Description:
On the wall of the Yorkshire Bank, at the King Lane elevation.
History:
The plaque was placed on the site of James Cook’s birthplace on 16th November 2004, the 220th anniversary of his death.
As the town celebrated this day a red ensign flew over Clitheroe Castle, and about 60 people attended an official reception was held in the Civic Suite.
Inscription:
CAPTAIN JAMES KING
FRS, LLD
1750-1784
was born on this site
Sometime pupil of Clitheroe Royal Grammar School
he joined the Royal Navy at age 12.
Friend and colleague of Captain Cook on that
navigator’s last fatal voyage, he helped to map the
Pacific Ocean and prove the use of the Marine
Chronometers in the calculation of Longitude.
He served with distinction as Captain of HMS Crocodile
and Resistance, fighting alongside Nelson in the
West Indies.
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society and honorary
Doctor of Divinity at Oxford,
he died in Nice, 16th November 1784.
GPS Coordinates: 53.871638, -2.412970
References:
Cook’s Log, page 13, vol. 27, no. 4 (2004)
Cook’s Log, page 45, vol. 28, no. 1 (2005)
Ragnall, Steve, 2013. Better Conceiv’d than Describ’d. Leicester. Troubador Publishing.
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