Primary Sources

Will of Gervas Clifion, knyght, dated 27 April 1491, proved 22 August 1491.
mentions:
To be buryed in the parishe church of oure Ladie of Clifton beside Notingham.
my sonnes Hugh, Gamaliel, Silvan, and Ezechie
my son Gervas
my doghter Adelyne
Thomas Thurland and dame Johane his wiff
my son[-in-law] Edward Stanop
my sonnes Roberte and William Clifton, clerkes
Agnes my wiff

Other Sources

• The baronetage of England: or The History of the English baronets ..., Volume 1 By William Betham
• The baronetage of England: or The History of the English baronets ..., Volume 1 By William Betham
• Pg. 56
• CHART
• 11. Sir Gervase, Knt. 1454 mar. Elizabeth Francis, 1457
  • children of Sir Gervase, Knt. & Elizabeth Francis: 1. 12. Sir Robert, 1478 mar. Alice Booth, 1470
    • children of Sir Robert Clifton & Alice Booth: 1. 13. Sir Gervase Clifton, K.B. 1491 mar. Alice Neville 2mar. Agnes Constable., Robert Archd. of York, Margaret, 1mar. Sir E. Hastings 2mar. Sir E. Wentham
      • children of Sir Gervase Clifton & Alice Neville: 1. Robert, a priest., 2. 14. Sir Gervase Clifton, K. B. 1509 mar. Agnes Griffith 2mar. Joan Bussey. ___________
• CHAPTER VII. FAMILY NOTES (1).
• THE CLIFTON PEERAGES.
• The present Baroness Clifton of Leighton Bromswold was born in 1900. succeeded her Father, the Earl of Darnley, when she was seven months old, and is the seventeenth holder of the title. The Barony was created in 1608 when Sir Gervase Clifton of Leighton Bromswold was ennobled by King James I. His father was William Clifton of Barrington, fourth son of the Sir Gervase who married Alice Nevil, and whose brass effigy in the Church is dated 1491. This William Clifton sought his fortune in London and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Blount, and having acquired great wealth, bought Barrington which he left to his son Sir Gervase, created Lord Clifton, who was therefore cousin of the "gentle" Sir Gervase Clifton of Clifton. The first Baron was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and "killed himself for ennui," leaving an only daughter Catherine. Catherine was first of all Miss Clifton; then Baroness Clifton in her own right: then by her marriage she became Lady Esme Stuart; upon her husband being created an Earl in 1619, she became Countess of March; and when he succeeded his brother in 1624 as third Duke, she became Duchess of Lennox. Her children included:—1. The fourth Duke of Lennox. 2. Lord D'Aubigny (Ancestor of the Dukes D' Aubigny). 3. Cardinal Stewart, who however did not live to be clothed in scarlet. 4. the Earl of Litchfield. 1. The Countess of Arundel (Ancestor of the Dukes of Norfolk). 2. The Countess of Angus (Ancestor of the Dukes of Hamilton). 3. The Countess of Portland.
• From: http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/monographs/bruce1906/chapter7.htm ___________
• Magna Carta ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families By Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham
• Magna Carta ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families By Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham
• Pg. 517
• 10 THOMAS NEVILLE, Esq., of Rolleston, Nottinghamshire, Pickhill, Roxby (in Pickhill), and Yarnwick (in Kirklington), Yorkshire, Sheriff of cos. Nottingham and Derby, 1443, justice of the pearce fr Nottinghamshire, 1454-1458, 1460-1466, 1468, son and heir, born say 1405 (adult by 1428). He married ELIZABETH BABINGTON, daughter of William Babington, Knt., of Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, by Margery, daughter and heiress of Peter Martell. They had four sons, William, Esq., John, Roger, and Thomas (clrk), and eight daughters, Alice (wife of Richard Thurland, Esq., and Gervase Clifton, Knt.), Katherine (wife of Ralph Marshall), Elizabeth (wife of William Mering, Esq.), Joan (wife of Thomas Knight), Margaret (wife of John Disney), ___ (wife of ___ Stuckley), Ellen (wife of John St. Paul), and Maud (nun). In 1438 he claimed the Island of Sully and lands in Cornwall as heir to his great-grandmother, Cecily de Blanchminster, wife of Thomas de Neville.
• Pg. 518
• Unavailable for viewing _________
• Clifton Family of Clifton: a brief history
• The Clifton family trace their lineage back to Alvaredus de Clifton, a Norman knight who was appointed Warden of Nottingham Castle in the time of William the Conquerer, and who took his name from the south Nottinghamshire village in which he settled. Sir Gervase de Clifton purchased the manors of Clifton and Wilford from the de Rodes family in the late 13th century.
• The Clifton family built up a considerable estate in south Nottinghamshire, including the manor of Broughton Sulney [Upper Broughton], and lands in Kinoulton. The Clifton family continued to be based at Clifton Hall until it was sold in the 1950s.
• Sir Gervase de Clifton (d 1324) served as Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in 1279 and on three other occasions, and was also Sheriff of Yorkshire four times. He was briefly imprisoned for irregularities relating to a writ. He sat as M.P. for Nottinghamshire in 1294, and many of his descendents also took up local positions.
• A later Sir Gervase de Clifton (1313-1391) was Sheriff and Escheater for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in 1345, and M.P. in 1347-48, and in 1367 was a member of the Commission of Array for Nottinghamshire.
• His grandson Sir John de Clifton sat as M.P. for Nottinghamshire in 1402 and was also Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. He was created a Knight Banneret on the morning of the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, but was killed later that day in the service of King Henry IV.
• Sir John's marriage in 1382 to Catherine, daughter of Sir John Cressy, led to the Cliftons' acquisition of Hodsock and other estates in the north of Nottinghamshire, as well as in adjacent parts of Yorkshire. Sir Gervase Clifton (d 1453) also sat as M.P. for Nottinghamshire, in 1425-26, and was a magistrate for the county a number of times. His grandson Sir Gervase Clifton (1438-1491) was a loyal supporter of the Yorkists and received many honours and appointments including Treasurer of Calais in 1482. He fought at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 on the side of King Richard III.
• One of the most illustrious members of the family was Sir Gervase Clifton (d 1588), known as 'Gervase the Gentle'. He succeeded his father while still an infant, and was a favourite of successive Tudor monarchs. He was succeeded by his own infant grandson, Gervase (1587-1666), known as 'Gervase the Great'. This Gervase was created a Baronet in 1611, and spent many years as an M.P. He was also known for having had seven wives.
• Members of the Clifton family continued to take local offices and serve as Members of Parliament. With the sale of Hodsock Priory to the Mellish family in 1765 (see the Mellish papers, Me) the Clifton family began to concentrate their estates in south Nottinghamshire. When Sir Robert Clifton, the 9th Baronet, died in 1869 without issue, the estates descended to Henry Robert Markham, who took the name Clifton. Henry also died childless. The next owner of Clifton Hall was his second cousin, Sir Hervey Juckes Lloyd Bruce. In 1919 his son Lt-Col. Percy Robert Bruce changed his family name to Clifton. The last Clifton owner of the estates was Lt-Col. Peter Thomas Clifton (1911-1996). In 1947 he sold 944 acres in Clifton to Nottingham City Council for a housing estate. In 1953 an auction of the contents of Clifton Hall took place, and Lt-Col. Clifton moved to Home Farm in Clifton. In 1958 he sold the remainder of his estate in Clifton and Barton in Fabis and moved to Dummer in Hampshire, severing the family's 700-year old links with the area.
• The descent of the Clifton estate was as follows:
• Sir Gervase de Clifton, knight (d 1324), m Amflicia, daughter of Sir William Sampson of Epperstone
• [His son Sir Gervase de Clifton, knight (d c.1316), m Alicia, daughter of Sir Robert de Rabacy of Glapton, Notts, pre-deceased him]
• His grandson Sir Robert de Clifton, knight (1297-1327), m Emma, daughter of Sir William de Moton
• His son Sir Gervase de Clifton, knight (1313-1391), m (1) Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert de Pierrepont, (2) Isabella, possibly daughter of Harbord alias Finch, and widow of William Scot of Brabourne, Kent
• [His son Sir Robert de Clifton (d before 1391), m Agnes, daughter of Lord Grey de Wilton, pre-deceased him]
• His grandson Sir John de Clifton, knight banneret (d 1403), m Catherine, daughter of Sir John de Cressy of Hodsock
• His son Sir Gervase Clifton, knight (d 1453), m Isabella, daughter of Sir Robert de Francis of Foremark, Derbyshire
• His son Sir Robert Clifton, knight (d 1478), m Alice, daughter of John Booth of Barton, Lancashire
• His son Sir Gervase Clifton, knight (d 1491), m (1) Alice, widow of Richard Thurland, daughter of Thomas Neville of Rolleston, (2) Agnes, widow of Sir Walter Griffith, daughter of Sir Robert Constable of Flamborough, Yorkshire
• His son Sir Gervase Clifton, knight (d 1508), m (1) Agnes, daughter of Sir Walter Griffith of Flamborough, Yorkshire, (2) Joanna, widow of Sir Nicholas Byron, daughter of John de Bussy of Houghton, Lincolnshire
• His son Robert Clifton (d 1518), m (1) Alice, daughter of Sir Simon Digby, (2) Anne, daughter of Henry, 10th Lord de Clifford
• His son Sir Gervase Clifton, knight (d 1588), 'Gervase the Gentle'
• His grandson Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet (1587-1666), 'Gervase the Great'
• [His first son Sir Gervase Clifton, 2nd Baronet (c.1612-1676) was disinherited from the family estates]
• His second son Sir Clifford Clifton (1626-1670)
• His son Sir William Clifton, 3rd Baronet (1663-1686)
• His cousin Sir Gervase Clifton, 4th Baronet (d 1731)
• His son Sir Robert Clifton, 5th Baronet (1690-1762)
• His son Sir Gervase Clifton, 6th Baronet (1744-1815)
• His son Sir Robert Clifton, 7th Baronet (1767-1837)
• His brother Sir Juckes Granville Juckes-Clifton, 8th Baronet (1769-1852)
• His son Sir Robert Juckes-Clifton, 9th Baronet (1826-1869)
• His cousin's son Henry Robert Markham, assumed surname Clifton 1869 (1832-1896)
• His second cousin Sir Hervey Juckes Lloyd Bruce, 4th Baronet (1843-1919)
• His second son Lt-Col. Percy Robert Bruce, assumed surname Clifton 1919 (1872-1844)
• His son Lt-Col. Peter Thomas Clifton (1911-1996)
• Genealogical Sources
• Burke's Landed Gentry
• G.E.C.'s The Complete Baronetage
• History of Parliament, 1715-54
• History of Parliament, 1660-1690
• From: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collec... ________________________
• 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.
• 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 . . . .
• 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, . . . .
• From: http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/tts/tts1933/clifton2.htm ____________________
• Testamenta eboracensia: or, Wills registered at York ..., Volume 53 By York (England)
• Testamenta eboracensia: or, Wills registered at York ..., Volume 53 By York (England)
• Pg. 64-71 Will of Gervase Clifton d. 1491 __________
• The genealogical history of the Croke family, originally named Le Blount (1823) Vol. 2 Author: Croke, Alexander, Sir, 1758-1842
• http://www.archive.org/details/genealogicalhist02crok
• http://www.archive.org/stream/genealogicalhist02crok#page/254/mode/1up
• Sir Thomas Blount received many marks of favour from his Sovereign. Edward the Fourth, in the second year of his reign, granted to him, and his heirs male, the manor of Melton Roos, in Leicestershire, late the property of Thomas Lord de Roos, attainted ; all the hereditaments at Lyndewode, called Bayhousfee, in the same county, late belonging to William Viscount Beaumont, attainted ; and likewise the manor of Bayous Fee in Lind\vood. And, in his fourth year, Melton Roos, Wotton and Elsham, a tan house, (barcariam,) and sixty acres of meadow in Gouxhill, thirty acres of meadow in the same, the manors of Lyndwode Baions, and Thoresway-Nevill, lands in Winterton, and lands in Teleby, . . . . . .
• http://www.archive.org/stream/genealogicalhist02crok#page/255/mode/1up
• His second wife was Catherine, the daughter of Sir Gervase Clifton, of Clifton in Nottinghamshire, Knight, who bore, sable, a lion rampant, between eight cinquefoils, argent, langued gules. She was by his second wife, Alice, the daughter of Sir Thomas Neville of Rolleston in Nottinghamshire, who bore, gules, a saltier, ermine. _________________________
• A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great ..., Volume 3 By John Burke
• A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great ..., Volume 3 By John Burke
• Pg. 167
• SIR THOMAS BLOUNT: preceed we therefore with his line. In 1462, King EDWARD IV. granted him the manor of Milton Ross, and other estates in the counties of Leicester and Lincoln, and appointed him, in the same year, treasurer of Calais. He married first, Agnes, daughter and heir of Sir John Hawley, knt. of Canons Utterby, in Lincolnshire, and had issue, . . . .
• Sir Thomas espoused, secondly, Catharine, daughter of Sir Gervase Clifton, of Clifton, Notts. and left by that lady, at his deacease, 8th EDWARD IV. 1468, an only son, ____________________

Agnes

Letter of attorney from Agnes, widow of Sir Gervase Clifton, relating to the manor of Hodsock, Nottinghamshire, 1491