John Clarke (mariner)
Captain[1] John Clarke | |
|---|---|
Mayflower and a shallop scouting a settlement location on Clark's Island | |
| Born | c. 1574 |
| Died | 1623 (aged 48–49) Virginia Colony |
| Other names | John Clark, Thomas Clarke, "Master Clare"[1] |
| Occupations | Mariner, ship's pilot |
| Years active | 1609-1623 |
| Known for | Master's mate of the Mayflower First Englishman on Clark's Island |
John Clarke (or Clark, d. 1623) was an English mariner that traveled to the New World on several occasions. He was captured and imprisoned by the Spanish Empire while in the Colony of Virginia, but returned to sailing after 1616. Most notably, he piloted Mayflower in 1620 to Plymouth Colony. Clarke [sic] is the namesake of Clark's Island near Plymouth Colony.[2]
With the Virginia Company
Clarke was a sailor in 1603 and a ship's pilot by 1607.[3] Clarke was noted in Málaga, Spain in 1609.[4] At some point, he became employed by the Virginia Company.
John Clarke accompanied Sir Thomas Dale's flotilla to Virginia in March 1611, and remained in Jamestown and the Chesapeake Bay area for some time.
Abduction by the Spanish
In May and June, 1611, Clarke was ferrying goods around the Chesapeake Bay settlements.[5] A Spanish caravel came to Old Point Comfort, asking for a pilot to direct the ship into the James River.[6] Three Spaniards came to shore, and Clarke boarded the Spanish vessel. The vessel departed the area to Havana, Cuba, leaving the Spaniards and taking Clarke. Clarke was moved and imprisoned in Seville, Spain, then Madrid. The "English Pilot" was interrogated by the Spanish about conditions in Virginia. He gave varying and contradictory descriptions about the military power of Jamestown.[7][8] Don Diego de Molina, a Spanish spy who was taken prisoner in Virginia (at the same time John Clarke was seized), later claimed that the fortifications at Jamestown were insubstantial and that "one night the Indians broke in and took the whole place without resistance being made, shooting arrows in at all the doors".[1][9]
Clarke was delivered back to the English in 1616.[10] By 1618, Clarke was sailing again to Virginia to deliver livestock.[11]
Transporting Pilgrims to Plymouth Colony
Clarke was hired with Master Christopher Jones, mate Robert Coppin, and crew, to sail Leiden Separatists to Plymouth Colony. Clark was 45 years old.[12]
When the Mayflower arrived in Cape Cod in December, 1620, John Clarke was along an expedition for a settlement spot using an assembled shallop. The shallop was previously damaged from the Atlantic crossing storms and repaired. On December 8, the shallop's mast and rudder were broken off in a frigid winter storm.[11] Using oars, Clarke and the crew rowed to an unidentified shore.
John Clarke was the first to set foot on Clark's Island.[12] Clarke returned with the crew to England in spring, 1621.
Settling in Virginia
Clarke might have been the father of Thomas Clark who arrived in Plymouth Colony in 1623.[13]
Clarke endeavoured to settle in Virginia, but died soon after arriving.[14]
Notes
- ^ a b c Brown, Alexander (October 24, 1890). "The Genesis of the United States; v 2". Boston : New York : Houghton, Mifflin – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Bryant, William Cullen (1876). A popular history of the United States : from the first discovery of the western hemisphere by the Northmen, to the end of the first century of the union of the states ; preceded by a sketch of the prehistoric period and the age of the mound builders.
- ^ "John Clark". April 17, 2011.
- ^ Wright, Irene A. "Spanish Policy Toward Virginia, 1606-1612; Jamestown, Ecija, and John Clark of the Mayflower." The American Historical Review, vol. 25, no. 3, 1920, pp. 448–79. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1836882. Accessed 12 Aug. 2025.
- ^ McCartney, Martha W. Documentary History of Jamestown Island: Biographies of owners and residents. United States, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2000.
- ^ Brown, Alexander (October 24, 1890). "The genesis of the United States; a narrative of the movement in England, 1605-1616, which resulted in the plantation of North America by Englishmen, disclosing the contest between England and Spain for the possession of the soil now occupied by the United States of America; set forth through a series of historical manuscripts now first printed together with a reissue of rare contemporaneous tracts, accompanied by bibliographical memoranda, notes, and brief biographies". Boston Houghton Mifflin – via Internet Archive.
- ^ American Historical Review 1920:474
- ^ Brown, Alexander (October 27, 1890). "The Genesis of the United States; v 2". Boston : New York : Houghton, Mifflin – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Don Diego De Molina - Captive and Spy - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov.
- ^ Wright, Irene A. "Spanish Policy Toward Virginia, 1606-1612; Jamestown, Ecija, and John Clark of the Mayflower." The American Historical Review, vol. 25, no. 3, 1920, pp. 448–79. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1836882. Accessed 12 August 2025.
- ^ a b "John Clarke Guides the Pilgrims to Shore". August 27, 2017.
- ^ a b Philbrick, Nathaniel (October 24, 2006). "Mayflower : a story of courage, community, and war". New York : Viking – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "John CLARKE, Pilot of the Mayflower b. Abt 1575 , , England d. 1623 Jamestown, Virginia: Our Family History". ancestrees.com.
- ^ Wright, Irene A. "Spanish Policy Toward Virginia, 1606-1612; Jamestown, Ecija, and John Clarke of the Mayflower." The American Historical Review, vol. 25, no. 3, 1920, pp. 448–79. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1836882. Accessed 12 Aug. 2025.