John Clarke

John Clarke (1802-1879) joined the Baptist church at Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland, in 1823 and within a few years began to think seriously about going to the mission field. In 1829 he was approved by the BMS to begin work in Jamaica, where he ministered to various churches among the slave population for the next ten years. In October 1840, while on furlough in England, he was appointed, along with Dr. G. K. Prince of Jamaica, to conduct a missionary expedition in West Africa. In 1841-1842, the two men surveyed the island of Fernando Po and some surrounding areas along the coast of West Africa. Clarke and Prince returned to England in 1842 to promote the new venture for the BMS. Clarke sailed for Jamaica on the Chilmark in August 1843, taking with him Alfred Saker of Devonport, along with Saker’s wife, Helen, to recruit Jamaican missionaries to West Africa. The Chilmark arrived at Fernando Po in February 1844. After three years, Clarke left for England due to ill health. He returned to Jamaica in 1852, and remained there until his death in 1879. His major writings include Memorials of the Baptist Missionaries in Jamaica (1869), a life of John Merrick, and two works on West African dialects—Introduction to the Fernandian Language, and Specimens of Dialects . . . in Africa. See F. W. Butt-Thompson, “A Voyage to Fernando Po,” Baptist Quarterly 15 (1953-1954), 82-87, 113-121.