Jonas Clarke

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]

Hancock-Clarke House, 36 Hancock St., Lexington, Massachusetts.
For the founder of Clark University, see Jonas Gilman Clark.

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
  1. 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.)
  2. Massachusetts Constitutional Convention (1832). Journal of the Convention for Framing a Constitution of Government for the State of Massachusetts Bay.
  3. Hudson, Charles (1913). History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts: From Its First Settlement to 1868. Houghton Mifflin
  4. Kollen, Richard (2004). Lexington: From Liberty's Birthplace to Progressive Suburb. Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7385-2465-8
  5. Lexington Historical Society (1905).Guide book to the Hancock-Clarke house Lexington Historical Society (Mass.)


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