CLERK,
a surname, as already stated, derived from the word Clericus,
the designation given in the dark ages to those of the clergy and the
few other persons who acquired the arts of reading and writing, for
the purpose of being able to transcribe the orders of the sovereign,
the sentences of courts, and the acts of the legislature; kings and
nobles, in those remote times, confining their attention almost
exclusively to martial exercises and deeds of arms. Blackstone
observes “that the Judges were usually created out of the sacred
order; and all the inferior offices were supplied by the lower clergy,
which has occasioned their successors to be denominated clerks
to this day.” – Comm. i. 17. “Adam the clerk, son of Philip the
scribe, occurs as the designation of a person mentioned in an ancient
record at Newcastle.” [Lower on English Surnames.] The name of
Clericus was assumed both by those who held such offices, and by their
descendants. Clark and Clarke, the English method of spelling it, are
but variations of the same name. Though the spelling may be different,
the pronunciation is invariable Clark.
The family
from which the Clerks of Pennycuik are descended can be traced as far
back as the year 1180, and the reign of William the Lion.
In the
charter of a donation by King William to the Abbacy of Holyrood-house,
Hugo Clericus regis, Hugo Clericus cancellarii, Johannes Clericus, and
several others, append their names as witnesses.
The
witnesses to such deeds were always of high rank, and, from different
sources it appears that, in early times, there were many Scottish
barons, and proprietors of estates, of this name.
In 1296
Richard Clerk, a considerable freeholder, was compelled to submit to
Edward the First of England, after his invasion of Scotland; while
another baron of the same name, a strenuous defender of the liberties
of his country, scorning to comply with the demands of the usurper,
was carried prisoner to London.
William
Clerk, descended from a branch of this family settled in Perthshire.
He was an eminent merchant and patriot, and attended David the Second
in his unfortunate expedition into England, in 1346. He was taken
prisoner at the battle of Neville’s Cross, near Durham, on the 17th
October of that year, carried to London and retained in captivity
there, until liberated, along with his sovereign, eleven years
afterwards.
John Clerk,
merchant-burgess and chief magistrate of Montrose, became one of the
hostages for the ransom of King David, in 1357.
His family
continued in the direction of the affairs of that ancient burgh for
several centuries, the provost of Montrose, as appears from the books
of council, being of his name and descent down to the reign of Queen
Mary.
The
grandfather of the first proprietor of Pennyeuik, of the name of
Clerk, was possessor of the lands of Kilhuntly, in Badenoch,
Inverness-shire, but having attached himself to the party of Mary,
queen of Scots, in opposition to his superior, the earl of Huntly, he
was obliged to leave that part of the country in 1568.
His son
William became a merchant in Montrose, and died in 1620.
John Clerk,
his son, was born at Montrose in 1611, and was baptized by the bishop
of Caithness, at Fettercairn, 22d December of that year. Being also
bred a merchant, he removed to France in 1634, and settled in Paris.
In 1647 he returned to Scotland, with a considerable fortune, and
purchased the lands and barony of Pennycuik [from the Gaelic words
Bein na Cuachaig, the ‘Hill of the Cuckoo,’] in the county of
Edinburgh, which have ever since remained in possession of his
descendants. He married a daughter of Sir William Gray of Pittendrum,
ancestor of Lord Gray, by whom he had five sons and five daughters.
He was
succeeded in 1674 by his son John, who was created the first baronet
of Pennycuik, by a royal patent from Charles the Second, dated 24th
March 1679. In 1700 he acquired the lands of Lasswade, in the same
county. He died in 1722. He was twice married; first, to Elizabeth,
daughter of Henry Henderson, Esq. of Elvington, by whom he had three
sons and three daughters, and secondly to Christian, daughter of the
Rev. James Kirkpatrick, and had four other sons and four daughters. Of
his eldest son, John, second baronet, a notice follows.
Sir James
Clerk, the third baronet, son of the second, married Elizabeth,
daughter of the Rev. John Cleghorn, but dying in 1782 without issue,
was succeeded by his brother Sir George Clerk-Maxwell, fourth baronet,
of whom also a notice is subsequently given. He married Dorothea,
daughter of his uncle William Clerk-Maxwell, Esq., by his wife Agnes
Maxwell, heiress of Middleby in Dumfries-shire, and had five sons and
four daughters. He died in 1784, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
Sir John Clerk, who died in 1798. He married Mary, daughter of Mr.
Dacre of Kirlington in Cumberland, but had no issue.
His nephew,
the Right Hon. Sir George Clerk, sixth baronet, succeeded. He was the
son of James Clerk, third son of the fourth baronet, by Janet,
daughter of George Irving, Esq. of Newton. He was born in 1787, and
married in 1810, the daughter of Ewan Law, Esq., and niece of the
first Lord Ellenborough. He was a lord of the admiralty from 1819 to
1830, except for a short interval; secretary of the treasury from
November 1834 to April 1835, and again from September 1841 to February
1845. In the latter year he was sworn a member of the privy council.
He became master of the mint, and vice-president of the board of trade
in February 1845, and continued so till July 1846. He represented the
county of Edinburgh in several parliaments previous to 1832, but had
no seat from that time till 1835, when he was again returned for that
county. He sat for Stamford from 1838 to 1847, when he was elected for
Dover. He is a deputy lieutenant of the county of Edinburgh.
On the entry
of Charles the First into Edinburgh, 15th June, 1633, Sir
Alexander Clerk, lord provost, was by his majesty dubbed a knight in
honour of the occasion. A descendant of his, Mr. Robert Clerk, who
died in 1810, was for many years a bookseller and publisher in the
Parliament Square, Edinburgh, an account of whom is given in the
second volume of Kay’s Edinburgh Portraits, page 29.
The Clerks
of Brae-Letham were free barons, and had considerable possessions in
Argyleshire, as far back as the reign of James the Second. There were
also several families of this name in the county of Fife, who had
large possessions, such as the Clerks of Balbirnie, of Pittzoucher,
and of Luthrie, &c. The clan Chattan and some other Highland families
also claim a connection with the Clerks as descended from them.
The family
of Listonshiels in Mid Lothian was a branch of the Pennycuik family.
Robert Clerk, born in 1664, a physician in Edinburgh, and an intimate
froend of the celebrated Dr. Pitcairn, was the fifth and youngest son
of John Clerk, the first proprietor of Pennycuik. His eldest son John,
born in 1689, also studied medicine, and for above thirty years was
the first physician in Scotland. At the institution of the
Philosophical Society in Edinburgh in 1739, he was chosen one of their
two vice-presidents, an office which he enjoyed as long as he lived.
In 1740 he was elected president of the Royal College of Physicians in
Edinburgh, and continued president for four years. He purchased the
lands of Listonshiels and Spittal in Mid Lothian, and got a charter
under the great seal. He died in 1757. He had married in 1720,
Margaret, eldest daughter of Thomas Rattray, Esq. of Craighall Rattray
in Perthshire, by whom he had several children. Robert, the second
son, was a colonel in the army. David, the third, was physician to the
Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. He died in 1768. By his wife Helen,
daughter of James Duff, Esq. of Craigston, Aberdeenshire, he had two
sons, James and Robert. James Clerk, the eldest son, became, in right
of his grandmother, proprietor of Craighall Rattray, and assumed the
surname of Rattray in addition to his own. He distinguished himself at
the Scottish bar as an advocate, and was constituted a baron of the
Exchequer in Scotland. He married in January 1791, Jane, daughter of
Admiral Duff of Fetteresso, and dying 29th August 1831,
left, with one daughter, Jane, a son and successor, Robert Clerk-Rattray,
Esq. of Craighall Rattray. {See RATTRAY, surname of.]
CLERK, SIR JOHN,
second baronet of Pennycuik, author of the humorous Scotch song, ‘O
merry may the maid be that marries the Miller,’ (with the exception of
the first stanza, which belongs to an older song,) and one of the
barons of exchequer in Scotland for nearly half a century, was the son
of the first baronet, by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry
Henderson, Esq. of Elvington, and was born about 1684. He was one of
the commissioners for the Union, and was appointed a baron on the
constitution of the exchequer court 13th May 1708. He
succeeded his father in his title and estates in 1722. He possessed
great learning and accomplishments, and was generally acknowledged to
be one of the most enlightened men of his time. Along with Baron
Scrope, in 1726, he drew up an ‘Historical View of the Forms and
Powers of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland,’ which was printed at
the expense of the barons of Exchequer for private circulation;
Edinburgh 1820, large quarto. Besides two papers in the ‘Philosophical
Transactions,’ (one an ‘Account of the Stylus of the Ancients and
their different sorts of Paper,’ printed in 1731, and the other ‘On
eht effects of Thunder on Trees,’ and ‘Of a large Deer’s Horns found
in the heart of an Oak,’ printed in 1739,) he was the author of a
tract entitled ‘Dissertatio de quibusdam Monumentis Romanis,’ &c.,
written in 1730 and printed in 1750, quarto. For upwards of twenty
years he also carried on a learned correspondence with Roger Gale, the
English antiquary, which forms a portion of the ‘Reliquiae Galeanae,’
in Nichols’ ‘Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica,’ 1782.
Sir John
Clerk was one of the friends and patrons of Allan Ramsay. He “admired
his genius and knew his worth.” During his latter years much of the
poet’s time was spent at Pennycuik-house, and at his death, Sir John
erected at his family seat an obelisk to Ramsay’s memory.
To Sir John
Clerk are ascribed some amatory lines sent to Susanna, daughter of Sir
Archibald Kennedy of Culzean, baronet (ancestor of the marquis of
Ailsa) whom he courted unsuccessfully, as she became the third wife of
Alexander, ninth earl of Eglinton. They were thus entitled: – :Verses
sent anonymously, with a flute, to Miss Susanna Kennedy, afterwards
Countess of Eglintoune, by Sir John Clerk of Pennycook, Baronet.” On
attempting to blow the flute it would not sound, and, on unscrewing
it, the lady found the following: –
“Harmonious pipe, how I envye thy bliss,
When press’d to Sylphia’s lips with gentle
kiss!
And when her tender fingers round thee move
In soft embrace, I listen and approve
Those melting notes, which soothe my soul to
love.
Embalm’d with odours from her breath that
flow,
You yield your music when she’s pleased to
blow;
And thus at once the charming lovely fair
Delights with sounds, with sweets perfumes the
air.
Go happy pipe, and ever mindful be
To court the charming Sylphia for me;
Tell all I feel – you cannot tell too much –
Repeat my love at each soft melting touch;
Since I to her my liberty resign,
Take then the care to tune her heart to mine.”
It was to this
lady that Allan Ramsay, in 1726, dedicated his ‘Gentle Shepherd.’
Sir John
Clerk held the office of one of the barons of exchequer till his
death, which took place at Pennycuik on the 4th of October
1755. He was twice married; first, February 23, 1701, to Lady Margaret
Stewart, eldest daughter of Alexander, third earl of Galloway. She
died December 26th, the same year, in childbed of a son,
John, who died unmarried in 1722. ON the death of ths young man Allan
Ramsay addressed some elegiac verses to his father, Sir John, which
are preserved in his works. He married, secondly, Janet, daughter of
Sir John Inglis, of Cramond, by whom he had seven sons and six
daughters.
CLERK-MAXWELL, SIR
GEORGE,
of Pennycuik, baronet, distinguished for his spirited efforts to
advance the commercial interests of his native country, second son of
the preceding, was born at Edinburgh in October 1715, and studied at
the universities of Edinburgh and Leyden. He established, at
considerable expense, a linen manufactory at Dumfries, and set on foot
many different projects for working lead and copper mines. In 1755 he
addressed two letters to the trustees for fisheries, manufactories,
and improvements in Scotland, containing observations on the common
mode of treating wook in this country, and suggesting a more judicious
scheme of management. These were published by direction of that board
in 1756. He likewise wrote a paper on the advantages of shallow
ploughing, which was read to the Philosophical Society, and is
published in the third volume of their Essays. In 1761 he was
appointed king’s remembrancer in the exchequer, and, in 1763,
commissioner of the customs in Scotland. He was likewise a trustee for
the improvement of the fisheries and manufactures of Scotland. In 1782
he succeeded his elder brother, Sir James Clerk, in the baronetcy. As
already stated, on marrying his cousin, he assumed his wife’s name of
Maxwell, in addition to his own. He died in January 1784.
CLERK, JOHN,
of Eldin, inventor of the modern British system of naval tactics, was
the sixth son of Sir John Clerk of Pennycuik, baronet, and a younger
brother of the preceding. In early life he inherited from his father
the estate of Eldin, in the county of Edinburgh, and married Susannah
Adam, the sister of the two celebrated architects of that name.
Although the longest sail he ever enjoyed was no farther than to the
island of Arran, in the firth of Clyde, he had from his boyhood a
strong passion for nautical affairs, and devoted much of his attention
to the theory and practice of naval tactics. In 1779 he communicated
to some of his friends his new system of breaking the enemy’s line. In
1780 he visited London, and had some conferences with men connected
with the navy, among whom have been mentioned Mr. Richard Atkinson,
the particular friend of Sir George, afterwards Lord, Rodney, and Sir
Charles Douglas. The latter was Rodney’s “captain of the fleet,” in
the memorable action of April 12, 1782, when the experiment was tried
for the first time, and Rodney gained a decisive victory over the
French, under De Grasse, between Dominica and Les Saintes, in the West
Indies. Since that time the principle has been adopted by all the
British admirals, and Howe, St. Vincent, Duncan, and Nelson, owe to
Clerk’s manoeuvre their most signal victories. IN the beginning of
1782, Mr. Clerk, who was a Fellow of the Society of Scottish
Antiquaries, and also of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, printed fifty
copies of his ‘Essay on Naval Tactics.’ which were privately
distributed among his friends. This valuable essay was reprinted and
published in 1790; the second, third, and fourth parts were added in
1797, and the work was republished entire in 1804, with a preface
explaining the origin of his discoveries. Although Lord Rodney, as
appears by a fragmentary life of Clerk, written by Professor Playfair,
published in the Transactions of the “royal Society of Edinburgh,
never concealed in conversation his obligations to Mr. Clerk as the
author of the system, yet the family of that distinguished admiral, in
his memoirs, maintain that no communication of Mr. Clerk’s plan was
ever made to their relative. Sir Howard Douglas, too, has come forward
in various publications to claim the merit of the manoeuvre for his
father, the late Admiral Sir Charles Douglas. The honour of the
suggestion, however, appears to rest indisputably with Mr. Clerk, who
died May 10,. 1812, at an advanced age.
CLERK, JOHN, LORD
ELDIN,
a distinguished lawyer, the son of the preceding, was born in April
1757, and in 1775 was bound apprentice to a writer to the signet. His
original destination had been the civil service in India, and an
appointment in that department had been promised him; but, some
political changes occurring before it was completed, the views of his
friends were disappointed, and he turned his attention to the law. At
first he intended to practise as a writer and accountant; but he soon
abandoned that branch of the profession, and in 1785 was admitted a
member of the Faculty of Advocates. As a lawyer, Mr. Clerk was
remarkable for great clearness of perception, never-failing readiness
and fertility of resource, admirable powers of reasoning, and a quaint
sarcastic humour that gave a zest and flavour to all he uttered. For
many years he had the largest practice at the Scottish bar. In private
life he was distinguished for his social qualities, his varied
accomplishments, his exquisite taste in the fine arts, and his
eccentric manners. He had a large collection of paintings, and at one
period he published a volume of etchings by himself. He was raised to
the bench in 1823, when he assumed the title of Lord Eldin, and died
at Edinburgh in June 1832, aged 74.
Memoirs of the
Life of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik
Baronet Baron of the Exchequer extracted by himself from his own
journals 1676-1755. Edited from the Manuscript in Penicuik House
with an Introduction and Notes, by John M. Gray FSA Scot. (1892) (pdf)
