John Clifton Knight

• Preferred Name: John Clifton Knight^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]}
  
• Alternate Name: John de Clifton
  
• Alternate Name: John De Clifton
  
• Gender: M
  
• Burial: 8 AUG 1403 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England at LATI: N2.7079 LONG: E2.7544
  
• Death: 21 JUL 1403 in Battle Of Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England at LATI: N2.71 LONG: E2.78
  
• FSID: LZ8N-3P6
  
• Death:: 21 JUL 1403 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, United Kingdom at LATI: N2.71 LONG: E2.78
  
• Birth: 1358 in Clifton, Nottinghamshire, England at LATI: N2.9 LONG: E1.1833
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  sir, John Clifton, Knt, Of Clifton
  s/o sir Robert Clifton & Agnes Grey
  b- - Clifton, Nottinghamshire,England
  m- Katherine Cressy
  d- - Clifton, Nottinghamshire, England
  
  Knight Banneret,MP for Notts
  died in the battle of shrewsbury
  
  According to Thoroton, the Nottinghamshire antiquary, this MP was the son of Sir Robert Clifton and Agnes, a daughter of one of the Lords Grey of Wilton. But firm evidence of such parentage remains wanting, and it seems more likely that his father (or possibly grandfather) was Sir Gervase Clifton. The latter obtained royal letters of exemption from office-holding in 1377, but was still employed as a verderer of Sherwood forest in 1388, by which date he had grown too sick and old to perform his duties. Whatever his immediate ancestry, Sir John certainly belonged to the same well-known Nottinghamshire family, whose members had already been living at Clifton for 150 years if not longer. He himself is first mentioned in August 1377, when he was about to set sail with Edward III’s youngest son, Thomas of Woodstock, newly created earl of Buckingham, in an attempt to clear the Channel of French and Spanish ships. His association with Woodstock, which lasted until the latter’s death in 1397, proved of great importance in his career, and three years later he again enlisted in his service, this time for an expedition intended to support John IV, duke of Brittany, against the French. By then a knight, Clifton was influential enough to secure for himself the hand of a wealthy bride (he may, indeed, have previously been married to Isabel, daughter of Sir George Monboucher), and in June 1382 indentures were drawn up for his marriage to Katherine Cressy. Her father, Sir John, promised to settle upon the couple an estate at Broughton in Nottinghamshire, and other property at Hodsock and Melton could well have changed hands at this time. Meanwhile, in October 1379, Clifton was able (perhaps with the help of his patron, Thomas of Woodstock) to obtain a writ of supersedeas which halted an action for menaces being brought against him by a London mercer.
  
  The precise date on which Sir John was formally retained by Woodstock (who became duke of Gloucester in 1385) is not now recorded, but at some point shortly after November 1387 an annuity of £20 was assigned to him for life from the ducal manor of Kneesall in Nottinghamshire. The terms of his contract evidently did not prevent him from taking part in the first expedition led into Lithuania by Gloucester’s nephew, Henry of Bolingbroke, on behalf of the Teutonic knights. The crusading force set out in August 1390, but Clifton and his friend, Sir Thomas Rempston I*, had the ill-fortune to be captured and thrown into prison two months later by Wladislas, king of Poland. In March 1391, Bolingbroke’s father, John of Gaunt, wrote personally to Wladislas requesting their immediate release, and the two knights were eventually allowed to go free. Both men were safely back on their estates by February 1392, when they acted together as feoffees for a local landowner. Nothing daunted by his recent experiences, Sir John indented in the following May to accompany the duke of Gloucester to Ireland with a personal retinue of two esquires and 20 archers. Despite the revocation of Gloucester’s commission as lieutenant of the province shortly afterwards, his treasurer of wars did in fact pay Clifton and his men over £54 in wages, a sum of £8 being assigned to the young Simon Leek*, who was then serving under Sir John.
  
  Gloucester’s role as one of the leading Lords Appellant of 1388 earned him the lasting and implacable enmity of his nephew, Richard II, who was by 1397 in a position to revenge himself upon those who had previously attempted to curb his authority. In July of that year the duke was arrested at his castle of Pleshey, removed to Calais and obliged to confess his ‘treason’. His death, under highly suspicious circumstances, was announced to the September Parliament, which duly pronounced him a traitor and forfeited his estates. These events placed Clifton in an extremely vulnerable position, especially as he had strong connexions with Henry of Bolingbroke, another of the Appellants, who, although in no way then hostile to the King, was to be banished by him in September 1398. In order to protect himself he therefore sued out royal letters of pardon because of his past affiliations, no doubt paying heavily for the protection which they accorded him. His loyalty to Bolingbroke remained unshaken, however, and when the latter returned to England in 1399 to claim his confiscated inheritance and eventually the throne as well he rewarded his former companion-in-arms by making him a knight of the royal body. Another mark of favour was shown to Clifton in February 1400 in the shape of an annuity of 40 marks, payable for life from the issues of Nottinghamshire (although this soon fell into arrears); and in the following year he was summoned as a representative of the county to attend a great council at Westminster. Just four days after the dissolution of his first Parliament, in November 1402, he began a term as sheriff, having perhaps already assumed office as verderer of Sherwood forest.
  
  Sir John’s attachment to the house of Lancaster brought about his early death, on 21 July 1403, at the battle of Shrewsbury, when he fell fighting under the royal banner. He thus did not live to profit from a settlement of 1400 made by his childless brother-in-law, Sir Hugh Cressy, whereby the manors of Risegate, Claypole and Braytoft in Lincolnshire, Melton near Barnborough in Yorkshire, and Hodsock in Nottinghamshire had been settled jointly in reversion upon Cressy’s two sisters, Clifton’s wife, Katherine, and Elizabeth Markham. The beneficiary of this arrangement was, in fact, Katherine’s second husband, Ralph Mackerell*, whom she married not long afterwards. Sir John left at least one son, Gervase, born in about 1390, who took to wife a daughter of the influential Staffordshire knight, Sir Robert Francis*, and enjoyed an income of at least £60 p.a. from his patrimony in Nottinghamshire. The John Clifton who campaigned with the earl of Suffolk in Normandy during the reign of Henry V, was knighted for his services and died in about 1430 may well have been Gervase’s brother.
  
  History of Parliment http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/clifton-sir-john-1403
  
  http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/clifton-sir-john-1403
  CLIFTON, Sir John (d.1403), of Clifton, Notts.
  Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
  Available from Boydell and Brewer
  
  === He was first Lord Clifton. ===
  He was first Lord Clifton.
  
  === !NOTE: The Church of Jesus Christ of Lat ===
  !NOTE: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (TM); ; June 1998 (c), data as of 5 JAN 1998; ; , Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84150 USA
  
  === !#21-v3-p555; ===
  !#21-v3-p555;
  
  === BURKE'S PEERAGES (GS NUMBER 942 D22BUG); ===
  BURKE'S PEERAGES (GS NUMBER 942 D22BUG);
  
  === small bio note ===
  Sir John Clifton, Sheriff of Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire died on 21 July 1403 at Battle of Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England.
  
  === Source: A. Roots 218-33. Roots: John de ===
  Source: A. Roots 218-33. Roots: John de Clifton, 1st Lord Clifton, of Buckenham, Norfolk. Bornabout 1353. Died 1388.
  
  === From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 5 J ===
  From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 5 JAN 1998.
  
  === !AKA: John de Clifton, 1st Lord Clifton, ===
  !AKA: John de Clifton, 1st Lord Clifton, of Buckenham, Norfolk Doc. Line 218-33 !BIRTH: Date: ca. 1353 - Doc. Line 218-33 !DEATH: Date: 1388 - Doc. Line 218-33 !MARRIAGE: John de Clifton, Lord and Elizabeth Cromwell - Doc. Line 218-33
  
  === (21) dead ===
  (21) dead
  
  === [clifton.ged]
  
  Name Suffix: Baron
  ===
  [clifton.ged]
  
  Name Suffix: Baron
  Name Prefix: Sir.
  Name Suffix: Baron
  REFN: HWS41341
  Ancestral File Number: LMHQ-FQ
  OBJE: C:\LEGACY\PICTURES\C_baron1.GIF
  (Research):Seeattached sources.
  
  === From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 2 J ===
  From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 2 January 1996. From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 2 January 1996.
  
  === . John de Clifton was son and heir of hi ===
  . John de Clifton was son and heir of his father, Constantine de Clifton, son and heir of Adam de Clifton, who along with Buckenham Castle, held other large estates inherited through the families of Cailly and Tateshal. He was found in 1368, following his father's death v.p., to be the heir of his grandfather, being then 15 years of age, and had livery of his lands 27 October 1374. He was summoned to Parliament from 1 Dec 1376 to 28 Jul 1388, whereby he is held to have become Lord Clifton. He was aged 35 at his death; his widow, Elizabeth Cromwell, survived him and married Sir Edward Bensted.
  
  === From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 2 J ===
  From Ancestral File (TM), data as of 2 January 1996.
  
  === dead ===
  dead
  
  === (Sir) ===
  (Sir)
  
  === Relationship to N. G. Utting note ===
  Eighteenth Great Grandfather : Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather
  
  === Ancestral File Number: LMHQ-FQ ===
  Ancestral File Number: LMHQ-FQ
  
  === Sir ===
  Sir
  
  === Birth note ===
  Buckenham is a small village in the English county of Norfolk situated on the northern bank of the River Yare around seven miles south-east of Norwich. The village is the location of the RSPB Buckenham Marshes nature reserve.
  
  === Death note ===
  Rhodes is a village about eight miles from Manchester, in the unparished area of Middleton, in the Rochdale district, in the county of Greater Manchester, England.

• m. 1395 in Tattershall, Lincolnshire, England

1. Constantine de Clifton 2nd Baron, b. 1372 in Buckenham, Norfolk, England     d. 19 FEB 1396 in Buckenham, Norfolk, England

• m. 1380 in Nottinghamshire, England

• m. 1382 in Blyth, Nottinghamshire, England

1. Title: John Clifton in entry for John Clifton, "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975"
   Author: "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWKF-1PL : 4 February 2023), John Clifton in entry for John Clifton, 1749.
   Publication: Name: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWKF-1PL;
   Note: This extracted record was used to create this person in Family Tree.
   
2. Title: Book - Peerage of England
   
3. Title: Book - Visitations of Yorkshire
   
4. Title: Book - Plantagenet Ancestry
   
5. Title: Book - Yorkshire Church Notes
   
6. Title: Legacy NFS Source: John Clifton - Unknown-Begin:
   Author: "Héraldique européenne", Arnaud Bunel , Coats of Arms for European Royalty and Nobility (http://www.heraldique-europeenne.org, Arnaud Bunel, 1998) , Internet
   Note: Unknown-Begin: "Armigerous" (ahr-MIJ-ehr-us) adjective Bearing or entitled to bear heraldicarms. The reason the notion of a family crest was brought into the languagewas that those who were armigerous (entitled to bear arms) used to put their crest or achieveme
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2037060934
   
7. Title: Robert Clifton in entry for Anne Clifton, "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975"
   Author: "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N2J4-TM1 : 5 February 2023), Robert Clifton in entry for Anne Clifton, 1855.
   Publication: Name: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N2J4-TM1;
   Note: This extracted record was used to create this person in Family Tree.
   
8. Title: John Clifton in entry for John Clifton, "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975"
   Author: "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NRSY-BQD : 4 February 2023), John Clifton in entry for John Clifton, 1750.
   Publication: Name: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NRSY-BQD;
   Note: This extracted record was used to create this person in Family Tree.
   
9. Title: Legacy NFS Source: John Clifton - Unknown-Begin:
   Author: "Genealogical Research of Kirk Larson", Larson, Kirk, Personal Research Works including Bethune & Hohenlohe Descendants, 1981-2001, Kirk Larson, Private Library
   Note: Unknown-Begin: death: 10 August 1388; Rhodes, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom birth: about 1355; Buckenham, Norfolkshire, England, United Kingdom
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2037060928
   
10. Title: John Clifton in entry for Sarah Clifton, "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975"
    Author: "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J3V5-Y89 : 4 February 2023), John Clifton in entry for Sarah Clifton, 1755.
    Publication: Name: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J3V5-Y89;
    Note: This extracted record was used to create this person in Family Tree.