John Clarke (Baptist Minister) - Establishment of The American Baptist Denomination

Establishment of The American Baptist Denomination

Earlier in late 1638, Roger Williams, Clarke's compatriot in the cause of religious freedom in the New World, had established a Baptist church in Providence, Rhode Island, known as First Baptist Church in America. Suddenly in 1847, the First Baptist Church of Newport advanced the claim that it was founded first, and this led to a debate as to which church came first. The major historians have since concluded that the Providence church was first, particularly given the fact that Roger Williams had gathered his church and had resigned as its pastor before Newport was even founded. Even Thomas Bicknell, who regarded Clarke to be far more important than Williams, conceded that the Providence church came first.

Dr. Clarke's church in Newport is now known as the "United Baptist Church, John Clarke Memorial, of Newport." (the current church meeting house on Spring Street was constructed in 1846). In 1651, John Clarke, John Crandall and Obadiah Holmes were arrested and imprisoned in Lynn, Massachusetts for conducting an illegal worship service. This event (and others like it) served as the basis for Clarke's Ill Newes from New England, or a Narrative of New England's Persecutions (1652). Ill Newes contained Clarke's argument for religious freedom. He wrote that "it is not the will of the Lord than any one should have dominion over another man's conscience.... is such a sparkling beam from the Father of lights and spirits that it cannot be lorded over, commanded, or forced, either by men, devils, or angels." One Baptist historian described Clarke as "the Baptist drum major for freedom in seventeenth century America."