Person:John Clark (235)

Who Was This John Clark?

"The identity of the father of this John is unknown; it has been claimed that he was John of Hartford, who was a contemporary there with Matthew [Marvin]. Gay says: "The descendants of John Clark of Farmington believe that he was identical with John of Cambridge, Mass., and with John of Hartford, and this is set down as an ascertained fact† by Rev. Wm. S. Porter, a genealogist of great industry and local research. The Clarks of Saybrook, Ct, claim that John of Cambridge, of Hartford, and of Saybrook, were identical, and quote the authority of Hinman. No contemporaneous record has been found to confirm or subvert either theory." John was made a freeman of Farmington in May, 1664, and was in office there in 1691. The record has: "John Clark of ffarmington y^e aged Departed his Natural life twenty-second of Novemb^r in y^e year of o^r Lord 1712." His will is dated 8 Feb., 1709/10, and has a codicil of the day before he died.

† Instead of being an "ascertained fact," it is a disputed question whether the "John Clark of Farmington [whose descendants are traced by Gay], was identical with John of Cambridge and John of Hartford." That John brought a wife and four chil. from England in 1632, of whom the youngest was more than eight years older than Rebecca; he was a freeman of Cambridge before 1636, when he went to Hartford with Hooker. John of Saybrook d. in 1672, and his widow went to Farmington, and d. there 22 Jan'y, 1678 (Gay, 10, 11); this John had a son John, whose wife was Rebecca, but it is evident from various authorities that she was not Rebecca Marvin. The agreement printed on 294, supra, shows that Rebecca and her husband were living 6 Nov., 1680, and Gay gives the date of baptism of their youngest child as ten years later. Clearly, therefore, Matthew's dau. m. neither John of Saybrook nor John of Hartford and Cambridge; her husband may have been a son of the latter, but certainly was not the son of the former. There were many John Clarkes in New England who were contemporaries at this period, and the identification of the father of Rebecca's husband does not seem possible with our present knowledge."^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Marvin, George Franklin, and William Theophilus Rogers Marvin. Descendants of Reinold and Matthew Marvin of Hartford Ct., 1638 and 1635: Sons of Edward Marvin of Great Bentley, England. (Boston, MA: T.R. Marvin & Son, Publishers, 1904)
   312.
2. ↑ Gay, Julius. A record of the descendants of John Clark of Farmington, Conn: the male branches brought down to 1882 : the female branches one generation after the Clark name is lost in marriage. (Hartford, Conn.: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1882).
3. ↑ Matthew Marvin, in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011)
   5:69.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Manwaring, Charles W. A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. (Hartford, Conn.: R. S. Peck & Co., 1904-06)
   2:179.