Dr. John Clarke

JOHN CLARK Born 1667, died 1728, aged 60.

Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University: Cambridge, Massachusetts, Vol 3

John Clark, M. A., physician, Boston, born at Boston, 27 December, 1667, according to the family record, and not 27 January, 1668, as Farmer and Savage say, was brother of the second wife of Cotton Mather, and eldest son of Doctor John Clark (whose wife was Martha, daughter of John Whittingham), and grandson of Doctor John Clark, who came from Newbury, Massachusetts, to Boston, and whose wife was Martha, sister of Sir Richard Saltonstall (SIC: disproven?) In June or July, 1691, he was admitted to the Second, or Old North Church, in Boston. June 7, 1700, he was made Justice of the Peace. From 1708 to 1714, and from 1720 to 1724, he was Representative from Boston.
Hutchinson says he "was a person of many valuable qualities, and obnoxious, only, for being strongly attached to Mr. Cooke, and having been a great supporter of the cause" of the popular party.
In 1721 the House again chose him Speaker. "To prevent a negative, . . . they projected a new form of message directed to the governor and council jointly, to acquaint them 'that John Clarke, Esq; is chosen speaker of the house and is now sitting in the chair.' This was undoubtedly a very extraordinary contempt of the governor." William Payne, H. U. 1689, a brother by marriage to Cooke, was appointed clerk in place of John White, H. U. 1685, who was dropped for no other reason than because "his most intimate friends . . . were strongly attached to the governor." "The governor was more wroth than upon any occasion before. He came to council, in the afternoon, and sent immediately for the house, no doubt, with an intent to dissolve the court. He had several faithful advisers about him and, whilst the house were preparing to come up, he sent a message to stop them and to let them know he accepted their choice of a speaker."

While the legislature was in session at Cambridge, in November, 1721, "Mr. Hutchinson, one of the members for Boston, was seized with the small-pox and died in a few days. The Speaker, Mr. Clarke, was one of the most noted physicians in Boston, and, notwithstanding all his care to cleanse himself from infection after visiting his patients, it was supposed, brought the distemper to his brother member, which so terrified the court, that after the report of his being seized, it was not possible to keep them together and the governor found it necessary to prorogue them." Clark was continued in the office of Speaker till 1724. From that time till his death he was a member of the Council.
April 25, 1691, according to Greenwood, but 30 April, says Savage, he married Sarah, born 29 November, 1669, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Oliver) Shrimpton, by whom he had all his eight or nine children:

1. Mary, born 12 February, 1692;
2. Sarah, 17 September, 1693, both died young;
3. Martha, 25 March, 1695;
4. John, 15 December, 1698, died 6 April, 1768, father of John, H. U. 1772;
5. Sarah, again, 18 January, 1704;
6. Martha, again, 26 June, 1706;
7. Sarah, again, 7 May, 1708, married Professor Isaac Greenwood, H. U. 1721, and died at Portland, Maine, 23 May, 1770; Elizabeth, 27 February, 1710, married Robert Hale, H. U. 1721; besides a second Mary, probably in 1700.

His first wife died 20 November, 1717, and he married a second wife, 10 April following, Elizabeth Hutchinson, who died 2 December, 1722.
On July 15, 1725, he took for a third wife Sarah, widow of President Leverett, who had been widow of William Harris, daughter of Richard Crisp, and died 24 April, 1744, the wife of the Reverend Benjamin Colman, H. U. 1692.
According to the New England Weekly Journal of 9 December, 1728, Clark died on the preceding "Friday Evening," 6 December, 1728, "a Gentleman belov'd and valu'd for his Worth and Usefulness." Sewall's Journal and the inscription on his monument date his death 5 December, agreeing with the Boston News-Letter of 12 December, that he died on "Thursday Night after a long Indisposition."
Judge Sewall wrote to Reverend S. Stoddard, 10 December, 1728: "Dr. John Clark died last Thursday night abt 6 or 7 a'clock. I am apt to think the drawing in of that very Cold Air was the cause of his sudden death. He went into his Garden in the morning and suppos'd the Aer refresh'd him; afterward he went to his daughter Allen's; by & by he stole away to his neighbour Morris, just across the Street. When his Grandson Allen went to call him home he perceiv'd that he limp'd. At his entring his own kitchen, his family saw that the right side of his mouth was drawn awry, and all that side was defective; at which they were exceedingly amazed; and put him into a warm bed. His wife and one of his daughters were at Lecture, not foreseeing any such Change. He was my beloved Physician
."

Clark bequeathed all his surgical instruments to his son John. In his inventory is mentioned the picture of old Doctor Clark, which is without doubt that of his grandfather, now belonging to the Massachusetts Historical Society, and of which there is a lithograph in Thacher's Medical Biography. The Latin inscription on his monument is published in T. Bridgman's Epitaphs from Copp's Hill Burial-Ground, and an epitaph by Thacher.

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• http://ancestoryarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/dr-john-clarke-newbur...
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hwbradley/aqwg321...
• the New England Historical and Genealogical Register for the year 1860. VOLUME XIV. (Google eBook) William B. Trask,Wm. H.Whitmore,John Ward Dean,Editors. Page 171

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SOURCES (1)1. Public Member Trees, Database online. www.ancestry.com :

CITING THIS RECORD

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:3S3Q-8NL : accessed 2016-04-14), entry for John /Clark/.