C L A 
5 n 1709. 'Upon this occafion he took the degree of doftor 
of divinity, when the public exercife which he performed 
for it at Cambridge was highly admired. 
The tame year, 1709, Dr. Clarke revifed and correfted 
Whifton’s tranflation of the Apoftolical Conflitutions in- 
to'Englith,;at his earned: requeft. In 1712 he publifhed 
a beautiful edition of Crefar’s Commentaries. And the 
fame year, his celebrated book called the Scripture Doc¬ 
trine of the Trinity. Whifton informs us, that fome time 
before the publication of this book, there was a metfage 
fent to the’ author by lord Godolphin, and others of 
queen Anne’s minifte.rs, importing, “ That the affairs of 
the public were with difficulty then kept in the hands of 
thofe that were for liberty; that it was therefore an un- 
feafonable time for the publication of a book that would 
make a great noife and difturbance; and that therefore 
they defined him to forbear till a fitter opportunity fhould 
offer itfelfj” which meffage, fays he, the doftor paid no 
regard to, but went on according to the dictates of his 
own confidence with the publication of his book. The 
minifters, however, were very right in their conjeftures ; 
for the work made noife and dilturbance enough, andoc¬ 
cafioned a great many books and pamphlets, written by 
himfelf and others. Nor were thefe the whole that his 
work occafioned; it rendered the author obnoxious to 
the ecciefiaftical power, and his book was complained of 
by the lower lioufe of convention. The doftor drew up 
a preface, and afterwards gave in feveral explanations, 
which feemed to fatisfy the upper houfe ; at leaft the af¬ 
fair was not brought to any ilfue, the members appearing 
deiirous to prevent diflentions and divifions. In 1715 and 
1716 he had a difpute with the celebrated Leibnitz, con¬ 
cerning the principles of natural philofophy and religion; 
and a col left ion of the papers which palled between them 
was publifned in 1717. This work was addrefTed to queen 
Caroline, then princels of Wales, who was pleafed to have 
the controverfy pafs through her hands. It related chiefly 
to the fubjefts of liberty and neceffity. 
About the year 1718 he was prefented by the lord 
Lechmere to the malterfhip of Wigfton’s hofpital in Lei- 
cefterfliire. In 1724. and 1725 he publifhed eighteen fer- 
mons, preached on feveral occafions. In 1727, on the 
death of fir Ifaac Newton, he had the offer of fucceeding 
him as mafter of the mint, a place worth 1500I. a year: 
but to this fecular preferment he could not reconcile him- 
felf; and therefore abfolutely refufed it. In 1728 was pub¬ 
lifhed, a Letter from Dr. Clarke to Mr. Benjamin Road- 
ley, occafioned by the Controverfy relating to the Pro¬ 
portion of Velocity and Force of Bodies in Motion ; and 
printed in the Philofophical Tranfaftions, No. 401. In 
the beginning of 17.29* he publifhed the firft twelve books 
of Homer’s Iliad : a work which bifhop Hoadley calls an 
accurate performance ; and his notes a trealury of gram¬ 
matical and critical knowledge. 'And the fame year came 
out his Expofition of the Church Catechifin, and ten vo¬ 
lumes of fermons ; bQoks fo well known and fo generally 
approved, that they need no recommendation. But the 
fame year, on Sunday the nth of May, going to preach 
before the judges at Serjeant’s-inn, he was feized with a 
pain in his fide, which made it impoffible for him to per¬ 
form his office. He was carried home, and continued un¬ 
der his diforder. till the feventeenth of the fame month, 
when he died, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, after 
long enjoying a vigorous Hate of health, having l'carcely 
'■ever known ilcknels. Three years after the doftor’s death, 
appeared the other twelve books of the Iliad, publifhed m 
quarto by his fon, Mr. Samuel Clarke, who fays, in the 
preface, that his father had finiflied the annotations to 
the firfl: three of thofe books, and as far as the 359th verfe 
of the fourth ; and had reviled the text and verlion as far 
as verfe 510 of the fame book. 
Dr. Clarke married Catherine, the only daughter of the 
reverend Mr. Lockwood, reftor of Little Miffingliam, in 
the county of Norfolk, by whom he had feven children, 
four of whom furviVed him. Queen Caroline took great 
Von. IV. No. 226 
C L A 641 
pleafure in the doftor’.s converfation and friendffiip, fel- 
dom. miffing a week in which fhe did not receive fome 
proof of the greatnefs of his genius, and the force of his 
underftanding. As to the character of Dr. Clarke, he is 
reprefented as remarkably humane and tender, free and 
affable in his converfation, and cheerful in his manner. 
Bifhop Hare fays of him, “ He was a man who had all the 
good qualities that could meet together to recommend 
him. He was pbHelled of all the parts of learning that 
are valuable in a clergyman, in a degree that few poflefs 
any Angle one. He has joined to a good (kill in the three 
learned languages, a great compafs of the belt philofophy 
and mathematics, as appears by his Latin works; and his 
Englifh ones are fuch a proof of his own piety, and of his 
knowledge in divinity, and have done fo much fervice to 
religion, as would make any other man, that was not un¬ 
der a fufpicion of herefy, lecure of the friendfhip of all 
good churchmen, efpecially the clergy. And to all this 
piety and learning was joined, a temper happy beyond 
expreflion; a fvveet, eafy, modelt, obliging, behaviour 
adorned all bis aftions; and neither paffion, vanity, in- 
folence, or oftentation, appeared either in what he laid or 
wrote. This is the learning, this the temper of the man, 
whofe ftudy of the fcriptures has betrayed him into a fuf¬ 
picion of feme heretical opinions. Bifhop Hoadley, too, 
having remarked how great the doftor.was in all branches 
of learning, adds, if in any one of thefe he had excelled 
only fo much as he did in all, he would have been juftly 
entitled to the charafter of a great man j but there is 
fomething fo very extraordinary, that the fame perfon 
fhould excel not only in thofe parts of knowledge w hich 
require the ftrongeft judgment, but in thofe which re¬ 
quire the greateft memory too. So that, in a very high 
degree, divinity and mathematics, experimental philolo- 
phy and claffical learning, metaphyfics and critical (kill, 
were united in Dr. Clarke, 
CLARKE (Samuel), a writer of confiderable note, who 
was, during the interregnum, and at the time of the ejec¬ 
tion, minilter of St. Bennet Fink in London. He was one 
of the commiffioners at the Savoy, and behaved with great 
decency and moderation. He was efteemed by all that 
knew him for his probity and induftry. Died the 25th 
of December 1682. The mod: valuable of his writings 
are, 1. his Lives of the Puritan Divines ; 2. his Martyro- 
logy; 3. his Marrow of Ecciefiaftical Hiftory; and, 4. 
his Lives of feveral eminent perfons. 
CLARKE (William), an Englifh divine, born atHagh- 
mon-Abbey in Shropfliire, in 1696 ;-after a grammar edu¬ 
cation at Shrewfbury fchool, he was Lent to St. John’s 
college, Cambridge, of which he was elefted fellow', Ja¬ 
nuary 1717. He was prelented by archbifhop Wake, in 
1724, to the reftory of Buxted in Suflex, at the particu¬ 
lar recommendation of Dr. Wotton; and, in 1738, was 
elefted prebendary and refidentiary of Chichelter; and, 
in 1770, chancellor of that church, and vicar of Amport 
in Hampfhire, which he did not long enjoy, dying Oft. 21, 
1771. He married a daughter of the learned Dr. Wotton, 
by whom he left a fon and daughter; the fon, Edward 
Clarke, pubiifhed fome “ Letters concerning the Spanifh 
Nation,” in 1763. He wrote a learned preface to Dr. 
Wotton’s “ Collection of the Welch Rawsbut his prin¬ 
cipal work, in which he introduced the famous Chichefter 
infeription, is, “ The Conneftion of the Roman, Saxon, 
and Englifh, Coins,” 1767,410. He refigned Buxted to his 
fon, November 4, 1768, after having held that reftory 
more than thirty-four years. 
CLARKE, a county of the American States, in Ken¬ 
tucky, between the head waters of Kentucky and Licking 
rivers. Its chief town is Winchefter. 
CLARKS'BURG, a town of the American States, in 
Harrifon county, Virginia. It contains a court-houfe 
and jail, and Hands on the eaft fide of Monongahela river; 
forty miles fouth-weft of Morgantown. 
CLARKS'TOWN, a town of the American States, in 
Orange county, New York, on the weft fide of the Tap- 
8 A pan 
