Quick Facts
Biography
Sir George Clerk of Pennycuik, 6th Baronet FRSE FRS PC DL (19 November 1787 – 23 December 1867) was a Scottish politician who served as the Tory MP for Edinburghshire, Stamford and Dover.
Background
Clerk was the son of Cpt. James Clerk (d.1793), third son of Sir George Clerk-Maxwell, 4th Baronet and Janet Irving. He was born near Edinburgh. He studied at the High School in Edinburgh and then went to Oxford University, graduating DCL in 1810.
Political career
Clerk sat as Member of Parliament for Edinburghshire from 1811 to 1832 and again from 1835 to 1837, for Stamford from 1838 to 1847 and then for Dover from 1847 to 1852. He served as one of the Commissioners of Weights and Measures from 1818 to 1821. He held political office as a Lord of the Admiralty from 1819 to 1830 (from 1827 to 1828 he was a member of the Council of the Lord High Admiral (The Duke of Clarence), as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 5 August to 22 November 1830, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from November 1834 to April 1835, as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from September 1841 to February 1845. In 1845 he was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Vice-President of the Board of Trade and Master of the Mint, posts he held until the fall of the Tory administration in 1846. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant for Edinburghshire.
Other positions of note
- President of the Zoological Society 1862-1867
- Chairman of the Royal Academy of Music
Later life
In 1812 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposers being Thomas Charles Hope, Sir George Stewart MacKenzie and John Playfair. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1819.
Family
Clerk married Maria Anne Law (1788-1866), the daughter of Ewan Law MP, brother of Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough, in 1810.
He died in December 1867, aged 80, at Penycuik House, Midlothian. He is buried in the local churchyard, close to his parents' mausoleum in St. Mungo's Churchyard in Penicuik. His wife lies with him.
His brother John Clerk-Maxwell of Middlebie, advocate, was father of the mathematical physicist James Clerk-Maxwell.
His sister Isabella married the sometime Solicitor General for Scotland, James Wedderburn (1782-1822) of the Wedderburn baronets.