To the editor:

Thursday, Oct. 8, is the 400th birthday of John Clarke, a contemporary of Roger Williams. He is less well-known, although he played an important part in the history of Rhode Island. He was a physician and preacher who with William Coddington and a group of religious liberals, set up a body politic on March 7,1638 in Pocasset (now Portsmouth). A year later they moved south and founded Newport on May 16, 1639, where “no one was to be accounted a delinquent for doctrine.” He also started a Baptist church in Newport around 1638 and there is debate as to whether he or Roger Willams founded the first Baptist church in America.

In 1651 Clarke and Williams were sent to England to overturn Coddington’s Aquidneck sovereignty. Williams returned in 1654 but Clarke stayed on and it is he who is credited with drafting the Rhode Island 1663 charter signed by King Charles II. The “hold forth a lively experiment” phrase is now part of the inscription on the State House facade in Providence.

There are many Clarke streets named for him in Rhode Island, but he deserves more recognition than that.

Saul Ricklin

Bristol