Sir Alvared CLIFTON Lord of the Manor of Wilford ( - )

1. Sir Alvared de CLIFTON Lord of the Manor of Wilford has few details recorded about him.

 

He was Lord of the Manor of Wilford in the time of William Peveril, son of William the Conqueror.

 

Alvared de CLIFTON had the following children:

 

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Robert de CLIFTON ( - )

Second Generation

2. Sir Robert de CLIFTON Lord of the Manor of Wilford was the son of Sir Alvared de CLIFTON Lord of the Manor of Wilford.

 

(NOTE,—The references made in the following notes to Holles MS. are to the MS. Parentela Hollesiorum written by the antiquary Gervase Holles during his exile in Holland after the Civil War, and now preserved at Longleat. As Holles grandmother, Frances Frescheville of Staveley, was descended through her mother, Elisabeth1 from the Cliftons he incorporated in his history some account of that family and its long descent. The Marquess of Bath has kindly permitted me to transcribe the entire MS., and from it and from the other sources referred to below I have been able to add a little to the information left by Thoroton, our chief authority on the subject).

IT is well known from Thoroton's account of the Clifton family that they claimed descent from one Aluaredus de Clifton, a knight who was supposed to hold the Manor of Wilford of William Peverel, and whose son (Robert de Clifton), grandson (Gervase de Clifton) and great-grandson (another Gervase de Clifton) were alleged to have succeeded him in his lordship. This claim was based upon an ancient manuscript which Thoroton mentions but does not quote; but as Gervase Holles had transcribed it from the collections of the antiquary St. Loi Kniveton, I am able to print it in full. It ran as follows :—

Memorand quod quidam Aluaredus Clifton miles dnus manerii Wilford cum ptinent in dnico suo ut de feodo fuit gardianus castella nottingh tempore Willi Peverill. Post cujus mortem quidam Robtus Clifton miles filius et heres pdci Aluaredi dnus manerii pdci fuit gardianus castelli pdci. Et post ejus mortem quidam Gervasius Clifton miles filius et heres pdci Robti fuit dnus manerii pdci et gardiauzns castelli nottingh. Et post obitum suum quidam alius Gervasius Clifton miles filius et her pdci Gervasii et dnus maner pdci fuit custos castelli pdci totis diebus vitae suae. Idem Gervasius fecit unum wardum castelli pdci vocatum le utter ward, fecitq molendina ejusdm castelli. Idem pdcus Gervasius fecit unam trencheam ab aqua Trenta usq molendinum pdictu per propriam suam terrain dominicalam usq quoddam pratum vocatu kyngcs meddow. Idem dcus Gervasius fecit unum gurgustum in sua aqua de Trent pdca ad dcam aquam ponendum molendinis pdcis per medium trencheae pdictae.

Some of the information contained in this document is almost certainly erroneous. No mention of any Nottinghamshire tenant named Clifton appears in Domesday Book or in the other surviving records of the century which followed the Conquest; and the succession of four men in lineal descent who were all knights is in itself a suspicious factor, for it was a very rare title at that time. The Peverels held the manors of Clifton and Wilford of the King in chief and there is no evidence that they ever enfeoffed anyone of them. Moreover, we know that when the Honor of Peverel escheated to the crown early in Henry II.'s reign, that king granted the manors of Clifton and Wilford to Gerbode de Escalt.2 On the other hand, the precise account of the work done for Nottingham Castle by the last-mentioned Gervase Clifton in the document quoted above has the ring of truth about it, and it is probable that here we are in touch with a real historical character.

We know from the records of the time that there was a Gervase de Clifton (the first of his name to appear with any certainty) existing towards the end of Henry II.'s reign, and it seems reasonable to equate him with the last of the Gervase's referred to in the old manuscript. Indeed, as this Gervase was a man of some social importance it is possible that the family did begin in the Conqueror's time as stated in the story of Aluaredus and his descendants. All that we can deny is that these early members, if they existed, were lords of the manors of Clifton and Wilford and constables of the castle.

Gervase de Clifton, who lived in the reigns of Henry II, Richard I and John, was clearly a man of substance. We find him witnessing various charters;3 his name appears in the pipe rolls through King John's reign; he seems to have held lands in Derbyshire;4 and he was of sufficient standing to marry his daughter Cecilia into the powerful house of de Cressi.5 When he died we do not know, but as his children were of marriageable age early in John's reign it is improbable that he lived long into Henry III's reign. His son, also called Gervase, is a much more shadowy figure of whom the only record is that he was imprisoned in 1220 by the Sheriff of Nottingham for suspected robbery done in London;6 but the family must have continued to prosper, for his grandson, yet another Gervase, was a more important personage than any of his forbears. Sometime before 1280 he had secured from Sir Gerard de Rodes (into whose family the lands had passed in Richard I's time) the grant of the manors of Clifton and Wilford in return for the payment of £30 per annum,7 and a few years later he obtained the manor of Broughton from John, the son of Alfred de Suliny. The former were not held of the king in chief. Homage for them was due to the holder of the manor of Langar which John de Rodes, son of Gerard, transferred to Robert Tibetot in 1285. Thus the Cliftons held of the Tibetot family until Robert's great-grandson, another Robert Tibetot, died in 1372 leaving three daughters and co-heiresses.8 The eldest of these, Margaret, married Sir Roger Lescrope or Scrope, son of Richard Scrope the Treasurer at the close of Edward III's reign, and carried the manor of Langar with her unto her husband's family9 who held it until the death of the eleventh Lord Scrope, first Earl of Sunderland, without legitimate issue in 1630. Broughton was held of Thomas Duke of Lancaster until his execution in 1322. Then his estates escheated to the Crown, and the tenants, including the Cliftons, became tenants in chief. Even more decisive proof of the powerful position of Gervase Clifton than the acquisition of these manors was the fact that he was Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire four times and of Yorkshire three times under King Edward I;10 and that he sat for the county of Nottingham in the Parliament of 1295.11 In 1297, 1298 and again in 1301 he was summoned by the king to serve against the Scots,12 He died in 1323 having outlived his son Gervase,13 and he was succeeded by his grandson Robert who was then aged 26.14
St Mary's church, Clifton (photo: A Nicholson, 2004).

St Mary's church, Clifton (photo: A Nicholson, 2004).

Robert only lived for four more years, and in 1327 his place was taken by his son Gervase, aged 14, and already married to Margaret Pierpoint.15 This Gervase was a knight at least as early as 1345,16 in which year he was Sheriff and Escheator for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.17 He also represented the former county in the Parliament of 1347-8. In 1367 he was one of the commissioners of Array for Nottinghamshire,18 and ten years later he received from the king exemption for life from being obliged to serve on any assizes or as Sheriff, Escheator, Coroner, etc.19 He lived to be an old man and died in 1391 (when he would be 78 years old).20 He was twice married. By his first wife, Margaret Pierpoint, he had a son Robert who was knighted and lived at least as late as 1373, although he died before his father.21 His second wife was called Isabella. Who she was Thoroton does not explain, but Holles states that she was the daughter of one Harbord alias Finch, the widow of William Scot of Brabourne in Kent. If this was the Sir William Scot who, according to Weever,22 died in 1350 the story is quite possible in point of time, and it may help—as Holles suggests—to explain the link which undoubtedly existed between the Nottingham­shire Cliftons and the Sir Gervase Clifton of Brabourne23 who was such a prominent figure in the reigns of Henry VI and Edward IV. The latter was many times High Sheriff of Kent besides holding various other com­missions in the county; he was Lieutenant of Dover Castle; Treasurer of Calais; probably Comptroller of Henry VI's household for a time; played an important part in the French war, holding Pontoise, near Paris against the King of France and inflicting 3,000 casualties upon him before the town could be taken ; and was finally beheaded after the Battle of Tewkesbury 1471, in which he was taken prisoner fighting for the Lancastrian cause. He was clearly allied to the Cliftons of Nottinghamshire,24 but we know that he was not the head of the main branch of the family and the relationship has never been solved. If Holles's statement about the second wife of Sir Gervase Clifton (1313-91) is accurate it seems possible that he was a cadet sprung from this union. But, if Weever's date is correct, there is a stumbling block in the way of accepting this theory, for Thoroton quotes a license given to Sir Gervase to establish a chantry in Clifton Church in 22 Edward III which alludes to his wife Isabella. As Edward Ill's regnal years were dated from January 25th, 1327, this means that Sir Gervase was already married to his second wife by January, 1348—January, 1349, nearly two years before the death of her (presumed) first husband Sir William Scot. Thoroton states that it was the Sir Gervase Clifton of Brabourne whom Isabella married, which, if Weever can be trusted, is clearly a mistake, for it was impossible for a man to be of age to marry a woman widowed in 1350 and still survive to fight at Tewkesbury 121 years later. I have been unable to find any evidence which might throw further light upon this little problem. We know that many of Weever's transcriptions of epitaphs and dates were inaccurate but that hardly helps, for his error, if there was one, might tell in favour either of Holles or of Thoroton.

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(1) She was the daughter of Sir Gervase Clifton, 1515-88.
(2) Farrer, Honors and Knights Fees, I, p. 235.
(3) e.g., Hist. MSS. Comm. Hastings, I, p. 124; Middleton, p. 28. Only approximate dates are given to these charters. The first year in which I have found certain mention of him was 33 Henry II when he was fined for a trespass on the royal forests (Holles MS.).
(4) See Hist. MSS. Comm. Various Collections, II, p. 290 ; a grant from Cecilia de Cressi to all the men of Sterndale, Derbyshire, of all customs and liberties which they had in the time of her father Gervase de Clifton.
(5) Thoroton, pp. 52-4; Holles MS.
(6) Patent Rolls, 1216-25, p. 270.
(7) The grant was confirmed in 1280. Charter Rolls, II, p. 238.
(8) Close Rolls, 1369-74, p. 396.
(9) Ibid., 1385-9, p. 27 ; Patent Rolls, 1388-92, p. 333.
(10) Holles MS. Sheriff of Notts. & Derby in 7, 9, 10, 11 Edward I ; Yorkshire in 15, 18, 19 Edward I.
(11) Deering 209A ; Parliaments of England.
(12) Harleian Society. Knights of Edward I (A-E) Sir Gervase de Clifton.
(13) This Gervase sat in the parliament of 1314-15. He was alive as late as 1318 when he was granted a pontage duty for the repair of Kegworth Bridge ; Patent Rolls, 1317-21, p. 150.
(14) Calendar of Inquisitions, VI, p. 282. (15) Calendar of Inquisitions, VII, p. 11.
(16) Holles MS. In a fine levied 18 Edward III he is spoken of as Gervase de Clifton Chevaler.
(17) Fine Rolls, 1337-47, pp. 396, 398, 446, 461. (18) Patent Rolls, 1364-7, p. 431. (19) Ibid., 1374-7, p. 484.
(20) Close Rolls, 1389-92, p. 224 " Gervase de Clifton Knt, a Verderer in Shinvood Forest dead."
(21) He witnessed a quitclaim along with his father in 1373. Close Rolls, 1369-74, p. 367. Gervase Holles surmised that the nameless tomb in Clifton Church showing the arms of Clifton and Neville of Rolleston empaled belonged to this Robert de Clifton and his wife Isabella, daughter of Jollanus de Neville of Rolleston. "For," he concluded, "it was not the match of any of his posterity, neither was it his father's, nor could it be any of his other ancestors because the quartering and impaling of coats first began in the time of Edward III, and with that time (or a little after) the antiquity of the monument will well correspond."
(22) Weever, Funeral Monuments, p. 67.
(23) He is spoken of as Gervase Clifton, Esq., down to July 1453, and called a knight in October 1454, so that he must have been knighted between the two dates. Patent Rolls, 1452-61, pp. 103,197.
(24) In a general pardon granted to him January, 1469 he is spoken of as "Gervase Clifton late of Brabourne, Kent, Knight, alias late of Clifton, county Nottingham, alias late of London," etc. Patent Rolls, 1467-77, p. 180..


A C Wood, Notes on the early history of the Clifton family, Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 37, 1933


© A P NICHOLSON | CREATED: 19-May-2006

When Sir Gervase died in 1391 he was succeeded by Sir John Clifton, probably the son of that Sir Robert who, as mentioned above, had pre-deceased his father. By his marriage with Catherine, the sister and co-heiress of Hugh de Cressi, Sir John obtained for his family, when Hugh died, the manor of Hodsock and other lands of the de Cressi inheritance. He sat in parliament in 1402, in which year he was also made Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire,1 and was slain at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 fighting for King Henry IV against the Percies, having (according to Holinshed) beer knighted by the king that morning, but this, if the story is true, must have been the dignity of Banneret for it is clear that he was a knight long before the battle.2

The next head of the family seems to have been another Gervase Clifton. The first mention I have found to him is in 1416 when he is spoken of as "Gervase Clifton Esquire," but by 1422 he is described as Chevaler or Knight.3 He represented the county in the parliament of 1425-6 and was in the Commission of the peace for Nottinghamshire 1422, 1439, 1441, 1443, 1444, 1448, 1449, 1451. He died in December, 1453 leaving a son, Robert, to succeed him. This Robert, aged thirty, who was knighted by 1462, took an active part in the affairs of the county. He sat on various commissions for financial and military purposes;4 was High Sheriff 29 and 38 Henry VI and 7 Edward IV;5 member of parliament 31 Henry VI; and in the Commission of the peace 1454-5-6-8-9, 1460-1-2-3-6-7-8, 1476. He was one of the executors of Richard Willughby Esquire, who in 1470 were empowered by King Henry VI to found a perpetual chantry of one chaplain to celebrate divine service daily at the High Altar in the parish church of St. Leonard, Wollaton, and in 14766 he and his son Gervase were also given license to establish a perpetual college of a warden and two chaplains to celebrate divine service daily in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity within the Parish Church of St. Mary, Notting­ham "for the good estate of the king and his consort Elisabeth and the said founders and for their souls after death and the souls of William Bothe, late Archbishop of York, Dame Alice Clifton, late the wife of the said Robert . . . and the ancestors and kinsmen of the said Robert and Gervase."7 Although he lived in difficult times when the county was torn by the squab­bles of the Lancastrians and Yorkists he was apparently astute enough to stand well with both sides and to transfer his allegiance with foresight and discretion ; and his son Gervase, who took his place when he died in April, 1478, showed equal skill in the difficult game of fence-jumping which the circumstances of the time imposed upon a prominent land-owner.

Brass of Sir Gervase Clifton (died 1491).

He was forty years of age when he succeeded his father and was already a prominent supporter of the Yorkist cause. Edward IV appointed his "trusty and well-beloved squire Gervase Clifton" to be receiver-general of all the royal manors and lordships in the counties of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and he was Sheriff three times in that king's reign (1472, 1477 and 1482).8 Richard III heaped still greater favour upon him. He was made a Knight of the Bath at the Usurper's coronation,9 was a commissioner of array for Nottinghamshire and for the East and West Riding of Yorkshire in 1484,10 and in the same year was rewarded for his services against the rebel Duke of Buckingham by a grant of the Manor of Ratcliffe-on-Soar and lands in Kingston and Kegworth formerly belonging to Buckingham, the Manor of Overton Longevile in Huntingdon forfeited by Sir Roger Tocotes, and the Manor of Dalbury and lands in Etwall and Wirksworth, Derbyshire, part of the escheated estates of Henry, Duke of Exeter.11 That he was one of the king's trusted supporters is proved by the fact that in 1483-5 he was in the commission of the peace for Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicester­shire, Staffordshire and the East and West Riding. Sir John Beaumont in his poem on the Battle of Bosworth said that Sir Gervase Clifton was slain there fighting for Richard III, and that only the intercession of his friend Sir John Byron saved his estates for his son, but this is a fiction. He not only survived the change of dynasty in 1485, but managed by some means to procure the favour of the new king. Perhaps like Lord Stanley he changed sides in time to secure a hold on Richmond's gratitude. He was Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in 1488 and in the commission of the peace until he died in London in 1491.12 As one of the executors of Laurence Bothe or Booth, Archbishop of York, he was responsible for the founding in 1481 of two perpetual chantries of two chaplains for divine service daily in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist in the Collegiate Church of St. Mary, Southwell "for the good estate of the king and his consort, Elisabeth, Queen of England, and for their souls after death, and the souls of the said Archbishop and his parents and benefactors."13

His eldest son, Robert, was a priest and he renounced his temporal inheritance in favour of a younger brother Gervase, who was made a Knight of the Bath by Henry VII October 31st, 1494.14 He was Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in 1502, and in the following year was one of those who accompanied the Princess Margaret to Scotland for her marriage to King James IV, out of which came the ultimate union of the two crowns.15 He died in 1508 leaving two sons whom we know of: Robert and Hugh. Robert, his heir, only survived until 1517 and died when his son and successor, Gervase, was still under two years of age; but by his (second) marriage to Anne, the daughter of Henry Lord Clifford, he had added, as Holles says "the greatest lustre of nobility" to his family, for she was lineally descended through the lines of Clifford Percy and Mortimer from Lionel Plantagenet, third son of King Edward III.

His son Gervase lived until 1588 and was a loyal servant of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elisabeth. He was knighted November 15th, 1538,16 and seems to have enjoyed considerable favour with Henry VIII who granted to him the Yorkshire manor of Armyn, belonging to the dissolved monastery of the Virgin Mary in York, and the two profitable wardships of Gervase Boswell and Thomas Fairfax, both of Yorkshire.17 In 1544 we find him appointed to go in person with the king to France, taking fifty horse with him from Nottinghamshire, and he served in the siege and capture of Boulogne in that year.18 According to Holinshed he was present at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547; and he was also in the army which besieged Leith in 1560.19 Nine years later, at the time of the rebellion of the northern earls, he was ordered by Queen Elisabeth to go in person to the defence of Doncaster.20 During nearly the whole of his long active life he was a Justice of the Peace, and was Sheriff of the County in 1540, 1546, 1554 and 1572. With the neighbouring town of Nottingham his relations appear to have been uniformly amicable and there is an air of old time cheer about some of the entries in the Borough Chamberlain's accounts which relate to him. Thus in 1572 the corporation spent 3s. 4d. on "iii pottells of Claret wyne and one pottell of Muskedyne that wase caryed to Clifton when Maister Maire and his brethren dyd dyne with him in Crystemas laste." There is a similar entry for 1580, and in 1573 17s. 6d. was expended on Capons and Sugar given as a present for the marriage of Lady Clifton's daughter.21 Despite his martial inclinations Sir Gervase possessed a courteous and mild disposition which earned for him the title of Sir Gervase the Gentle; a character which according to tradition in Gervase Holles's time Queen Elisabeth herself gave him in a distich which she composed about four of her Nottinghamshire knights:—

Gervase the Gentle,
Stanhope the Stout,
Marcham the Lion,
and Sutton the lout.

He was twice married, first in 1530 to Mary, daughter of Sir John Neville of Cheet, Yorkshire22 and secondly to Winifred, daughter of William Thwaytes, of Owlton, Suffolk.23 Of the five children whom his first wife bore him only Elisabeth the eldest daughter survived childhood and by her marriage with Peter Frescheville of Staveley became the great grandmother of Gervase Holles ; but George, his son by his second wife Winifred, lived to marry, though he died when he was twenty, only a few weeks before his father, August, 1587. After his death his wife gave birth to the child Gervase, who succeeded his grandfather when the old man died in January, 1588.



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(1) See List of Sheriffs in the Public Record Office.
(2) He is so called in 1400. Patent Rolls, 1309-1401, p. 411.
(3) Patent Rolls, 1416-22, pp. 71, 457.
(4) e.g., commission for raising a loan, 1453; commission for the supply of archers, 1457; commission of array, 1472.
(5) List of Sheriffs at the Public Record Office.
(6) Transactions of Thoroton Society, Vol. XVIII, p. 90 ; Patent Rolls, 1467-77, p. 231.
(7) Patent Rolls, 1467-77, p. 600. Alice the wife of Sir Robert Clifton was the sister of William and Laurence Booth who were both Archbishops of York, William, 1452-64, Laurence, 1476-80.
(8) List of Sheriffs at the Public Record Office.
(9) Shaw, Book of Knights, II. p. 21.
(10) Patent Rolls, 1476-85., pp. 489, 492.
(11) Ibid., pp. 399, 439-40,
(12) He first appears as a J.P. in 1466-7 during his father's life-time. Patent Rolls, 1461-7, p. 569. J.P. for the E. Riding, 1485-6.
(13) Patent Rolls, 1476-85 p. 255.
(14) Shaw, Book of Knights, I, p. 144.
(15) Hist. MSS. Comm., Rutland Manuscripts, I, p. 18.
(16) Shaw, Book of Knights, II, p. 51.
(17) Holles MS.
(18) Henry VIII. Letters and papers, 1544, part I, p. 161.
(19) Holles MS.
(20) Hist. MSS. Comm., Salisbury Manuscripts, I, p. 444.
(21) Records of the Borough of Nottingham, IV, pp. 138, 147, 194.
(22) There is an interesting account of the expenses of this wedding in Peck Desiderata Curiosa, pp. 248-9.
(23) From his letter to the Earl of Rutland, May 23rd, 1584 (Hist. MSS. Comm., Rutland Manuscripts, I, p. 166) it looks as though his second wife had Popish inclinations, but in spite of the threats of the Archbishop of York to commit her to prison Clifton said he " would not leave her company as long as she keeps herself a trew woman to her Prince".


A C Wood, Notes on the early history of the Clifton family, Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 37, 1933


© A P NICHOLSON | CREATED: 19-May-2006

This boy lived through the stirring times of the great Civil War to a ripe old age, and became the most illustrious of all his family. The Earl of Shrewsbury, who took an interest in his education, described him when he was fifteen as possessing "a rare and excellent wit," and he used his influence to get him sent to St. John's College, Cambridge.1 In 1603 we get a glimpse of the young undergraduate thanking the earl with some Latin verses for the watch he had sent him.2 He was knighted that same year,3 and after studying for a time in the Inner Temple4 he settled down to the duties of his station serving as Sheriff of the county, 1610; as a Justice of the Peace; and as a deputy-Lieutenant.5 He represented the county in parliament in 1614, 1621, 1624, 1625, 1626 and the borough in 1628, and held various local offices of importance.6 In 1611 he was one of the first to acquire the newly introduced rank of Baronet. 7 The amiability of his character (which won for him the title his grandfather had borne of Gervase the Gentle), and his numerous marriages soon gave him a large and influential circle of friends. He had seven wives, and some of them linked him with the most powerful families in the kingdom. Among his familiar correspondents before the Civil War were the great Sir Thomas Wentworth (to whom he was brother-in-law), the Earls of Newcastle, Kingston and Exeter, Sir Harry Vane and the philosopher Thomas Hobbes.8 Gervase Holles, who knew him well, described him as " a gentleman every way worthy of his ancient extraction and deserving ancestors, having lived with as much lustre and love in his country as any in my time whosoever ; being of a nature (like his grandfather) most affable and courteous, of a disposition most noble, of good erudition and (throughout this long and damned rebellion) of a most unshaken and unsullied loyalty to his lawful Souveragne." His loyalty was an outstanding trait in his character, and the Earl of Exeter told him in 1630 that if only the king's servants possessed something of his "zealous pursute of His Majesty's sarvice "... "His Majesty's sarvis would be incrediblie advanced."9 When the Bishops' War broke out he promptly des­patched troops to join the forces which Newcastle was collecting in the North, and at the opening of the Civil War, in response to a personal appeal from the king, he sent into Nottingham Castle for the use of the royalist forces a large collection of arms, armour and other military furniture.10 He also acted as one of Charles's commissioners of array for Lincolnshire.11 According to his own statement he was never actually in arms during the war but he attended the parliament summoned by the king at Oxford early in 1644,12 and was suspected by Colonel Hutchinson of being implicated in the seizing of Trent Bridge from the Parliamentarians in April, 1645.13 He was in Newark14 during the siege, 1645-6, and in June, 1646 compounded for his estates by a fine which was first fixed at £12,120, but was afterwards considerably reduced.15

For the rest of his life he seems to have lived quietly in retirement on his estates, his peace disturbed only by the conduct of his eldest son whom Thoroton describes as "the wretched unfortunate Sir Gervase, his father's greatest foyl." Of this family tragedy we have evidence in his own words. Writing to a friend in 1637, he said, " I would have you goe to my son and lette him know from me that till he carry himself more piously to God, more worthyly and soberly to his wife, more without scandall and intemperancy in his generall courses and leave of to wast and consume his estate as he doth . . . the world takes such notice of thes particulars as I have no great joy to see him at my howse and I may not be an Eli to connive at or sooth his obliquityes least I share in the guilt and punishment." Two years later he excused himself for not attending the Earl of Newcastle in person in the Scottish war as his wife " lyes att this present gaspinge and my sonne gapinge not for what I leave dyinge but what I have Hvinge my backe beinge turned to make a prey of all my convertible goodes within dores and without."16

After the Restoration he was again returned to parliament for the shire in 1661 and sat until his death in 1666, when he was succeeded in his estates by his second son, Sir Clifford Clifton.17 The eldest son, Gervase, was still alive and inherited the baronetcy, but he had forfeited his rights as heir by his conduct and was passed over, so far as lay in his father's power, in favour of his younger brother. He died without heirs in 167618 and the title then reverted to William, the son and heir of Sir Clifford Clifton, who had died in 1670.



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(1) Hist. MSS. Comm., Salisbury Manuscripts, XII, pp. 270, 302
(2) Hist. MSS. Comm., 6th Report, p. 450.
(3) Shaw, I, p. 154. July 25th, 1003.
(4) Members of the Inner Temple, 1547-1660, p. 176.
(5) Hist. MSS. Comm., Various Collections, VII, p. 395. He was a J.P., 1609-38 and 1660-66. Notts. County Records, p. 9.
(6) In 1010 he was Chief Steward of East Retford for life, an office formerly held by the Earl of Shrewsbury.
(7) His estates, before the Civil War, were said to be worth £3,000 per annum—a large sum in those days. Cal. S. P. Dom., 1636-6, p. 11.
(8) Some of his correspondence is printed in Hist. MSS. Comm., Various Collections, VII.
(9) Hist. MSS. Comm., Various Collections, VII, p. 396.
(10) Ibid., pp. 422, 427. Transactions of the Thoroton Society, Vol. XV, pp. 172-3.
(11) Hist MSS. Comm., Buccleuch Manuscripts, I, p. 528.
(12) Rushworth, V, p. 576. He had been returned for E. Retford in 1640. (Piercy, History of East Retford, p. 72).
(13) Hist. MSS. Comm., 6th Report, p. 80b.
(14) He was one of the king's commissioners of array at Newark in
1644. Brown, C., History of Newark, II, p. 74.
(15) Calendar of the Committee for compounding Part II, p. 1318.
(16) Hist. MSS. Comm., Various Collections, VII, pp. 416, 422.
(17) He was the offspring of his father's second marriage, and had been knighted, December 27th, 1661.
(18) He had been married to Sarah, daughter of Timothy Pusey, of Selston, Notts.


A C Wood, Notes on the early history of the Clifton family, Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 37, 1933


© A P NICHOLSON | CREATED: 19-May-2006.

 

Robert de CLIFTON had the following children:

 

+3

Gervase de CLIFTON ( -1186)

Third Generation

3. Gervase de CLIFTON of Glapton, son of Sir Robert de CLIFTON Lord of the Manor of Wilford, died in 1186.

 

Gervase de CLIFTON had the following children:

 

4

Gervase CLIFTON ( -1218). Gervase died in 1218.