The Clerkes

Agnes Mary Clerke, born on 10 February 1842 in Skibbereen, Co. Cork, was the second of three children of John William Clerke, manager of the Provincial Bank in that town, and his wife Catherine Mary née Deasy (Figure 1.1).

The Clerkes were a well-known and extensive family in West Cork. According to one account, the founder of the line was a major in King William's army who stayed on in Ireland after 1691. In the nineteenth century the Clerke family records yield a remarkable number of highly talented persons. Agnes' grandfather, St John Clerke, was a much loved physician in Skibbereen; his cousin was the renowned Dr Jonathon Clerke of Bandon. The latter's son, Major Sir Thomas Henry Shadwell Clerke, was made a knight of the Royal Hanoverian Order after service in the Peninsular War, and became a military journalist. He took a keen interest in the sciences and in 1823 became a founder member of the Royal Astronomical Society, to which Agnes Clerke was to be elected some 90 years later. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Geographical Society. He was made Foreign Secretary of the latter society on account of his linguistic prowess. Among other noted members of the Clerke clan in the nineteenth century was Skibbereen-born Thomas W. Clerke, LTD, Judge of the Supreme Court in the USA, author of important treatises on law and co-founder in 1841 of the Irish Emigrant Society.