CLARKE, or CLERKE, Jeremy, president-regent of Rhode Island, lived in the 17th century. He was an elder of Pocasset and one of the original settlers of Newport in 1639, was elected constable of the new plantation on 12 March, 1640, became treasurer of the province in May, 1647, was continued in that office, and chosen as one of the president's assistants the following year. When William Coddington, the president-elect, a royalist who desired to separate the island from the other towns and unite it to Plymouth, neglected to enter upon the office and to meet the charges brought against him in the assembly, Clarke, who was one of the leaders of the dominant Republican Party, was selected by that body to fill the place provisionally, with the title of president-regent, until the following May, when John Smith, of Warwick, was regularly elected.