Samuel Clarke

Samuel Clarke (10 October 1599 – 25 December 1683) was an English Nonconformist clergyman and significant Puritan biographer.

Life He was born 10 October 1599 at Wolston, Warwickshire, the son of Hugh Clarke (d. 1634), who was vicar of Wolston for forty years. Clarke was educated by his father till he was thirteen; then at the free school in Coventry; and when seventeen was entered at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was ordained about 1622, and held charges at Knowle in Warwickshire, Thornton-le-Moors in Cheshire, and Shotwick on the estuary of the Dee. Here, 2 February 1626, he married Katherine, daughter of Valentine Overton, rector of Bedworth, Warwickshire.

Biographies He takes as an appropriate name for a biographer the anagram 'Suk-all-Cream' (Marrow, &c., 1675). Clarke's biographical works are:

A Mirrour or Looking-glass both for Saints and Sinners, held forth in some thousands of examples, 1646. The fourth edition (1671) includes a Geographical description of all the countries in the known world, first issued separately in 1657. An account of the English plantations in America (1670) is often bound up with it. The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History . . . Lives of 148 Fathers, Schoolmen, modern Divines, &c., 1649-1650; A Discourse against Toleration, 1660. Duty of every one intending to be saved, 1669 (privately reprinted by G. T. C. in 1882). The Soul's Conflict (with an account of author's life prefixed), 1678. Precedents for Princes, 1680. A warning-piece to all drunkards and health drinkers, 1681. Book of Apothegms, 1681.