THOMAS CLARK.
1670. Thomas Clark, son of Jonas Clarke, of Cambridge, a surveyor of some note, was born, March 2, 1653. Rev. Mr. Allen, in his History of Chelmsford, says in relation to Mr. Clark, "We have neither church records, manuscript sermons, cotemporary notices, nor any other materials, from which a bare memento can be erected, excepting the following sentence in the 9th volume of the Hist. Coll. of Mass., page 195. 'Dorchester, 1704, Dec. 10. The death of Rev. Thomas Clark of Chelmsford was lamented in a sermon from Acts xx: 25, &c.' A great loss to all our towns, and especially to our frontier towns on that side of the country, who are greatly weakened with the loss of such a man." Besides the above extract from Mr. Allen, we find a fact in Dr. Cotton Mather's "Wonders of the Invisible World," which is creditable to the character of Mr. Clark. In the time of the witchcraft delusion, "there was at Chelmsford an afflicted person, that in her fits cried out against a woman, a neighbor, which Mr. Clark, the minister of the gospel there, could not believe to be guilty of such a crime, [witchcraft.] And it happened while that woman milked her cow, the cow struck her with one horn upon the forehead and fetched blood. And while she was bleeding, a spectre of her likeness appeared to the party afflicted, who pointing at the spectre, one struck at the place, and the afflicted said, You have made her forehead bleed! Hereupon some went to the woman and found her forehead bloody, and acquainted Mr. Clark with it, who forthwith went to the woman and asked her, How her forehead became bloody? and she answered, By a blow of the cow's horn, as abovesaid; whereby he was satisfied that it was a design of Satan to render an innocent person suspected." The conduct of Mr. Clark in this decision, made at the time when the spectral evidence was so generally received, probably prevented the infatuation from extending to Chelmsford. Happy would it have been had all ministers and magistrates exercised a like discrimination in rejecting all evidence against persons whose characters had been previously good. By the magistrates at Salem, the coincidence of the imaginary wound inflicted on the spectre, and the real wound from the cow's horn on the woman, would have been sufficient for the condemnation of the latter.
Mr. Clark was the minister of Chelmsford twenty-seven years, having been ordained, in 1677, as the successor of Rev. John Fiske. His labors were suddenly terminated, being seized, according to Judge Sewall's Diary, with a fever, on Friday the 2nd, which caused his death on the following Wednesday, December 7, 1704, in the 52nd year of his age.
Mr. Clark was twice married. The name of his first wife was Mary, who died Dec. 2, 1700. His second was Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Samuel Whiting, whom he married, Oct. 2, 1702. His children, who lived to mature years, all by his first wife, were Lucy, who married Major John Tyng, father of Judge John Tyng, Sept. 19, 1700. She died April 25, 1708; Elizabeth, who married John Hancock of West Cambridge; Jonas, born Dec. 2, 1684, who resided on the farm, known by the name of the Cragie farm. There he kept a public house and ferry which have ever since borne his name. His house was the general resort for all fashionable people. He was honored with many civil and military offices; was a very popular man, and esteemed as a good Christian. He died April 8, 1770, aged 86. Thomas, the youngest son, was born Sept. 28, 1694.