{{Short description|English missionary and surgeon}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{use British English|date=April 2014}}
{{infobox clergy | name = Clark Bentom | image_name = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | nationality = | citizenship = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Circa|1774}}<!-- {{Birth date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Birth date|YYYY|MM|DD}} if dead --> | birth_place = | death_date = {{Circa|1820}}<!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} death date first, then birth date --> | death_place = | death_cause = | church = | other_names = | years_active = | occupation = Missionary, surgeon | education = | ordained = | religion = Presbyterian-style ministry | writings = | congregations = | offices_held = | title = | spouse = | children = | parents = | relations = }} '''Clark Bentom''' ({{circa|1774}}{{spaced ndash}} {{circa|1820}}) was an English missionary and surgeon, who was a missionary in Canada at Quebec City, Quebec, from 1800 to 1805.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=John|title=The colonial missions of Congregationalism : the story of seventy years|publisher=Published for the Colonial Missionary Society by the Congregational Union of England & Wales|year=1908|location=London|pages=9}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite DCB |title=BENTOM, CLARK |first=Cyril Stewart |last=Cook |volume=V |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/bentom_clark_5E.html |access-date=2021-12-02}}</ref>
As a young man, Bentom was a footman to William Wilberforce.<ref name=":0" /> He was accepted into the London Missionary Society in 1798.<ref name=":0" /> In that year, he sailed for Tahiti with other missionaries on the Duff, but the ship was captured by French privateers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=GREGORY (Missionary) |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0RfAAAAcAAJ&dq=Clark+Bentom+captured+Duff&pg=PA147 |title=A visible display of Divine Providence; or the Journal of a captured missionary, designated to the Southern Pacific Ocean ... in the years 1798 and 1799. With extracts from the Journals of P. Levesque, J. Hill, J. Jones, J. Levesque, etc |date=1800 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxZBAAAAcAAJ&dq=Spence+Broughton+missionary&pg=PA61 |title=The History of the London Missionary Society: Comprising an Account of the Origin of the Society; Biographical Notices of Some of Its Founders and Missionaries; with a Record of Its Progress at Home and Its Operations Abroad; Compiled from Original Doxuments in the Possession of the Society |date=1844 |publisher=Snow |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=djQNAQAAIAAJ |title=First [and Second] Missionary Voyage[s] to the South-Sea: Performed in the Years 1796, 1797 and 1798 in the Ship Duff, Commanded of the Missionary Society |date=1805 |publisher=J. Cundee |language=en}}</ref> The crew and missionaries were released and arrived back in London in 1799.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kirk |first=Robert Wm |title=Paradise past : the transformation of the South Pacific, 1520-1920 |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers |isbn=978-0-7864-9298-5 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |oclc=817224972}}</ref>
Along with another missionary from that voyage, Bentom then sailed for Canada. He reached Quebec on 1 June 1800.<ref name=":1" /> In Canada, Bentom had a congregation and conducted a Presbyterian-style ministry with varied success. He also occasionally practised surgery. He was not accepted by the established clergy in the city and was eventually jailed for performing baptisms, marriages and burials without authorization for civil registers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=BENTOM (Missionary.)|first=Clark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0xFlAAAAcAAJ|title=A Statement of Fact and Law relative to the Prosecution of the Rev. Clark Bentom ... for the assumption of the office of a Dissenting Minister ... in Quebec, by the King's Attorney General of Lower Canada|date=1804|publisher=For the Author|language=en}}</ref> His time in Quebec was notable in advancing the rights of non-Catholics and non-Anglicans to worship in freedom and be protected by law.<ref name=":0" />
In 1805, he returned to England. He petitioned the House of Commons concerning the actions taken against him by the colonial authorities, but the outcome is not recorded.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Lovett|first=Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hPHYAAAAMAAJ&dq=clark+bentom&pg=PA630|title=India. West Indies. China. Missions abandoned. Home affairs: 1821-1895. Appendices: I. A complete list of the missionaries of the London Missionary Society who have laboured in India, the West Indies, Ultra-Ganges, China, North and South America, and other countries. II. Plan and constitution of the London Missionary Society, established in 1795. III. Analysis of the income and expenditure of the London Missionary Society from 1796 to 1895|date=1899|publisher=H. Frowde|pages=630–631|language=en}}</ref> Nor did he receive support from the London Missionary Society.<ref name=":0" />
Bentom left the society, and enlisted in the Royal Navy as a ship's surgeon.<ref name=":0" />
He is thought to have died in Jamaica, circa 1820.<ref name=":0" />
Correspondence and other documents by Bentom are held in the Council of World Missions Archive, at the library of SOAS University of London.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CWM – Council for World Mission Archive |url=http://archives.soas.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=CWM |access-date=2022-04-27 |website=SOAS University of London Archive Catalog}}</ref>
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==See also== {{Portal|Biography|Reformed Christianity|England|Medicine|Canada}} * List of Christian missionaries * List of English people * List of surgeons * Religion in Canada
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bentom, Clark}} Category:Place of birth missing Category:Year of death uncertain Category:Place of death missing Category:1774 births Category:1820 deaths Category:18th-century English medical doctors Category:18th-century Protestant religious leaders Category:19th-century Protestant religious leaders Category:English Presbyterian missionaries Category:Protestant missionaries in Canada Category:British missionaries in Canada Category:18th-century surgeons Category:19th-century English surgeons {{UK-Christian-clergy-stub}} {{England-med-bio-stub}} {{England-reli-bio-stub}}