Walter Clarke

Walter Clarke (* 1640 in Newport , Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations ; † May 23, 1714 ibid) was a British politician . He served as Lieutenant Governor and Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

Early years

Walter Clarke, son of Frances Latham and colonial President Jeremiah Clarke was during the reign of Charles I in the settlement of Newport on Aquidneck Iceland born. He and his father became Quakers early on . Nothing is known about Walter Clarke's youth. In 1667 he was elected a member of the Newport General Assembly. With that he began a public career that lasted almost half a century. He was re-elected MP in 1670, 1672 and 1673. Between 1673 and 1676 he held the post of assistant. Under the royal charter of 1663 , the freemen of the colony elected a governor, a lieutenant governor, ten assistants and a number of deputies from each town . The whole structure was called the General Assembly. Eventually the House of Representatives became the lower house of the legislature and the assistants the upper house (Senate). The General Assembly met twice a year, in May and October, and also acted as the colony's judicial branch in liaison with the governor and lieutenant governor. The colony's greatest concern during his term as MP and assistant was the sacking of Rhode Island territory by neighboring colonies, particularly Massachusetts and Connecticut .

Gubernatorial time

First terms of office

During the King Philip's War , Clarke was elected colonial governor in 1676. Most of the mainland settlers ( Providence and Warwick ) fled to Aquidneck Island, where Newport and Portsmouth were. A fleet of sloops or gunboats, each manned by five or six men, constantly patrolled the island to ward off possible attackers. The mainland settlements were largely destroyed, including most of the houses and the fields. Since about half of the colony consisted of Quakers, a law was passed in 1673 that exempted all men from military service if carrying a weapon was against their conscience. During the war, the law was repealed in May 1676, but re-enacted six months later at the October General Assembly session. A letter of protest was also sent to the Colony of Connecticut during that session regarding claims against Narragansett Country . In May 1677, the War Party won most of the seats in the General Assembly and Benedict Arnold was elected colonial governor. Clarke was elected lieutenant governor in 1679 - a post he held until 1686, when he was elected governor for another term.

Dominion of New England

After the death of King Charles II in 1685, his younger brother Jacob II succeeded him to the English throne. The new king pursued a new political orientation regarding the American colonies. Edward Randolph was sent to America to establish an interim government in the colonies until a permanent one was established. Joseph Dudley and his council met in Narragansett Country in June 1686. They subsequently decided that the territory should become independent from any colony and renamed it King's Province. Edmund Andros was appointed colonial governor of all New England colonies under the Dominion of New England . The General Assembly session was postponed from May to June 1686, but the General Assembly did not meet again for nearly four years. Stripped of all legislative power, the residents of Rhode Island decided to give it to the individual towns. This allowed them to retain much of their colonial freedoms during Andros' reign.

While Andros was in power in the Rhode Island colony, he had seven advisors, one of whom was Clarke. When the colonial governor came to Newport to receive the royal statutes, Clarke sent the document to his brother, instructing him not to tell him where it was. A happy result of Andro's reign was the return of the disputed Narragansett Country to the Rhode Island colony, which was claimed by Humphrey Atherton and his company. In 1689 King James II fled to France , after which Maria II and Wilhelm III. ascended the throne of England. Andros was banished from New England and the 1663 royal statutes were reinstated by the Rhode Island Colony.

Last terms as colonial governor

After Andros was ousted as colonial governor of Rhode Island, Clarke refused to become colonial governor again. In this context, he read a document in front of the General Assembly, where he rejected the government of the time. Henry Bull was therefore elected colonial governor instead. Clarke's point of view changed several years later. After Colonial Governor Caleb Carr died in December 1695, Clarke was re-elected Colonial Governor. This probably happened during a special session of the General Assembly held in January 1696. However, there are no records of such a session. In the following years a conspiracy to murder the English Protestant King William III. uncovered and the colonies prepared to be invaded by France. New York Colonial Governor Benjamin Fletcher wrote to Clarke that the expected contingent had not yet been provided by his predecessor. The General Assembly responded with a letter containing the following: The Rhode Island colony had a long coastline and was very exposed. The defense was carried out by means of forts. Therefore, help could not possibly be offered.

The Treaty of Rijswijk ended the war in Europe. Orders were sent to the colonies to end all privateer campaigns against France. The orders reached New England in December 1697. Mr. Jaleel Brenton, son of Colonial Governor William Brenton , brought them to the General Assembly, which held a special session in Newport. Brenton was also authorized to take the oath of office, but Clarke refused to take it because he was a Quaker . Also, Clarke was upset about the creation of a Court of Admiralty in Rhode Island. Brenton also brought a power of attorney for Peleg Sanford with which he should be appointed Judge of Admiralty. Clarke tried to persuade the General Assembly to speak out against them and therefore withheld the authority for Sanford. Brenton then recommended impeachment proceedings against Clarke and also urged the Rhode Island laws to be put under pressure, which had never happened before. All of this led to Clarke's resignation as colonial governor. It is likely that during the session of the General Assembly in May 1698, his nephew, Samuel Cranston , was elected colonial governor. Clarke remained politically active. In 1700 he was elected lieutenant governor under Cranston - a post to which he was re-elected every year until his death. He died on May 23, 1714 in Newport and was then buried on the Clifton Burying Ground .

family

Clarke was married four times and had at least eight children. He married his first wife, Content Greenman, daughter of John Greenman, around 1660. The couple had at least three children. About a year after her death, in 1666, he married Hannah Scott, daughter of Catharine Marbury and Richard Scott . Catharine was the sister of the dissident theologian Anne Hutchinson . Clarke had at least five other children with his second wife. After her death in 1681 he married Freeborn Hart, widow of Thomas Hart and daughter of Roger Williams , the founder of Providence. After her death in 1710, Clarke married Sarah Gould, widow of John Gould and daughter of Mary and Matthew Prior. Clarke's older sister, Mary (1640-1711), was her first marriage to Colonial Governor John Cranston . Their son was Samuel Cranston, who succeeded Clarke as colonial governor. Clarke's youngest sister, Sarah (1651-1706), was the second married to Colonial Governor Caleb Carr, who was Colonial Governor in 1695 before Clarke.

literature

• Arnold, Samuel Greene: History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Volume 1, New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1859, pp. 532f and 539f
• Austin, John Osborne: Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, 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. 1028-1032
• Gorton, Adelos: The Life and Times of Samuel Gorton, George S. Ferguson Co., 1907, p. 138
• Rust, Val D .: Radical Origins, Early Mormon Converts and Their Colonial Ancestors, University of Illinois Board of Trustees, 2004, ISBN 0-252-02910-0 , p. 107

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Frances Latham Dungan Clarke in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved March 30, 2015.
2. ↑ Jeremy Clarke in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved March 30, 2015.
3. ^ Mary Clarke Stanton in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved March 30, 2015.
4. ↑ Sarah Clarke Pinner Carr in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved March 30, 2015.

Web links

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