Clarke, Matthew (1664-02-02 - 1726-03-27)

Matthew Clarke, Independent minister, was born on 2 February 1664 in Leicester Forest to Matthew Clarke (c.1630-c.1708), an ejected Congregational minister. Clarke was educated first by his father, who was a distinguished orientalist, and later at the academy of John Woodhouse of Sheriffhales. Clarke began his ministry in 1684 as his father’s assistant at Market Harborough, Leicestershire. He took charge of a church at Sandwich, Kent from 1687 to 1689, and preached occasionally for the Congregational church in Miles Lane after his return to London in 1689. He served as joint pastor in Market Harborough and was ordained with the laying on of hands in 1692. Clarke was chosen to deliver the Tuesday morning lecture at Pinners’ Hall in 1697, a position that allowed his reputation and influence among dissenters to flourish. He represented the protestant dissenters in correspondence with the monarch in 1708 and 1722. Clarke subscribed to the first of the Thirty-Nine Articles, but did not regard non-subscribers as heretical; his orthodoxy was therefore questioned, a crisis which contributed to his ill health. He died on 27 March 1726 at his home in London, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. He was survived by his wife Anne (née Frith), whom he married in 1696. Fourteen of his sermons were published posthumously by Daniel Neal in 1726.