![Aclerk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Aclerk.jpg)
Archibald Clerk (1813–1887) was a minister of the established
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
and one of the leading
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...
scholars of the Victorian era.
Biography
Archibald Clerk was the elder son of Duncan Clerk, a farmer on the
Argyll
Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland.
Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...
island of
Lismore and his wife Margaret Carmichael. Admitted to
Glasgow University
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Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
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at the age of 13, Clerk studied the Classics and was licensed as a minister in 1835, aged 22.
He became Assistant Minister at St Columba’s Kirk in Glasgow under the guidance of The Rev
Norman MacLeod (1783-1862) otherwise known as Caraid nan Gaidheal, a leading member of the Gaelic intelligencia. Clerk married MacLeod’s daughter, Jessie, in 1840 and together they had eleven children.
He became Minister of
Acharacle
Acharacle (, gd, text=Àth Tharracail) is a village in Ardnamurchan, Lochaber, within the county of Argyll. It is in the Highland Council area of Scotland.
The place name is rendered ''Àth Tharracail'' in Scottish Gaelic, and means "Tarracal's ...
before moving to
Duirinish on the Island of Skye in 1840 where he wrote that parish’s entry in the
New Statistical Account of Scotland
The ''Statistical Accounts of Scotland'' are a series of documentary publications, related in subject matter though published at different times, covering life in Scotland in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
The ''Old (or First) Statistical Ac ...
of 1845.
In 1844 Clerk was called to what was then the biggest parish in Scotland, the Parish of
Kilmallie
Kilmallie ( gd, Cill Mhàilidh) is a civil parish in Lochaber, in the west highlands of Scotland. It is centered on the village of Caol, near Fort William and extends to Banavie and Corpach. It gives its name to the local shinty club, Kilmallie Sh ...
, then partly in
Argyll
Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland.
Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...
and partly in Inverness-shire. The previous minister, Thomas Davidson, had come out of the established church during the
Disruption of 1843
The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland.
The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...
, and taken two thirds of the congregation with him to the
Free Church of Scotland Free Church of Scotland may refer to:
* Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), seceded in 1843 from the Church of Scotland. The majority merged in 1900 into the United Free Church of Scotland; historical
* Free Church of Scotland (since 1900), rema ...
. Clerk inherited a situation where bitterness over the religious arguments was exacerbated by hostility to the heritors, or landlords, over evictions of highland peasants from their landholdings. An ecclesiastical moderate and a conciliator by nature, Clerk worked hard in the following forty-three years to build bridges and ameliorate ill feelings.
During the
potato famine that afflicted the Highlands in the late 1840s Clerk collaborated with his father-in-law, the Rev
Norman MacLeod on famine relief schemes.
Clerk edited “Fear-tathaich nam Beann”, the Gaelic supplement of the Church of Scotland’s magazine, “Life and Work”.
In 1855 he published a "Memoir of Colonel
John Cameron of Fassiefern
Colonel John Cameron of Fassiefern (1771–1815) of Fassiefern, Inverness-shire, was a celebrated Scottish military commander of the Napoleonic wars. He was a cousin of the Camerons of Lochiel.
Cameron served as Colonel of the Gordon Highland ...
", an important commander in
The Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...
’s army, killed at
Quatre Bras
Quatre Bras (, French for crossroads; literally "four arms") is a hamlet in the municipality of Genappe, Wallonia, Belgium. It lies on the crossroad of the Charleroi-Brussels road (currently named N5) and the Nivelles-Namur road south of Genappe ...
on the eve of
The Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh C ...
. He worked with Dr T. MacLachlan to publish a corrected version of the Gaelic bible in 1880. As minister of Kilmallie he ensured that Gaelic teaching took place in the schools under his supervision. He edited the poems of
Ossian
Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora'' (1763), and later combined under t ...
in Gaelic with a translation into English (1870) and was awarded an honorary LL.D by Glasgow University.
Alexander Carmichael
Alexander Carmichael (full name Alexander Archibald Carmichael or Alasdair Gilleasbaig MacGilleMhìcheil in his native Scottish Gaelic; 1 December 1832, Taylochan, Isle of Lismore – 6 June 1912, Barnton, Edinburgh) was a Scottish excise ...
collected Ossianic fragments for Clerk. Both men, but especially Clerk, believed in the authenticity of MacPherson's ''Ossian''
Clerk was among the clergy approached by the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
to help with their study of erratic boulders as they sought to prove that Scotland had been subject to
glaciation
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...
. His help is acknowledged in the Society's reports. He did some of this work with Colin Livingstone, head teacher of Fort William Secondary School, who was the lead researcher in the district on this matter.
["Sixth Report of the Boulders Committee of the Royal Society of Edinburgh" (Edinburgh, 1880)]
![Archibald Clerk window](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Archibald_Clerk_window.jpg)
Clerk died in 1887 and is buried in Kilmallie churchyard in
Corpach
Corpach ( gd, A' Chorpaich) is a large village north of Fort William, in the Scottish Highlands. The canal lock at Corpach Basin on Loch Linnhe, east of the narrows leading to Loch Eil, is the western sea entrance of the Caledonian Canal. It is ...
near
Fort William. There is a memorial stained glass window by to him in Kilmallie Church. Jessie, his wife, died in 1897 and is buried beside him.
His diaries are now held in the Lochaber Archive, Lochaber College,
University of the Highlands and Islands
, type = federal, public
, image_name = UHI Coat of Arms.jpg
, image_size = 150px
, established = 2011 – University status 1992 – UHI Millennium Institute
, chancellor = The Princess Royal
, vice_chancellor =
, budget = £139m (2022 ...
.
See also
* ''
Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Graphic and Accurate Description of Every Place in Scotland'' (Clerk contributed its section on Scotland's Gaelic language and literature)
![Kilmallie Manse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Kilmallie_Manse.jpg)
References
;sources
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clerk, Archibald
1813 births
1887 deaths
19th-century Ministers of the Church of Scotland