CLERCK, HANS [SSNE 2821]

Surname: CLERCK
First name: HANS, JOHN, JOHAN
Title/rank: GOLDSMITH
Nationality: SCOTO-SWEDISH
Region: STOCKHOLM
Religion: LUTHERAN

Text source

Hans Clerck (1640-1679) was probably a son of Alexander Clerck [SSNE 788]. Alexander followed his father's and step-father's craft and became a goldsmith, also in Stockholm where he could be found working throughout the reign of Queen Kristina (1632-1654). Alexander married Cathrina and had at least one son, Jacob [SSNE 736] (born April 1667), who studied in Uppsala in 10/02/1683 and went on to become a lawyer. It was probably his daughter Katarina who was baptised in Nikolai Kyrka on 26 June 1664.

Hans Clerck became a master goldsmith on 6 April 1665, although he had already been appointed a court goldsmith a year earlier. He was a burgess of Stockholm (admitted 17 May 1678) and he in turn had a son Jacob [SSNE 1174] who became Mayor of Visby (in the Visby archives a file exists on this man which notes his Scottish origins). In 1666 Hans married the sister of the Swedish Admiralty's Master Baker Petter Lorentz (originally from Husum, Holstein) who served from 1669-1675. One of Hans's sons also became a baker and is noted as a journeyman baker in 1715 and as living in Norrmalm as a former journeyman baker. In 1677 Hans married Margareta Hansdotter Fahlgren.

Apparently Hans Clerck's most well-known piece were the silver book bindings he created to contain the report handed over to King Karl XI when he gained his majority and gained full control of the Swedish Crown in 1672. Hans Clerck also created various pieces of sacred silverware, one of which is in the possession of the National Museum of Sweden. In 1954 the Nordiska Museum received a donation of a silver box stamped HC from an antiques dealer in England.

Hans Clerck paid some 130,000 daler to the widow of Henrik De Try in November 1678 in return for the former’s steelworks in Gusum (placing him, coincidently, next to the Gusum Brass factory, later owned by George Spalding). However, written into his contract was a clause stating that Clerck could not use these steelworks for a three-year period. The case shows, if nothing else, that Clerck had the spare cash to buy the factory and wait a period of time for his investment to mature.

Hans Clerck died in 1679.

Sources: Stockholm Stadsarkiv, (Storkyrkan) Nikolai församling dopböker, 1623-1717, I, p.362; tockholm Stadsarkiv: Borgare i Stockholm. Register 1651-1688, p.141; Svenska Adelns Ättatavlor, vol. II, p.24; Landsarkiv i Visby, ViLA/10325, Jacob Clerck's Arkiv (p.35); Kersti Holmquist, 'Ett Silverskrin Från Stormaktstiden', Fataburen 1954, pp.173-182. G. Upmark, Guld och silversmeder i sverige 1520-1850, (Tisell, 1925). Svenska Riksrådets Protokoll: Ny Följd, II, 1678-1679, 1682, pp.45-46, 11 November 1678; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), p.185. Jonas Berg, 'Amiralitets bagare i Stockholm', Sjöhistoriskasamfundet, p.30

Service record

SWEDEN, STOCKHOLM: Arrived 1640-01-01; Departed 1679-12-31; Capacity BURGESS GOLDSMITH, purpose COMMERCIAL, TRADE, CIVIC