Ancestors

Joseph Clarke of Newport

Joseph Clarke was born on 9 December 1618 at Westhorpe, in Suffolk, and baptised there a week later. He was the youngest of the eight children of Thomas Clarke and Rose Kerrich. His father wrote the birth into the family Bible: "Joseph Clarke baptised the : 16 : december : 1618 : borne : 9." The parish register has it as "Joseph Clarke son of Thomas 16 December."

He lost both parents in 1627, when he was eight. His father died on 29 July and his mother on 19 September, and both were buried at Westhorpe.

Four of the Clarke sons went to Rhode Island. His brother Thomas settled at Newport in 1638. His brother John crossed in 1637 and became Dr. John Clarke of Newport, physician and Baptist minister. Later he spent twelve years in England for the colony and came home in 1663 with the royal charter that promised liberty of conscience. Joseph settled at Newport too, and his brother Carew followed in later years. Thomas and Carew had no children and Dr. John left none living. Joseph was the only one of the four to raise a family in America.

He married twice. His first wife's name is not known. Her children included a son John and a daughter Mary, who married Tobias Saunders of Westerly. His second wife was Margaret, and she died in 1694. When Dr. John Clarke made his will in 1676, he left Joseph and Mary a double share of the produce of his Conanicut Island lands. Joseph's son John had six acres next to Benedict Arnold's land, and the children of the second marriage had a shilling each.

He served the colony for years. He was an assistant from 1658, one of the magistrates who sat with the governor as the upper house of the General Assembly. Newport sent him as a deputy, its elected member of the Assembly, from 1668 to 1672 and again in 1690.

The family Bible his father had begun at Westhorpe went on in Joseph's keeping. Entries probably in his hand record his brother Thomas's death at Newport on 2 December 1674, his brother John's on 20 April 1676, and the death of his brother Carew's wife Dorothy in Suffolk in 1658. A later hand added his own: "Mr. Joseph Clarke Deceased the first day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred nintie four." His son John died on 11 April 1704.

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Cite: Heirology, "Joseph Clarke of Newport (1618-1694)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/joseph-clarke-of-newport-1618-1694-5d14d1.