CLERKE, John I (c.1618-bef. 1646), of Rochester and Ulcombe, Kent.

Clerke’s obscurity reflects the fact that he was only in the early stages of a legal career at his untimely death. He was the eldest son of Henry Clerke†, a Middle Temple lawyer of some distinction, who served as reader in 1629 and became a serjeant at law in 1637, but whose public career was dominated by the affairs of his native Rochester, where he served as town clerk and recorder (1616-37) and as MP in 1621, 1625 and 1626. It was during, and because of, his father’s tenure as reader that Clerke was himself admitted to the Middle Temple in 1629, although he was not called to the bar until June 1641, when he was admitted to the chamber of George Villiers, future 4th Viscount Grandison, and son of the sometime lord president of Munster, Sir Edward Villiers†.6M. Temple Admiss. i. 122, 130; MTR ii. 745, 908-9; CP.

Although Clerke’s father would live until 1652, and would support the parliamentarian cause during the civil wars, he appears to have made way for his son at Rochester in the Short Parliament. However, Clerke made no recorded impression on the proceedings of the House, while his father evidently assisted the deliberations of the committee for elections, regarding the contest at East Grinstead.7Aston’s Diary, 152. Clerke did not retain his seat in the Long Parliament, and there is little further extant evidence relating to his activity and whereabouts. He was recorded as being absent from the Middle Temple in both October 1641 and November 1642, and his name does not reappear in their records until February 1646, when his brother took the chamber vacated by his death.8MTR, ii. 912, 928, 938. The precise date and circumstances of Clerke’s death are unknown, and it is unclear whether his absence from London and subsequent demise reflected service in either the parliamentarian or royalist cause. The family estate eventually passed to Sir Francis Clerke†, who represented Rochester from 1661 to 1678.9HP Commons 1660-90.