Samuel Clarke 1599-1682

Samuel CLARKE 1599-1682

Biographical Note

Samuel Clarke was the son of Hugh Clarke (d. 1634), the puritan vicar of Wolston, Warwickshire, and Alice Wilson of Coventry. He was educated at Coventry Grammar School and then Emmanuel College, Cambridge. For a time he had assistant posts in parishes in Coventry and Warwick. In 1633 he was appointed to the living of Alcester, Warwickshire, where he was an opponent of the Laudian reforms. In 1643 he became the minister at St Benet Fink in London where he was very active in presbyterian organisation in the capital. He welcomed the restoration of Charles II in 1660 but was unable to accept the requirements of conformity and was ejected from his living in 1662. He spent the next twenty years as an author of many biographical studies, suggesting that he will have had a reasonably large book collection. His son Samuel Clarke ( 1626-1701) was also an ejected minister and prolific author.

Books

The extent of his collection is unknown. He is recorded as giving a Dutch Bible to Sion College.

Sources

• Hughes, Ann. "Clarke, Samuel (1599–1682), clergyman, ejected minister, and biographer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Sion College provenance inscription.