Biography of Gervase Clifton 1st Baron Clifton 1570-1618

Before 1570 [his father] John Clifton [aged 31] and [his mother] Anne Stanley [aged 37] were married.

Around 1570 Gervase Clifton 1st Baron Clifton was born to John Clifton [aged 32] and Anne Stanley [aged 38] in Barrington Court.

In 1591 Gervase Clifton 1st Baron Clifton [aged 21] and Katherine Darcy [aged 20] were married. They were half fifth cousin once removed.

In 1591 [his mother] Anne Stanley [aged 59] died.

Around 1592 [his daughter] Katherine Clifton Duchess Lennox was born to Gervase Clifton 1st Baron Clifton [aged 22] and [his wife] Katherine Darcy [aged 21]. She married (1) 1609 Esmé Stewart 3rd Duke Lennox, son of Esme Stewart 1st Duke Lennox and Catherine Balsac Duchess Lennox, and had issue (2) 1627 James Hamilton 2nd Earl Abercorn, son of James Hamilton 1st Earl Abercorn and Marion Boyd Countess Abercorn, and had issue.

In April 1593 [his father] John Clifton [aged 55] died.

In 1608 Gervase Clifton 1st Baron Clifton [aged 38] was created 1st Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold in Huntingdonshire by writ of summons enabling descent by the female line.

In 1609 [his son-in-law] Esmé Stewart 3rd Duke Lennox [aged 30] and [his daughter] Katherine Clifton Duchess Lennox [aged 17] were married. He the son of Esme Stewart 1st Duke Lennox and Catherine Balsac Duchess Lennox.

On 17th March 1617 Gervase Clifton 1st Baron Clifton [aged 47] was prosecuted by the Star Chamber and moved to Fleet Prison [Map].

On 30th December 1617 Gervase Clifton 1st Baron Clifton [aged 47] was imprisoned in the Tower of London [Map] for having threatened Francis Bacon 1st Viscount St Alban [aged 56] when Francis ordered a survey of Gervase's lands.

Letters of the Court of James I 1618. 5th October 1618. London. Reverend Thomas Lorkin to Thomas Puckering 1st Baronet [aged 26].

This day, news arrived of my Lord de la War's death, in his voyage to Virginia. This day was fatal to my Lord Clifton [aged 48], who, at his lodgings in Holborn, stabbed and murdered himself. The last week, the French agent [Le Clerc] was interdicted the court, for being appeached by a companion of his, already in prison for the same crime, to have projected and offered means of Sir Walter Raleigh's [aged 64] escape; and, though he protested against it, and sought to justify himself by writing, yet served it not his turn; for in the same terms he remains still, and hath (as I hear) written the news thereof to the king his master, petitioning either for a revocation or a reintegration, by his means, into his former condition.

On 14th October 1618 Gervase Clifton 1st Baron Clifton [aged 48] stabbed himself to death in the Fleet Prison [Map]. His daughter Katherine [aged 26] succeeded 2nd Baroness Clifton of Leighton Bromswold in Huntingdonshire. According to a letter from Reverend Thomas Lorkin the date was the 5th of October and the location "at his lodgings in Holborn" - see Letter.

In August 1637 [his former wife] Katherine Darcy [aged 66] died.