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The following has been copied, with only minor alteration, from the entry for Clarke in the Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland (http://wesleyhistoricalsociety.org.uk/dmbi/). Permission to use and alter said entry was kindly granted by Dr John Vickers and the Rev Dr Norman W Taggart.
WM minister and polymath. He was born at Moybeg, Co. Londonderry in 1760 (or, according to his father, 1762), the son of a schoolmaster. He came under Methodist influence in 1778, travelled to England in 1782, met John Wesley in Bristol and was sent into circuit. Unusually, he was received into full connexion after only one year in the itinerancy. In 1788 he married Mary Cooke of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, whom he had met during his first year in circuit. Part of his circuit ministry was spent in such outlying parts of the connexion as the Channel Islands and the Shetlands. He became a leading figure and a moderating influence in British Methodism after Wesley's death. He encouraged the increasing role of the laity, including women, in WM, though distancing himself from the more extreme radicals. In 1815-1819 he managed to survive criticism from his fellow Wesleyans, including Richard Watson, over his adoptionist views on the 'eternal sonship' of Christ and his interpretation of Luke 1:35 in volume 1 of his New Testament Commentary (1817). Three times President of the British Conference (1806, 1814 and 1822), he also presided over the Irish Conference on four occasions. He was actively involved in combatting poverty and the trade of enslaved African people, and established Strangers' Friend Societies in several cities.
His scholarship was outstanding and wide-ranging. His chief reputation was as a linguist, particularly in Middle Eastern and Oriental languages (including Persian, Arabic, Ethiopian, Coptic and Sanskrit); this enabled him to play an important part in the work of the Bible Society. In 1808 he received an honorary doctorate from Aberdeen and was elected a Fellow of the Antiquarian Society and a member of the Geological Society in 1823. He was also a foundation member and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and was elected to the Royal Irish Academy. In 1808 he was engaged to edit a new and more complete edition of Thomas Rymer's Foedera, a collection of State Papers from the time of the Norman Conquest to the accession of George III, a task to which he gave much time during the next decade, though he resigned before much more than the first volume was completed. His major publication was his eight-volume Commentary on the Bible (1810-1825), which was enriched by his extensive linguistic studies and was widely used for many years.
He was a keen advocate of missions at home and overseas, of which he claimed first-hand experience through his service in the Channel Islands, 1786-1789. He supported the moves in 1813-14 to create District missionary societies. In 1818 he undertook the Christian instruction of two Buddhist priests (Munhi Rathana and Dherma Rama) from Ceylon [Sri Lanka]. They were baptized (Adam and Alexander respectively) in 1820, but problems arose in Ceylon [Sri Lanka] after their return, where missionary attitudes towards Buddhism did not match his. In the 1820s he had oversight of the Shetlands Mission and in 1831 established six mission schools in counties Londonderry and Antrim. He died of cholera on 26 August 1832 and is buried close to John Wesley at Wesley's Chapel, London.
Sources:
Richard Watson, Remarks on the Eternal Sonship of Christ; and the use of reason in matters of revelation, suggested by several passages in Dr. A. Clarke's Commentary on the New Testament (1818);
Mary Ann Smith, An Account of the Infancy, Religious and Literary Life of Adam Clarke...(3 vols., 1833);
Anon [J.M. Hare], The Life and Labours of Adam Clarke... to which is added an historical sketch of the controversy concerning the sonship of Christ (1834);
William Jones, Memoirs of the Life, Ministry and Writings of Adam Clarke (1838);
Robert A. West, Sketches of Wesleyan Preachers (1849) pp.224-49;
[John M. Hare], The Life and Labours of Adam Clarke LLD, FAS: a new narrative, with strictures on his creed, commentary and other works... (Halifax, 1858);
J.W. Etheridge, The Life of the rev. Adam Clarke (1858);
S. Dunn, The Life of Adam Clarke LLD (1863);
J. Everett, Adam Clarke Portrayed (2nd edn., revised, 1866);
Wesley and his Successors (1895) pp.67-72;
Maldwyn L. Edwards, Adam Clarke (1942);
R.H. Gallagher, Adam Clarke, saint and scholar: a memoir (Belfast, [1963]);
Maldwyn Edwards, 'Adam Clarke the Man' in London Quarterly and Holborn Review, April 1964, pp. 147-51;
Ian Sellers, Adam Clarke, Controversialist (WHS Lecture, 1975, St. Columb Major, [1976]);
Wesley D. Tracy, When Adam Clarke Preached, People Listened: studies in the message and methods of Adam Clarke's preaching (Kansas City, 1981);
N.W. Taggart, The Irish in World Methodism (1986) pp.87-103;
Gareth Lloyd, The Papers of Dr. Adam Clarke [a catalogue] (Manchester, 1991);
Barry W. Hamilton, 'The "Eternal Sonship" Controversy in Early British Methodism', in Wesleyan Theological Journal, 40:2 (Fall, 2005), pp.88-10;1
Oxford DNB. |
The following has been copied, with only minor alteration, from the entry for Clarke in the Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland (http://wesleyhistoricalsociety.org.uk/dmbi/). Permission to use and alter said entry was kindly granted by Dr John Vickers and the Rev Dr Norman W Taggart.
WM minister and polymath. He was born at Moybeg, Co. Londonderry in 1760 (or, according to his father, 1762), the son of a schoolmaster. He came under Methodist influence in 1778, travelled to England in 1782, met John Wesley in Bristol and was sent int ... View more |
