A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Clinton, Henry Fynes

by John William Cousin

Clinton, Henry Fynes (1781-1852).—Chronologist, b. at Gamston, Notts, ed. at Southwell, Westminster, and Oxf., where he devoted himself chiefly to the study of Greek. Brought into Parliament by the Duke of Newcastle in 1806, he took no active part in political life, and retired in 1826. He bought in 1810 the estate of Welwyn, and there he entered upon wide and profound studies bearing upon classical chronology, and wrote various important treatises on the subject, viz., Fasti Hellenici, Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece, part i. (1824), part ii. (1827), part iii. (1830), part iv. (1841), Fasti Romani, Civil and Literary Chronology of Rome and Constantinople, vol. i. (1850), vol. ii. (1851), An Epitome of the Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece (1851), the same for Rome (1853). He also wrote a tragedy, Solyman, which was a failure.