Jeremy Clarke (bef. 1605 - abt. 1652)

Born before 1 Dec 1605 in East Farleigh, Kent, England

Ancestors

Husband of Frances (Latham) Vaughn — married about 1637 (to 11 Jan 1652) in London, England

Descendants

Died about Jan 1652 after about age 46 in Newport, Rhode Island

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Magna Carta Gateway Ancestor Descendant of Magna Carta Surety Baron Saher de Quincy (see text). Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta

Jeremy Clarke migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 66) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Birth and Parents

Jeremiah/Jeremy was the son of William Clerke and Mary Weston.^[1][2] He was baptised at East Farleigh, Kent on 1 December 1605, as "Jerum Clerk" in transcripts on the web, and with his father named as William.^[3][4]

Marriages and Children

Jeremy is now believed to have married twice. His first wife was Isabell Colt; they married on 19 December 1634 at Wapping, Middlesex.^[5][6] She was buried at St Saviour's, Southwark, Surrey on 11 September 1636.^[6] (Douglas Richardson and others do not mention this marriage, whose existence was identified only after the preparation of his Magna Carta Ancestry and Royal Ancestry.)

In England in about 1637 Jeremy married Frances Latham, widow of William Dungam and daughter of Lewis and Elizabeth Latham.^[1][2] They had the following children, all named in John Osborne Austin's The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island:^[7]

• Walter, who became Governor of Rhode Island^[1][2]
• Jeremiah^[1][2]
• Latham^[1][2]
• Weston,^[1][2] born on 2 July 1648^[8]
• James, who became a church minister^[1][2]
• Mary, who married John Cranston^[1][2] and John Stanton^[7]
• Sarah, who married John Pinner and Caleb Carr^[1][2] and who was born in 1651^[9]

Life

Jeremy settled in New England by 1638:^[10] that year he was admitted as an inhabitant of the island of Aquidneck, Rhode Island. With him went his stepchildren from Frances Latham's first marriage.^[11][12] On 28 April 1639, he was one of the signatories to an agreement to found a settlement which became Newport, Rhode Island. He was made a freeman in 1640.^[1][2][7]

At Newport Jeremy held the following positions:^[1][2][7]

• 1639-40: constable
• 1642: lieutenant
• 1644: constable again
• 1644-7: treasurer

From 1647 to 1649 Jeremy was treasurer for the four towns of Rhode Island. In 1648 he was one of the assistants to the colony's Governor, William Coddington. That year accusations were made against William Coddington, and, while these were being investigated, Jeremy was chosen as interim Governor, with the formal title President Regent.^[1][2][7] During his time as acting Governor, a charter was granted to Providence, Rhode Island.^[13]

Death

Jeremy was buried at Newport, Rhode Island in January 1651/2.^[1][2][10] There is a commemorative medallion at Newport, but this does not mark the site of his grave.^[14] A later Quaker record, referring to January 1652, reads: "Jeremiah Clarke, one of the first English Planters of Rhode Island, died at Newport in said Island and was buried in the tomb that stands by the street by the water side in Newport."^[7] The Quakers had not started to establish themselves in America at this date and it is very unlikely he identified himself as a Quaker, but his son Walter became an early Quaker.^[15]

Jeremy's second wife survived him, going on to marry William Vaughan, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Rhode Island.^[1][2][7]

Research Notes

Various spellings of Jeremy's last name can be found, as is common for this period, but it seems to have settled as Clarke. Sources name him both Jeremy and Jeremiah.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), Vol. I, p. 483, CLARKE 16, Google Books
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: the author, 2013), Vol. I, pp. 214-215, CLARKE 20
3. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J389-RHN : 20 March 2020), Jerum Clerk, 1605
4. ↑ East Farleigh baptisms 1580-1724, transcript by Kent Family History Society, FindMyPast
5. ↑ Greater London Marriage Index, FindMyPast
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Thomas P Dungan. The Life of Captain Jeremy Clarke. A Founder of Newport, Otter Bay Books, 2013, cited in Scott G Swanson: The Mother of Mary (Saxby) Clarke, Grandmother of Jeremy Clarke of Rhode Island, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 169, Summer 2015, p. 226, footnote 1, American Ancestors website ($)
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6} John Osborne Austin. The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, John Munsell's Sons, 1887, p. 44, Internet Archive
8. ↑ "Rhode Island Births and Christenings, 1600-1914", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F83F-V3V : 17 December 2019), Jeremy Clark in entry for Weston Clark
9. ↑ Edson I Carr. The Carr Family Records, Herald Printing House, 1894, p. 16, Internet Archive
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Scott G Swanson. "The Mother of Mary (Saxby) Clarke, Grandmother of Jeremy Clarke of Rhode Island" in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 169. Boston, MA: NEHGS, 2015, pp. 226-232. American Ancestors website ($)
11. ↑ Alfred Rudulph Justice. Ancestry of Jeremy Clarke of Rhode Island and Dungan Genealogy, Franklin Printing Company, 1922, pp. 45-46, Hathi Trust
12. ↑ John Osborne Austin (ed.). The Journal of William Jefferay, printed by M L Freeman and Sons (Providence, Rhode Island), 1899, pp. 36-37, Internet Archive
13. ↑ Thomas Williams Bicknell. The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, American Historical Society, 1920, Vol. III, p. 995, Ancestry.com
14. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #11712820
15. ↑ Rufus M Jones. The Quakers in the American Colonies, Macmillan and Co, 1923, p. 53, Internet Archive

See also:

• Faris, David. Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-century Colonists, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1996, pp. 65-66
• Weis, Frederick Lewis. Ancestral Roots of certain American Colonists who came to America before 1700, 8th edition, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, p. 16, line 11/41
• Wikipedia: Jeremy Clarke (governor)
• Edwards, Olga and Roberts, Ina Wear. Descendants of East Tennessee Pioneers, 2nd edition, 1986, p. 278 [not viewable by Michael Cayley when he was revising this profile for the Magna Carta Project in January 2023]

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was re-reviewed for the Magna Carta Project by Michael Cayley on 3 January 2023.

Jeremy Clarke is listed in Magna Carta Ancestry as a Gateway Ancestor (vol. I, pages xxiii-xxix) in a Richardson-documented trail to Magna Carta Surety Baron Saher de Quincy (vol. I, pages 480-483 CLARKE). This trail was project-approved/badged in April 2016 by a Magna Carta Project member. This trail is set out in the Magna Carta Trails section of his father's profile.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".