John Clarke and His Legacies is the first full-length biography of John Clarke (1609-76), a principal founder of colonial Rhode Island. Although Roger Williams usually gets most of the attention, Sydney James shows that Clarke made a lasting contribution to the colony--perhaps more so than Williams. Williams was the first Baptist minister in America, but he left his church after a very short time. And although Williams won the first charter for Rhode Island, the charter soon had to be replaced. Clarke, however, founded the first Baptist church in Newport, where he continued to...