page_title: John Clarke (Baptist minister)
section_title: Negotiating a charter
hierarchical_section_title: John Clarke (Baptist minister) / Time in England / Negotiating a charter
caption_attribution_description: English: A quote made by John Clarke, located on the south-facing frieze of the Rhode Island Statehouse in Providence, Rhode Island
context_page_description: John Clarke was a physician, Baptist minister, co-founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, author of its influential charter, and a leading advocate of religious freedom in America.
  Clarke was born in Westhorpe, Suffolk, England. He received an extensive education, including a master's degree in England followed by medical training in Leiden, Holland. He arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 during the Antinomian Controversy and decided to go to Aquidneck Island with many exiles from the conflict. He became a co-founder of Portsmouth and Newport, Rhode Island, and he established America's second Baptist church in Newport. Baptists were considered heretics and were banned from Massachusetts, but Clarke wanted to make inroads there and spent time in the Boston jail after making a mission trip to the town of Lynn, Massachusetts. Following his poor treatment in prison, he went to England where he published a book on the persecutions of the Baptists in Massachusetts and on his theological beliefs. The fledgling Rhode Island colony needed an agent in England, so he remained there for more than a decade handling the colony's interests.
context_section_description: In 1660, Charles II ascended the throne of England, and within two years the Act of Uniformity was passed requiring unified religious observances centered on the Anglican Church.  The new king harbored prejudices against the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, increasing Clarke's difficulty in crafting a charter that included religious freedoms.  Clarke's commission as the agent for Rhode Island was renewed on 18 October 1660, and he filed at least ten petitions and letters to the king between 1661 and 1662.  He offered the king the complete loyalty of the Rhode Island colony, and then requested the king's sympathy and support to guarantee freedom of conscience in the pursuit of religious worship.
  Clarke wrote a particularly eloquent proposal in a petition received by the crown on 5 February 1661, with certain words emboldened within the document.  His earnest request was "TO HOLD FORTH A LIVELY EXPERIMENT THAT A MOST FLOURISHING CIVILL STATE MAY STAND ... AND BEST BE MAINTAYNED ... WITH A FULL LIBERTIE IN RELIGIOUS CONCERNMENTS".  These words became emblematic of Rhode Island's struggle for religious freedom and were soon included in the charter itself—and much later were chiseled on the frieze of the Rhode Island State House.  One of the later petitions dealt heavily with the boundary issues between the Rhode Island and Connecticut colonies.  Clarke had to wait nearly a year for any action on the various petitions.
  An unforeseen emergency occurred in the spring of 1662 when Connecticut Colony Governor John Winthrop, Jr. was given an audience with the king ahead of Clarke, and he obtained a new charter for his colony.  Winthrop was on good terms with many Rhode Islanders, but he also had a stake in the Atherton Company, which undermined the sovereignty of Rhode Island by buying large tracts of land from the Narragansett Indians west of the Narraganset Bay, where Rhode Island claimed the territory.  Clarke regarded Winthrop's conduct as treacherous, and Winthrop avoided Clarke while in England; he was able to get his charter approved in May 1662.
  The Earl of Clarendon recognized the conflict between Connecticut and Rhode Island. He summoned Winthrop and Clarke in July 1662, representing the king in hopes of settling the boundary dispute between the two colonies.  Both colonies claimed the territory between the Pawcatuck River and the Narragansett Bay. The boundary line between the two colonies was ultimately set at the Pawcatuck River, after months of negotiations involving lawyers and arbitrators on both sides.  Those who had settled on Atherton Company lands were allowed to choose whether to be governed by Connecticut or Rhode Island.  Once the agreement was reached, Winthrop returned to New England while Clarke made his final push for Rhode Island's charter.
  Following all the furore over the land boundaries, none of the other provisions of the proposed charter aroused any debate.  Many of the provisions of Rhode Island's charter were like those in Connecticut's, except that Connecticut wanted a government similar to that of Massachusetts, while Rhode Island wanted the same self-government of the freemen that had been granted earlier in the 1643 patent.  However, the Rhode Island charter went much further in its guarantees of religious freedom.
caption: Quotation of John Clarke on the frieze of the Rhode Island Statehouse in Providence
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