Clerk, John
NAME:
Clerk, John of Eldin
ACHIEVEMENTS:
The first important innovative study of British naval tactics.
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
10 December 1728, Penicuik, Scotland
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:
10 May 1812, Eldin, nr Lasswade, Scotland. Aged 84
DISCIPLINE:
Businessman. Artist.
FIELD:
Business. Art
LANGUAGE:
English
PARENTS:
Father: Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Bt.
Mother: Lady Margaret Stuart
SIBLINGS:
SPOUSE:
Susannah Adam
CHILDREN:
1 son: John, Lord Eldin
4 daughters
EDUCATION:
Dalkeith Grammar School
MAJOR WORK:
“Essay on Naval Tactics” (1804)
LIFE AND TIMES:
Clerk was the seventh son of a baronet and after leaving school became a clothier with a business on the high street in Edinburgh. He developed an interest in drawings and in the 1740’s took lessons under the artist Paul Sandby, then well-known as a draughtsman. In 1753 Clerk married the daughter of Adam* the architect, whose family were close friends with the Clerks.
Ten years later, Clerk had made enough money to buy the Pendrick coal fields near Lasswade, and on land nearby he built a house which he called Eldin. He retired from the clothing trade to run his estate and sell the coal and its by-products.
By now he was also a keen topographical artist and executed a large number of landscapes and pictures of historical buildings in Scotland. He became known as one of the best topographers working in Scotland and in the 1770’s, after he began etching in copper, he was the only Scottish etcher producing landscapes in the picturesque manner. Although he was only an amateur artist, sets of his prints were sold in Edinburgh. He later switched to aquatint after Adam had tutored him about that process in 1782.
Another of Clerk’s great interests was naval affairs. He advised on docks and ports, and was consulted by the Admiralty on a number of subjects. Naturally, he followed all the news about the British Navy and through studying reports of sea battles the British had lost, he developed innovative ideas about tactics.
At that time, the method of attack dictated that a fleet would line up in battle formation before an engagement in which each ship of the line engaged with a enemy ship. Warships often literally paired off for battle. In 1702, Shovel* had laid down that where two fleets were more or less equally matched there could be no decisive result in a battle.
Clerk’s idea was radically different. He advised attacking small sections of the enemy’s line and overwhelming selected ships before the rest of the enemy line could come round and support them. With, for instance, two ships on the bow and quarter of an enemy ship, or one on either side of a ship, plus reinforcements to windward if possible, there was little chance that the enemy ship would not be defeated. Clerk’s ideas became known to many people by being circulated in manuscript form among his friends and by being privately printed in 1782.
The complete essay was finally published some years later (1804). There was a great deal of dispute at the time about Clerk’s claim to have influenced the conduct of the victorious sea battle fought by Rodney* in the West Indies. More important, Clerk’s book was studied by Nelson* who brilliantly deployed Clerk’s ideas.
Clerk was a great friend of the geologist James Hutton* and in the 1780’s they went on geological expeditions on which Clerk drew specimens and topographical details for Hutton. The third planned volume of Hutton’s “Theory of the Earth” was to be illustrated by Clerk’s drawings which were designed to be engraved. Hutton dedicated the presentation copy of the book to Clerk but Hutton’s text was lost and it was never published.
ASSESSMENT: Clerk is remembered today for his treatise on naval tactics which changed the way in which the British Navy deployed their ships in battle.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: John Clerk, businessman and amateur naval tactician
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Bertram, G. Geoffrey, Introduction to exhibition: “John Clerk of Eldin,” Scottish Arts Council, Edinburgh, 1978
Padfield, Peter, Nelson’s War, Wordsworth Military Library, Wordsworth editions, Ware, Hertfordshire, 2000