Samuel Clarke 1675-1729

Samuel CLARKE 1675-1729

Biographical Note

Born at Norwich, son of Edward Clarke, cloth manufacturer and [[occupation::MP. BA Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1695, fellow 1696, MA 1698, DD 1710. He was noticed early at Cambridge as a brilliant student and debater, and in 1704 and 1705 he made a significant mark in his Boyle Lectures in London, where he addressed contemporary doctrinal issues around deism and the nature of the Trinity. He was strongly influenced by the philosophy of Isaac Newton (who he helped, in his disputes with Leibniz) and went on to publish numerous works in which he doubted the equal divinity of Christ. His philosophy hindered any possibility of senior ecclesiastical promotion but he was much admired for his intellect. He was rector of Drayton, Norfolk 1699-1706, of St Benet's, Paul's Wharf, London 1707-09 and of St James', Westminster from 1709.

Books

Clarke was chaplain to John Moore, Bishop of Norwich, and his theological studies were helped by access to Moore's huge library. His own library was auctioned in London, beginning 19 April 1732; no catalogue survives, but the sale was advertised in the London Evening Post and Daily Post as "a large collection of the most valuable and useful books in Greek, Latin, French and English. To which is added, a number of valuable duplicates out of a college library, all very fair and neatly bound, gilt or letter'd". The sale also included "fifty-four volumes of pamphlets in quarto, and fifty in octavo, relating to the Popish controversy and the Trinity, &c. collected and digested by the Doctor himself".

Sources

• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
• Gascoigne, John. "Clarke, Samuel (1675–1729), theologian and philosopher." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.