Sir Gervase Clifton (1612–1675) was 2nd Baronet Clifton of

Clifton, Nottinghamshire Clifton is a large suburban village and historic manor in the city of Nottingham, England. In 2020 it had an estimated population of 22,749. Clifton has two council wards in the City of Nottingham (Clifton West and Clifton East as of 2018) ...

Family

Gervase was the only son of

Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet, K.B. (25 November 1587 – 28 June 1666) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1666. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. He was educa ...

, and his first wife Lady Penelope Rich, daughter of

Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick Robert Rich, 3rd Baron Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick (December 1559 – 24 March 1619), was an English nobleman, known as Baron Rich between 1581 and 1618, when he was created Earl of Warwick. He was the first husband of Penelope Devereux, whom he d ...

and Lady Penelope Devereux. His mother died in 1613, and his father married six more times and had many more children. He studied at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. In 1629 he went on the

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...

with his tutor, the philosopher

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book '' Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influ ...

. He married in 1633 Sara, daughter of Timothy Pusey of Selston, Nottinghamshire. They had no surviving children, although two daughters died in infancy.

Career

He was appointed as a Justice of the Peace for Nottinghamshire in 1635. However, his impulsive behaviour caused conflict with his father. He was described as "the wretched unfortunate, who was his father's greatest foil".Dr Robert Thoroton in his History of Nottinghamshire (1676) He was imprisoned in 1640 for assaulting two men serving a writ on him for unpaid debts. In 1648 he relinquished his rights to the Clifton estates in favour of his younger half-brother Clifford. Gervase succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet in 1666. On his death in 1675 the baronetcy passed to Clifford's son William.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton, Gervase, 2nd Baronet 1612 births 1675 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Baronets in the Baronetage of England People from Nottingham Gervase English justices of the peace