A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the heralds' visitations in I56;, 34 i6i3 35 and 



The Cliftons adhered to 

 Roman Catholicism, 37 and in 

 the Civil War to the king's 

 side. 38 Thomas Clifton had 

 his estates sequestered as a re- 

 cusant and delinquent, 39 and 

 at length they were sold by 

 order of the Parliament. 40 

 His eldest son, Colonel Cuth- 

 bert Clifton, was taken 

 prisoner at Liverpool in 1 644, 

 and died at Manchester, 41 and 

 three other brothers are stated 

 to have lost their lives in the 

 king's service. 42 Thomas died 



CLIFTON of Clifton 

 and Westby. Sable on a 

 bend argent three mulleti 

 pierced gules. 



in 1657, and his 



second son Thomas succeeded. 43 He was made a 

 baronet in 1 66 1 as a recognition of his family's 

 loyalty, 44 and he was accused of treason after the 

 Revolution. 45 He died in 1694, and his son having 

 died before him the baronetcy expired, while the 

 manors descended to his nephew Thomas Clifton 

 of Fairsnape, who registered his estates in 1717 

 as a ' Papist,' the annual value being given as 

 1,548 ijs. 2</. 46 He died in 1720, and the 

 manors of Clifton and Westby descended regularly to 

 his great-great-grandson, another Thomas Clifton, 47 

 who became a Protestant in 183 1, 48 and was sheriff in 

 1835. He died in 1851, and his son John Talbot Clif- 

 ton, who represented North Lancashire 1 844-47 49 ' 50 

 and was sheriff in l853, 51 died in 1882, having 

 returned to the Roman Catholic religion. 52 He was 

 succeeded by his grandson Mr. John Talbot Clifton, 63 



widow, formerly wife of Thomas Clifton 

 (father of Cuthbert), and Dorothy, Cuth- 

 bert's widow, were living at Westby. 



The younger son, Cuthbert, entered 

 the Society of Jesus in 1630 and laboured 

 in the Lancashire mission from 1642 till 

 his death in 1675. He is stated to have 

 reconciled the seventh Earl of Derby to 

 the Roman Church while on his way to 

 execution at Bolton, 1651 ; Foley, Rec. 

 5. /. vii, 139. * Vhlt. (Chet. Soc.), 42. 



35 Ibid. 88. s6 Ibid. 86. 



37 Sir Cuthbert was present at the 

 meeting (or pilgrimage) at Holywell in 

 1629. It was then stated that he had two 

 priests at his house, at which place were 

 kept Fr. Arrowsmith's clothes and the 

 knife that cut him up ; Foley, op. cit. iv, 

 534, citing S. P. Dom. Chas. I, cli, 13. 

 Two of his daughters were nuns. 



It may have been this Cuthbert to 

 whom in 1636 licence to travel abroad 

 was given, Rome being the place for- 

 bidden ; Cal, S. P. Dom. 1635-6, p. 341. 



88 Thomas Clifton was one of the 

 ' recusants convicted ' who petitioned the 

 king on the outbreak of the war to be 

 allowed to provide themselves with 

 weapons ; Civil War Tracts (Chet. Soc.), 

 39. He entertained the Earl of Derby 

 at Lytham Hall in 1644 ; War in Lanes. 

 (Chet. Soc.), 26. 



39 Royalist Comf. Papers (Rec. Soc. 

 Lanes, and Ches.), ii, 4763. Major 

 John Wildman, esq., contracted for the 

 purchase of the manors of Clifton-with- 

 Salwick, Westby, Lytham and Little 

 Marton. 



Other members of the family also 

 suffered. The estate of Dorothy widow 

 of Sir Cuthbert was sequestered in 1647 

 for her recusancy ; ibid. 43. The annuity 

 of John Clifton, a lunatic, was suspended 

 for a time ; ibid. 46. 



40 Index of Royalists (Index Soc.), 30 ; 

 under an Act of 1652, for the use of the 

 navy. 



41 He married in 1641 Margaret daugh- 

 ter and heir of George Ireland of South- 

 worth, and his estate was seized by the 

 Parliament in 1643 'i Royalist Comp. 

 Papers, ii, 60. Colonel Clifton who 

 must have been very young for such a 

 post was made governor of Liverpool 

 after the capture of that town by 

 Prince Rupert, and was taken prisoner 

 at its recapture i Nov. 1644. He and 

 the others 'were carried to Manchester 

 and there kept. Some of them died 

 within a little time after, as Colonel 

 Cuthbert Clifton of Lytham and Captain 

 Richard Butler of Rawcliffe with 

 others' ; War in Lanes. 60 ; Civil War 



Tracts, 208. For an anecdote of him see 

 War in Lanes. 5 1. 



42 Gillow, Bibl. Diet, of Engl. Cath. i, 

 516-17. Their names are given as 

 Francis (killed at Newbury 1643), J^ n 

 and Lawrence. Another brother, Ger- 

 vase, was with the king's forces till the 

 taking of Shelford Manor, when he was 

 captured ; ' as to his recusancy, as he 

 was but young before the first wars he 

 could not be convicted, but his father 

 and all the family being ever Papists, 

 they (the investigators) believed he could 

 never make it appear that he was con- 

 formable, nor was he then so far as they 

 knew" ; Royalist Comp. Papers, ii, 56, 45. 



48 The details in the later part of the 

 descent are taken in the main from 

 Foster's Lanes. Fed. f Mr. Thomas Clifton 

 of Lytham ' was buried at Lytham 

 17 Dec. 1657 ; Reg. 



44 G.E.C. Complete Baronetage, iii, 170. 



45 Sir Thomas and Lady Bridget his wife 

 were indicted for recusancy in 1678-9 ; 

 Hist. A1SS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. iv, 109. 



Sir Thomas, then a very infirm man, 

 was arrested on suspicion in 1689, and 

 kept in Mr. Patten's house in Preston, 

 where he avowed his contentment with 

 the government. Again he was captured 

 at Wrea Green 17 July 1694 and lodged 

 at Kirkham, being taken next day to his 

 own house at Lytham, then by Wigan 

 to Chester Castle. Afterwards he was 

 kept in the Tower of London till the 

 trial at Manchester ; Jacobite Trials (Chet. 

 Soc.), 98, 46. 



His brothers William and James were 

 also arrested in 1689; Hist. MSS. Com. 

 Rep. xiv, App. iv, 3 14. Lunt, the informer 

 and chief witness, at the trial pointed to 

 Sir Rowland Stanley as Sir Thomas 

 Clifton and vice versa ; ibid. 371. 



The manors of Lytham, Westby-with- 

 Plumpton, Clifton -with -Salwick and 

 Little Marton were held by Sir Thomas 

 Clifton in 1692; Pal. of Lane. Plea 

 R. 455, m. ii ; Feet of F. bdle. 228, 

 m. 127. 



46 Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Cath. 

 Nonjurors, 115; also Bridget Clifton, 94. 



An agent of the government writing 

 from Preston in 1716 says : ' The family 

 of Thomas Clifton of Lytham, esq., a 

 Roman Catholic of very considerable 

 estate, seems to have been very deeply 

 engaged in the late rebellion. George 

 Clifton, his brother, is actually outlawed 

 on account of that rebellion and I have 

 the copies of several depositions taken 

 against the eldest son of the said Thomas 

 Clifton and one Mr. Mayfield his steward 

 . . . that are very plain and direct ! ' 



164 



Again, ' The eldest son of the said 

 Thomas Clifton has absconded ever since 

 the action at Preston and is said also 

 to be fled to France. . . . There are 

 also some depositions against the said 

 Thomas Clifton himself, and I have been 

 assured by a clergyman of the Church of 

 England in his neighbourhood, a very 

 zealous man for the government, that 

 . . . was there but proper encourage- 

 ment given there might be a cloud of 

 witnesses produced that would fix the 

 matter plainly upon him ' ; Payne, Engl. 

 Cath. Rec. 87, 100. 



47 The descent is thus given in Foster, 

 op. cit. : Thomas, d. 1720 -s. Thomas, 

 d. 1734 -s. Thomas, d. 1783 -s. John, 

 d. 1832 -s. Thomas, 1788-1851. 



It was the second Thomas Clifton who 

 married Mary daughter and co-heir of 

 Richard (fifth) Lord Molyneux. The 

 same Thomas, as son and heir of Thomas 

 Clifton and nephew and devisee of James 

 Clifton of Preston, in 1727 transferred 

 to William Clifton (son of Cuthbert, 

 eldest son of said James) and John 

 Winder land on the Freshes of the River 

 Potomac in the province of Virginia, 

 lately in the possession of James Clifton 

 and of Thomas his second son ; Piccope 

 MSS. Chet. Lib.), iii, 232, from rolls 

 i & 2 of Geo. II at Preston. For the 

 will of Thomas Clifton, 1734, see ibid. 

 256, quoung 2nd 5th roll of Geo. II ; it 

 mentions Mary his wife daughter of 

 Richard Lord Molyneux and his four 

 daughters. Eleanor, one of the daughters, 

 was a nun at the Bar Convent, York, 

 1720-85 ; Misc. <Cath. Rec. Soc.), iv, 360. 



The third Thomas in the descent 

 married Anne daughter of Sir Carnaby 

 Haggerston in 1752. The marriage 

 covenant, from which it appears he owned 

 Fairsnape and Todderstaffe, is abstracted 

 by Piccope (ibid. 278) from R. 26 of 

 Geo. II. He had made a settlement of 

 his manors of Clifton, Salwick, Westby, 

 &c., in 1750 ; Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 570, 

 m. 7. The last Thomas similarly occurs 

 in 1809 ; Draft Docquets, bdle. 27, R 10. 



48 Some particulars are related in 

 Gillow' s Haydock Papers, 237. 



49-so Burke, Landed Gentry (1906), 335. 



51 Ibid. 



52 His brother Charles Frederick took 

 his wife's surname of Abney-Hastings, 

 and was raised to the peerage in 1880 as 

 Lord Donington. He died in 1895, his 

 son being the Earl of Loudoun, as heir 

 of his mother ; G.E.C. Complete Peerage, 



ii' 137- 



53 Son of Thomas Henry Clifton, who 

 died in 1880. 



