Clerk, Sir John

1676-1755

Sir John Clerk of Penicuik was educated at the universities of Glasgow and Leiden before embarking on the Grand Tour. Between 1697 and 1699 he visited the courts of Germany, as well as the cities of Vienna, Venice, Rome, Naples, Florence and Paris. During the eighteen months he spent in Rome he came under the tutelage of the composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli. John became highly proficient at violin and harpsichord and went on to compose five cantatas in his lifetime. However, this talent was only suitable as a hobby for a man of his social rank. In 1700 he was called to the Bar and he acted as one of the Commissioners for the Treaty of Union seven years later. His appointment as Baron of the Exchequer ensured that he had the freedom to pursue his other interests. These included collecting Roman antiquities from Scottish excavations, landscape gardening, improvement of his landed estates, poetry and writing. He encouraged the architect William Adam, who built his fashionable house at Mavisbank, and whose sons, Adam and James, later became celebrated architects in their own right. John was popular in polite Scottish society both for his largesse and his impeccable taste.

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