Bishops and Clerks

There was a local tradition that the name arose from the sixteenth century wreck of a fleet of merchant ships from which there were only three survivors: Miles Bishop, James Clerk and Henry Clerk. However, this derivation is now thought to be unlikely and that the name probably comes from there being a larger island surrounded by smaller islands. Similar names are used for islands in the Isles of Scilly and for the Bishop and Clerk Islets in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The islands are named as in the manuscript Sailing Directions for the Circumnavigation of England which dates from the middle fifteenth century or earlier. An ecclesiastical link is supported by the Pembrokeshire…