There has been one creation of baronets with the surname Clerk (as distinct from Clark and Clarke and Clerke). It was created in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia by Letters Patent dated March 24, 1679, for John Clerk of Pennycuik, whose father, also John Clerk, had returned from Paris in 1647 with a considerable fortune and purchased the lands of Pennycuik in Midlothian. The 1st Baronet acquired the lands of Lasswade, Midlothian, in 1700.

The family are said by Anderson (1867) to date from at least 1180 when one of them appeared as a witness to a donation to Holyrood Abbey by William The Lion. John Scougal is known to have painted at least two portraits of the first baronets.

Clerk of Penicuik (1679)

• Sir John Clerk, 1st Baronet (d. 1722)
• Sir John Clerk, 2nd Baronet (1676 - 1755)
• Sir James Clerk, 3rd Baronet (d. 1782) without issue.
• Sir George Clerk-Maxwell, 4th Baronet (1715 - 1784) succeeded his brother.
• Sir John Clerk, 5th Baronet (d. 1798) without issue.
• Sir George Clerk, 6th Baronet (b. 1785) nephew of the 5th Bt.
• Sir James Clerk, 7th Baronet
• Sir George Douglas Clerk, 8th Baronet
• Sir George James Robert Clerk, 9th Baronet
• Sir John Dutton Clerk, 10th Baronet
• Sir Robert Maxwell Clerk, 11th Baronet

References

• Anderson, William, The Scottish Nation, Edinburgh, 1867, vol.iii, p.652-4.

See also

• Clark Baronets
• Clarke Baronets
• Clerke Baronets