Born in 1738, son of John Clerk, a printer, said to have been descended from Alexander Clerke, Lord Provost of Edinburgh at the commencement of the seventeenth century. About the age of seventeen, after finishing his apprenticeship, married Barbara, daughter of John Williamson, farmer at Bellside, near Linlithgow. He was sued in 1773 by William Johnston of London for selling pirated editions of Henry Brooke's “Fool of Quality” and Smollett's “Humphry Clinker”. In 1789 he sold off his stock and retired to Newhaven, where he owned a property known as 'The Whale', after his wife died in 1800, he lodged with his tenant Mrs Duguid who was running 'The Whale' as an inn. He died in 1810.
More Information
Dates of Activity1768-1805
Activitybookseller and bookbinder
bookbinder (1805)
Online Resourcehttp://www.nls.uk/ Scottish Book Trade Index online (list)
Place of Activity
Place of ActivityEdinburgh; Parliament House (1768 - 1784)
Edinburgh; Parliament House and Kincaid's Land Cowgate (1773 - 1805)