Nicholas Timothy Clerk

This article is about the Gold Coast-born theologian, clergyman and missionary, Nicholas Timothy Clerk. For his grandson, the Ghanaian academic, administrator and Presbyterian minister, see Nicholas T. Clerk. For the English politician from the Middle Ages, see Nicholas Clerk.

The Reverend
Nicholas Timothy Clerk
Nicholas Timothy Clerk
Born(1862-10-28)28 October 1862
Aburi, Gold Coast
Died16 August 1961(1961-08-16) (aged 98)
Accra, Ghana
Nationality
Education
Occupations
Spouse
Anna Alice Meyer
​
​
(m. 1891; died 1934)​
Children9, including Carl, Jane, Theodore and Matilda
Parents
Relatives
Church
Offices held
Orders
OrdinationKorntal, 1888
Consecration5 July 1888, Basel Minster

Nicholas Timothy Clerk (28 October 1862[1][2][3] – 16 August 1961[4]) was a Gold Coast theologian, clergyman and pioneering missionary of the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society in southeast colonial Ghana.[4] His father was the Jamaican Moravian missionary and teacher, Alexander Worthy Clerk (1820 – 1906),[4] who worked extensively on the Gold Coast with the Basel Mission and co-founded in 1843 the Salem School, a Presbyterian boarding middle school for boys.[5] Born on the Gold Coast, N. T. Clerk was elected the first Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast, in effect, the chief ecclesiastical officer, equivalent to the chief administrator, leading the overall strategic operations of the national Reformed Protestant church organisation, a position he held from 1918 to 1932.[4][6][7][8] A staunch advocate of secondary education, Nicholas Timothy Clerk became a founding father of the all-boys Presbyterian boarding school in Ghana, the Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School, established in 1938.[9][10] As Synod Clerk, he pushed vigorously for and was instrumental in turning the original idea of a church mission high school into reality.[9][10]

  1. ^ "To Dr. C. Huppenbauer Agogo. In memory of the 10th birthday of Rev. N. T. Clerk at Adawso on the 28th Oct. 1932. - BM Archives". www.bmarchives.org. Archived from the original on 16 April 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  2. ^ Jena, Geographische gesellschaft (für Thüringen) zu (1890). Mitteilungen der Geographischen gesellschaft (für Thüringen) zu Jena (in German). G. Fischer. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :25 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c d "Clerk, Nicholas Timothy, Ghana, Basel Mission". www.dacb.org. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Osu Salem". osusalem.org. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  6. ^ Nkansa-Kyeremateng, K. (2003). The Presbyterian Church of Ghana: History and Impact. Accra: Sebewie Publishers. pp. 97–99.
  7. ^ Boadi-Siaw, S. Y. (2013). "Black Diaspora Expatriates in Ghana Before Independence". Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana (15): 129. ISSN 0855-3246. JSTOR 43855014.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b "PRESEC | ALUMINI PORTAL". www.odadee.net (in Russian). Archived from the original on 30 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  10. ^ a b "70 Years of excellent secondary education" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2017.