1687 resulted in his taking the care of a congregation at Sandwich, Kent, for nearly two years; but in 1689 he returned to London and became joint pastor with the aged Stephen Ford of the independent church in Miles Lane, where a year or two later he was ‘solemnly ordained to the pastoral office with the imposition of the hands of several ministers.’ In 1694 Ford died, and in 1696 Clarke married a daughter of Robert Frith, several times mayor of Windsor, who bore him one son and one daughter. In 1697 Clarke was chosen to give the Tuesday morning lecture at Pinners' Hall, and from this time till the end of his life his influence among his brethren and his reputation as a preacher were constantly on the increase. Twice he was chosen by the protestant dissenters to represent them—in 1708, when he presented a message of condolence to Queen Anne on the death of Prince George, and in 1722, when he congratulated George I on the discovery of the Pretender's plot. In 1707 overwork brought on a severe illness, which left his health much shattered. A special thanksgiving service was held by his congregation on his recovery. In 1715 he broke his leg, but recovered easily. The later years of his life were much embittered by the ‘Salters' Hall’ controversy. It was proposed that all ministers should subscribe to the first of the Thirty-nine Articles. Clarke was a subscriber, but contented himself with preaching one doctrinal sermon on the subject, and refused to regard all non-subscribers as heretical. This caused his orthodoxy to be called in question, which in his weak state of health occasioned him much vexation. He died on 27 March 1726, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. Dr. Watts composed his epitaph.
Clarke published several sermons during his lifetime. In the year after his death these with some others not before printed, fourteen in all, were published with a memoir and his funeral sermon, by the Rev. Daniel Neal, M.A. From this memoir the lives in Wilson's ‘Dissenting Churches’ (i. 474) and Bogue and Bennett's ‘History of Dissenters’ (ii. 351) are taken.
[Neal's Memoir, 1727.]
CLARKE, MATTHEW (1701–1778), physician, was born in London in 1701, and became a medical student at Leyden in 1721. His inaugural dissertation for M.D. at Leyden, on pleurisy, was read in 1726. He was admitted M.D. at Cambridge in 1728, and fellow of the London College of Physicians in 1736, and was censor in 1743. He was elected physician to Guy's Hospital in 1732, and resigned that office in 1754. Soon retiring from practice, he resided at Tottenham till his death in November 1778.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 131.]
CLARKE, Sir ROBERT (d. 1607), judge, was admitted a student at Lincoln's Inn on 15 Feb. 1562, called to the bar in 1568, elected reader at Lincoln's Inn in the autumn of 1582, took the degree of serjeant-at-law on 12 June 1587, and ten days later was raised to the exchequer bench, and immediately assigned to take the Hertford assizes. In 1590 he took the Surrey assizes, at which one John Udal [q. v.], a puritan clergyman, was indicted of felony under the statute 23 Eliz. c. 2, § 4. He had been previously examined by Chief-justice Sir Edmund Anderson [q. v.] at the privy council. Udal was accused of writing one of the Mar-Prelate tracts, entitled ‘A Demonstration of the Truth of that Discipline which Christ hath prescribed in his Word for the Government of the Church,’ in which he roundly accused the bishops of being the cause of all ungodliness. The case was tried in July 1590 at Croydon, before Clarke and Serjeant Puckering, neither of whom seems to have been unfavourably disposed towards the prisoner. Udal argued that the statute applied exclusively to cases of libel directed against the sovereign personally. Being overruled in this contention, he was found guilty, but sentence was deferred until the spring assizes, in order that he might have the opportunity of making a full submission to her majesty. The judges required that he should admit in writing that the work contained ‘false, slanderous, and seditious matters against her majesty's prerogative royal, her crown, and dignity.’ This, however, Udal would not do. Accordingly, on 20 Feb. 1590–1, he was sentenced to death. Subsequently he was reprieved by the queen, and attempts were made to elicit a further submission from him; but while they were still in progress he died in prison (1592). On the accession of James I (March 1602–3) Clarke's patent was renewed, and on 23 July 1603 he was knighted at Whitehall. In a letter of Cecil to Windebank, dated 27 Jan. 1602–3, he is described as old and infirm, and about to be pensioned. Nevertheless, he tried, in 1606, the celebrated Bates's case. His judgment was for the king, but it amounted to an admission that the impost, not being in accordance with the statute 1 Jac. I, c. 33, was illegal at common law, though he attempted at the same time to justify it by exchequer precedents. He died
