Jonas Clarke (December 25, 1730 – November 15, 1805), sometimes written Jonas Clark, was an American clergyman and political leader who had a role in the American Revolution and in shaping the 1780 Massachusetts and the United States Constitutions.[1][2]
Clarke graduated from Harvard College in 1752 and became the third pastor of the Church of Christ in Lexington, Massachusetts on May 19, 1755.[3] He married Lucy Bowes Clarke. His wife's cousin was John Hancock, and Hancock was a guest in his home at the time of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775.[4]
Clarke is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Lexington, Massachusetts. His home, now known as the Hancock-Clarke house, still stands,[5] and the Jonas Clarke Middle School in Lexington is named after him.
References
edit- ^ Clarke, Jonas (1901). Opening of the War of Revolution, 19th of April 1775. A brief narrative of the principal transactions of that day. Lexington Historical Society (Mass.)
- ^ Massachusetts Constitutional Convention (1832). Journal of the Convention for Framing a Constitution of Government for the State of Massachusetts Bay.
- ^ Hudson, Charles (1913). History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts: From Its First Settlement to 1868. Houghton Mifflin
- ^ Kollen, Richard (2004). Lexington: From Liberty's Birthplace to Progressive Suburb. Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7385-2465-8
- ^ Lexington Historical Society (1905).Guide book to the Hancock-Clarke house Lexington Historical Society (Mass.)
External links
edit- Jonas Clarke at Find a Grave
- Lexington Historical Society, owner of the Hancock-Clarke House
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