Antinomian Controversy in the context of "John Clarke (Baptist minister)"

John Clarke (October 1609 – 20 April 1676) was a New England English-born politician, physician, and Puritan Baptist minister, co-founder of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, author of its influential charter, and a leading advocate of religious liberty in America.

Clarke was born in Westhorpe, Suffolk, England. He received an extensive education, including a master's degree in England followed by medical training in Leiden, Holland. He arrived at the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 during the Antinomian Controversy and decided to go to Aquidneck Island with many exiles from the conflict. He became a co-founder of Portsmouth and Newport, Rhode Island, and established America's second Baptist church in Newport. Baptists were declared heretics in Massachusetts and were banned there, but Clarke wanted to make inroads there and spent time in the Boston jail after making a mission trip to the town of Lynn, Massachusetts. Following his poor treatment in prison, he went to England where he published a book on the persecutions of the Baptists in Massachusetts and on his theological beliefs. The fledgling Rhode Island colony needed an agent in England, so he remained there for more than a decade handling the colony's interests.