he was one of nine men to sign a government document in April 1639 just before moving to Newport. In Newport he held various offices from 1639 to 1649, including treasurer, constable and assistant. In March 1640 he owned 116  acres of land there. In the same year he was named one of three men who would shape the rest of the land in Newport. He was made a lieutenant in the Newport Militia in 1642 and a captain in 1644 .

Colonial President

Clarke served as an assistant in Newport in 1648. He became President Regent or Acting Governor of the entire colony (four towns ) when allegations arose against Colonial Governor William Coddington . Coddington did not care much about the patent Roger Williams received from the Crown in 1644. Rather, he campaigned for the autonomy of the two Rhode Island towns of Portsmouth and Newport or even their connection to the Massachusetts Bay Colony . Coddington was also a royalist who supported King Charles I , while most of the settlers in Rhode Island were supporters of the Puritans in England. For this and probably for other reasons not clearly mentioned in the court records, Coddington was removed from office and Jeremy Clarke was appointed President in his place.

One of the most important events in the administration of Clarke was the issuance of the royal charter for the town of Providence on March 14, 1649. Although the first settlement took place as early as 1636, this was the first recognition by a government of what was called Providence Plantations in Narragansett Bay in New England. These royal statutes gave the town's free citizens the authority and authority to administer and govern themselves.

The official records do not indicate that Clarke held an official term as president at any point. Although the Society of Friends ( Quakerism ) was not formed until after his death and his son Walter was a member, its records show that Jeremy Clarke was buried in the 11th month, 1651, by the street by the waterside in Newport . According to today's calendar , his funeral took place in January 1652. While the location of his grave is no longer known today, a Governor's Grave Medallion of him stands near the grave of his son Walter Clarke on the Clifton Burying Ground in Newport . His widow later married William Vaughan, died in early September 1677 at the age of 67 and was then buried on the Common Burying Ground in Newport. The inscription on her tombstone reads:

"Here lyeth ye body of Mrs. Frances Vaughan, Alius Clarke, ye mother of ye only children of Capt'n Jeremiah Clarke."

family

Clarke and his wife Frances had seven children together. The oldest of them was Walter Clarke, who later became the colonial governor of Rhode Island. Their eldest daughter, Mary Clarke, married John Cranston , another colonial governor. Their son Weston Cranston was married to Mary Easton, who was a granddaughter of two other colonial governors, John Coggeshall and Nicholas Easton . The youngest child of Clarke and his wife Frances, Sarah, was married to the Colonial Governor Caleb Carr .

literature

• Austin, John Osborne: Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island , Albany, New York: J. Munsell's Sons, 1887, ISBN 978-0-8063-0006-1 , pp. 44f
• Bicknell, Thomas Williams: The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations , Volume 3, New York: The American Historical Society, 1920, pp. 994f
• Justice, Alfred Rudulph: Genealogical Research in England: Clarke , The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 74, 1920, pp. 68-76, 130-140.
• Moriarity, G. Andrews: Additions and Corrections to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, The American Genealogist XIX (3), January 1943, p. 131
• Roberts, Gary Boyd: The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States ... with a 2008 Addendum, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2008, pp. 270f

Web links

• Jeremy Clarke in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Rhode Island Presidents and Governors