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Family and Education
b. 8 Feb. 1676, 1st s. of Sir John Clerk, 1st Bt., MP [S], of Penicuik by his 1st w. Elizabeth, da. of Dr Henry Henderson of Elvingston, Haddington. educ. Penicuik sch. (Alexander Strauchan) 1686–93; Glasgow Univ. 1693–4; Leyden 1695, J. Dr. 1697; travelled abroad (Italy, France, Low Countries) 1697–9; adv. 1700. m. 6 Mar. 1701 (with £2,000), Lady Margaret (d. 21 Dec. 1701), da. of Alexander Stewart, 3rd Earl of Galloway [S], sis. of Hon. John Stewart*, 1s. d.v.p. ; (2) 15 Feb. 1709 (with 14,000 merks), Janet (d. 1760), da. of Sir John Inglis, 2nd Bt., of Cramond, Midlothian, 9s. (4 ) 7da. (1 ). suc. gdfa. at Elvingston bef. 1710, fa. as 2nd Bt. 10 Mar. 1722. Album Studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae ed. Du Rieu, 738; SRO, Clerk of Penicuik mss GD18/1875.
Offices Held

Burgess, Edinburgh 1700, Whithorn 1702, Wigtown, Ayr 1705, Dumfries, Aberdeen, Montrose, Dundee, Stirling 1708, Queensferry 1716, Glasgow 1720, Sanquhar 1729, Musselburgh 1739. Clerk of Penicuik mss GD18/2046–8, 2052–6, 2059, 2061–2, 5246/1/13, burgess tickets; Scot. Rec. Soc. lvi. 353.

MP [S] Whithorn 1703–7.

Commr. public accts. [S] 1703–5.

Commr. union with England 1706, Equivalent [S] 1707–9; baron of exchequer [S] (for life) 1708; Prince’s commr. [S] 1724, 1731, 1742; trustee, fisheries and manufactures [S] 1727–d. P. W. J. Riley, Eng. Ministers and Scotland, 214–15.

Extraord. dir. R. Bank of Scotland 1727–8. N. Munro, Hist. R. Bank of Scotland, 406.

FRS 1729.

Parlimentarian
CLERK, John (1676-1755), of Penicuik, Midlothian.
Main residence: Penicuik, Midlothian.
Notes

Unless otherwise stated this article is based on Clerk’s ‘History of My Life’ (Scot. Hist. Soc. ser. 1, xiii), to which specific reference is occasionaly made in the text. The only full-scale modern biography, I. D. Brown, ‘Sir John Clerk of Penicuik (1676-1755): aspects of a virtuoso life’ (Camb. Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1980), focuses on the intellectual development of its subject.

Author
D.W.H.
Volume
Commons 1690-1715
Web Title

CLERK, John (1676-1755)

Will
Estates
Oxford 1644
No
Addresses
Religion
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