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Sir Thomas Clifton, Baronet

Sir Thomas Clifton, Baronet (1628 -- 13 November 1694) was the head of the Clifton family of Lancashire, members of which were Royalists during the Civil War. He was knighted in 1661 ‘as a recognition of his family’s loyalty’. In 1694 he was tried for high treason, accused of involvement in the 'Lancashire Plot'. He was acquitted, but died shortly after.

Sir Thomas was born in 1628, one of 14 children. He married twice, having several children by his first wife, Bridget, who all died young except one daughter, Mary, who married the sixth Lord Petre. By his second wife, also Bridget, he had two children, Thomas, born in 1668 and who died in 1688, and Bridget. [3] Four, possibly five of his sisters became nuns in the Spanish Netherlands, usually with the Poor Clares at Gravelines. [4] Putting daughters in foreign convents at this period, while usually requiring a hefty dowry that only the gentry could afford, was often preferable to marrying them off, which could call for a more costly dowry. [5]

In the 17th century the Cliftons lived at Lytham and practised as Roman Catholics, suffering various penalties and trials for their faith. They were Royalists in the Civil War which cost the lives of Sir Thomas’s elder brother, Cuthbert, and three of his uncles and resulted in the sequestration of the family estates. Sir Thomas had four younger brothers: John, William, Richard and James. He was made a baronet in 1661 ‘as a recognition of his family’s loyalty.’ In 1678-9, at the time of the Popish Plot, Sir Thomas and his wife Bridget were indicted for recusancy. [6]

When James II dismissed the Earl of Derby as lord lieutenant of the county in 1687 along with his deputy lieutenants and replaced him with the Catholic Viscount Molyneux, Sir Thomas was appointed as one of the new deputy lieutenants. [7]

Sir Thomas was arrested in company with other Catholic gentleman at the time of the Glorious Revolution. The dates and occasions of his arrests are somewhat confused. Bellingham in his diary entry for 17 December 1688, which details local events following on from William of Orange’s arrival in England, records that ‘Sr Tho Clifton was taken and brother’. [8] This is the only record found of this event. According to Thomas Patten, in his evidence at the Manchester Jacobite trials (see below), Sir Thomas was arrested on 16 June 1689 and held at Patten’s Preston house. This is supported by a document in the Kenyon papers dated October 1694 which supplies information not contained in Patten’s evidence, that on 16 June 1689 ‘… another party of Collonel Mathews’ dragoons went to Lithom, Sir Thomas Clifton’s house … and there took up Sir Thomas Clifton and brought him prisoner to Preston.’ The document reveals that Sir Thomas was one of several other prominent Catholics held at Preston. The others were transferred to Manchester on 25 June and held until the following January, while Sir Thomas remained detained in Preston. [9]

Sir Thomas was again arrested in July 1694, being held first at Chester and then at Tower of London before being brought to Manchester in October where he was tried for high treason for his part in the ‘Lancashire Plot’.

Thomas Patten of Preston appeared in support of Sir Thomas:

Thomas Patten Esq. produced as a witness on behalf of Sir Tho. Clifton. Declared that he being one of the Deputy Lieutenants of Lancashire in the year 1689, received orders from the Lord Lieutenant to secure severall Popish Gentlemen, that amongst them Sir Tho. Clifton was one who was taken and brought Prisoner to Preston, upon the 16th day of June 1689. That Sir Tho. being a very infirm man, and unfitt to be carried so far as Manchester, which was the place where the rest of the Popish Gentlemen then made prisoners were secured, Mr Patten undertook for Sir Tho., and prevailed to have him kept at Mr Patten’s own house in Preston, where he continued prisoner, and was not discharged till January following at which time all the Gentlemen were set at liberty. That during Sir Tho. Clifton’s confinement he expressed to the said Thomas Patten much zeal and affection to the present Government, saying how much the persons of his religion ought to be satisfied with their usage, as putting no difference betwixt them and other Subjects, save in the public exercise of their Religion, so long as they themselves would be quiet; that he often protested for himself that he could never endure to think of practising any change, and Mr Patten further said that he knew Sir Thomas’s disposition to have always been peaceable and quiet.

Sir Thomas and his fellow defendants were acquitted on 22 October. Sir Thomas was dead within a month. [11]

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[3] ‘A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Vol 2 – John Burke – Google Books’, 57, accessed 2 March 2016, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jJFIAQAAMAAJ&dq. ======

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[6] ‘Townships: Clifton-with-Salwick | British History Online’, accessed 2 March 2016, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol7/pp161-165 ; William Dugdale and F. R. Raines, ‘The Visitation of the County Palatine of Lancaster: Made in the Year 1664-5’, The Chetham Society, OS, 84 (1872): 86–87. ======

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[9] ‘DDKE/HMC/888 “The Following Account of Lunt Is What Hath Been Attested by Particular Witnesses, Not Otherwise Worth the Reading, but as an Index, If Turned To, to Show from the Circumstances of Times and Places, What Construction May Be Made as to the Truth or Improbability of His Evidence, with Some Deviations Observable to the Same Purpose.”’, Lancashire Archives Catalogue, October 1694, http://archivecat.lancashire.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=DDKE%2fHMC%2f888&pos=3. ======

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[10] ‘DDKE/HMC/423 Letter from: L. Rawstorne to Roger Kenyon – Newhall.–I Am a Little Troubled to Hear of the Confidence of Our Red-Lettered Gentlemen. Shall We Not Live to See Their Combs Cut, or Their Tethers Made Shorter? Portion of Seal.’, Lancashire Archives Catalogue, 26 November 1681, http://archivecat.lancashire.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=DDKE%2fHMC%2f423&pos=1. ======