John Clarke
John Clarke was a yeoman of Finningham, a parish in the north of Suffolk. A yeoman was a farmer of standing, below the gentry, who held land of his own. He was already taxed on land at Finningham in the subsidy of 1523/4, assessed at £2, so he was born about 1503 at the latest. In the subsidy of 1545/6 he was taxed on his goods, 12 pence in the first payment and 10 shillings in the second.
His lands lay in Finningham, Westhorpe and Gislingham, some of them freehold and some held of the lord of the manor. He married a woman named Margaret. They had two sons and four daughters: John, baptised 11 February 1541/2, Thomas, baptised 4 January 1543/4, and Agnes, Margaret, Ellen and Joan.
He made his will on 26 February 1558/9. "To be buried in the churchyard of Finningham. To son Thomas Clarke £3. 6s. 8d. To daughters Agnes, Margaryt, Elyn, and Johan Clarke £6. 13s. 4d. each, to be paid at marriage or at the age of twenty-four years; if any decease prior to this, then their share equally to the daughters living. To each daughter a brass pot. To wife Margaret her dwelling in the parlor or the chamber over it and the bakehouse, her grist to be ground at the mill for life." Grist is grain brought to be ground into meal.
The land went to the elder son. "To son John Clarke the tenement and all my lands both free and bond lying in ffiningham, Westhorpe, and Gislingham, to him and his heirs male of the body, but he is not to enter until twenty-four years of age. If he die without such heirs, then to Thomas in like manner." The executors were to have the use and profit of the land until John came of age. John was also to have a feather bed at twenty-four, and the rest of the household goods went to Margaret. He named his wife and his son Thomas as executors.
He was buried at Finningham on 3 March 1558/9, a week after he made the will. It was proved on 7 May 1559 in the court of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, which sat at Bury St Edmunds and proved the wills of ordinary people in that part of Suffolk. His grandson Thomas began the family Bible with him: "John Clarke, my grandfather, was buried 3 : March : 1559."
His parents are not known. Other Clarkes held land at Finningham in his lifetime, among them Robert Clarke, yeoman, who made his will in 1569, but how they were related to him is not shown.
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Cite: Heirology, "John Clarke (1503-1558)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/john-clarke-1503-1558-741fee.