Clarke (James Freeman) is born in Hanover, New Hampshire.

The son of Samuel and Rebecca (Hull) Clarke and step-grandson of Rev. James Freeman, James Freeman Clarke graduates from Boston Latin School, Harvard College, and Harvard Divinity School, serves initially as a minister in Louisville, Kentucky, and marries Anna Huidekoper. Clarke returns to Boston in 1841, moves to 58 Pinckney Street, and in 1848* founds the Church of the Disciples, where he serves as pastor for 45 years. Also a professor of religion at Harvard, he becomes a leading Transcendentalist, abolitionist, and social reformer. Clarke subsequently moves to Jamaica Plain and dies there on June 8, 1888.