John Clarke (abt. 1575 - 1623)

Born about 1575 in England

Husband of Mary (Morton) Clarke — married 19 Feb 1598 in Saint Dunstan and All Saints Church, Stepney, Middlesex, England

Descendants

Died 1623 at about age 48 in Jamestown, Virginia

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John Clarke resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776. Join: US Southern Colonies Project Discuss: southern_colonies

Biography

John Clarke, also seen as Clark, conjectured to have been born March 26, 1575 at Thriplow, Cambridgeshire, England (need sourcing).

John Clarke of Stepney married 19 Feb 1598 to Mary Mowton (appears as that spelling) of S? Ellins, London at St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, Tower Hamlets, Middlesex, England. ^[1]

John Clarke was the Master's Mate and Pilot of the Mayflower of 1620.

From Wikipedia, Mayflower Officers and Crew:

By age 45 in 1620, Clark already had greater adventures than most other mariners of that dangerous era. His piloting career began in England about 1609. In early 1611 he was pilot of a 300-ton ship on his first New World voyage with a three-ship convoy sailing from London to the new settlement of Jamestown in Virginia. Two other ships were in that convoy; altogether the three ships brought 300 new settlers to Jamestown, going first to the Caribbean islands of Dominica and Nevis.

While in Jamestown, Clark piloted ships in the area carrying various stores. During that time he was taken prisoner in a confrontation with the Spanish and taken to Havana and held for two years then transferred to Spain where he was in custody for five years. In 1616 he was finally freed in a prisoner exchange with England.

In 1618 he was back in Jamestown as pilot of the ship Falcon. Shortly after his return to England, he was hired as pilot for the Mayflower in 1620.

From John's Find-A-Grave memorial:

Clark's Island in Duxbury Bay is named after him, because he miraculously brought the shallop ashore during a strong storm on one of these expeditions. John was given two shares in the Virginia Company for his service. He sailed to Virginia on 10 April 1623 in Daniel Gookin's ship, the "Providence", and died shortly after he arrived.

From Caleb Johnson's MayflowerHistory.com:

Ship's Pilot and Master's Mate, John Clarke

John Clarke had been a ship's pilot on a voyage to Jamestown, Virginia in 1611, in the fleet that brought Sir Thomas Dale to govern the colony. He lived and worked ferrying cargo in the bay for about 40 days, until a Spanish ship came into the harbor. He was taken prisoner, tied up, and sailed first to Havana, Cuba, and later to Malaga, Spain, where he would be repeatedly interrogated by Spanish authorities. After five years imprisonment, he was released to the English in 1616. He took a load of cattle to Jamestown again in 1618, and was then hired for the Mayflower's voyage.

John died in 1623 at Jamestown, Virginia.

Possible Parents

Some sources suggest John's parents may have been William Clarke and Margaret Walker, both born Hertfordshire, England around 1553.^[2]

Wife

• Mary Morton, married 18 February 1597/98 at Stepney, Middlesex, England^[2]

Disputed Children

• Thomas Clarke, born 1599.

Per Robert Charles Anderson's The Great Migration Begins: John Insley Coddington argued forcefully that Thomas Clark was the son of John Clark, pilot of the Mayflower, and that he was identical with the "Thomas Clarke of Ratliff" who was baptized 8 March 1599/1600 at Stepney, Middlesex [The American Genealogist (TAG), 42:201-02]. This hypothesis is very attractive, and was accepted by Jacobus [TAG 47:3], but remains unproven.

Sources

1. ↑ Parish Register at St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, Tower Hamlets by subscription at: https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/1624/31280_194795-00032?pid=3527134
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Find-A-Grave memorial for John Clark

• Charles Edward Banks, The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers: who came to Plymouth on the "Mayflower" in 1620, the "Fortune" in 1621, and the "Anne" and the "Little James" in 1623 (Baltimore, MD.:Genealogical Publishing Co., 2006) p. 19

• Caleb H. Johnson, The Mayflower and her passengers (Indiana:Xlibris Corp., Caleb Johnson, 2006), pp. 32-33

• Caleb Johnson's MayflowerHistory.com

• Nick Bunker, Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and their New World a History (New York: Knopf 2010), p. 24

• Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: A story of Courage, Community and War (New York:Viking, 2006), p. 25