American patriot clergyman, born in Newton, MA, on the 25th of December 1730; died in Lexington, MA, on the 15th of November 1805. After graduating at Harvard, in 1752, he became pastor of a church in Lexington, where he spent his life. Edward Everett said of Mr. Clark that he “rendered services second to no other in enlightening and animating the popular mind on the great question at issue in Revolutionary times.” John Hancock and Samuel Adams were at the house of Mr. Clark on the night of April 18, 1775, when Paul Revere took his famous ride and warned them, among others, of the danger at hand. These two men asked Mr. Clark if his people would fight. “I have trained them for this very hour; they would fight, and if need be die too, under the shadow of the house of God,” he replied. The first blood of the Revolution was shed near his house, April 19, 1775, and when he saw the dead heroes he exclaimed, “From this day will be dated the liberty of the world!”
