David Clarkson (minister)


David Clarkson was an English ejected minister.

Early life

The son of Robert Clarkson, he was born at Bradford, Yorkshire, where he was baptised on 3 March 1622. His brother, William Clarkson, held the sequestered rectory of Adel, Leeds, and died not long before the Restoration. His sister was married to Sharp, uncle of Bishop John Sharp and father of Thomas Sharp, the ejected minister.
He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and by virtue of a warrant from the Earl of Manchester was admitted fellow on 5 May 1645, being then B.A. Clarkson had pupils until 26 March 1650, among them John Tillotson, who succeeded him in his fellowship about 27 November 1651.

Career

Clarkson obtained the perpetual curacy of Mortlake, Surrey, and held it till his ejection by the Uniformity Act 1662. After two decades of covert movement he became, in July 1682, colleague to John Owen as pastor of an independent church in London, and on Owen's death in the following year he succeeded him as sole pastor. He died rather suddenly on 14 June 1686, and his funeral sermon was preached by William Bates.

Works

Clarkson published:
Posthumous were:
Clarkson also contributed sermons to Samuel Annesley's Morning Exercise at Cripplegate, 1661, and to Nathaniel Vincent's Morning Exercise against Popery, 1675. His Select Works were edited for the Wycliffe Society by Basil Henry Cooper and John Blackburn, 1846.

Personal life

Clarkson married Lady Elizabeth Holcroft, daughter of Sir Henry Holcroft and the former Lettice Aungier. Thomas Ridgley's funeral sermon for his daughter Gertrude was printed in 1701. David Clarkson and Lettice Aungier gave birth to:
The Rev. Clarkson died on 14 June 1686.