Joshua G. Clarke

Joshua G. Clarke (c. 1780-1828) was one of the first justices on the Supreme Court of Mississippi.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Born c. 1780 in Maryland,^[1]: 1 and raised in Pennsylvania,^[2] Clarke was a member of the territorial legislature and of the constitutional convention as the representative of Claiborne county.^[2]

Clarke served on the Supreme Court of Mississippi from its first session in June 1818 until 1821.^[1]: 2 Among other rulings, Clarke judged that killing a slave was murder because slaves were "reasonable creatures", and voted that slaves became freedmen by having lived in the Northwest Territory under the Ordinance of 1787.^{[1]: 1 [3]} In 1821, he resigned his position on the Supreme Court to become the first chancellor of the Mississippi Chancery Courts, serving until his death in 1828.^[4]

His home, Claremont (Port Gibson, Mississippi), built by him in 1826, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.