Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clutterbuck, Robert
CLUTTERBUCK, ROBERT (1772–1831), topographer, was the eldest surviving son of Thomas Clutterbuck, esq., of Watford, Hertfordshire, by Sarah, daughter of Robert Thurgood, esq., of Baldock in that county. He was born at Watford on 28 June 1772, and at an early age was sent to Harrow School, where he continued until he was entered as a gentleman commoner of Exeter College, Oxford. After graduating B.A. in 1794 he entered at Lincoln’s Inn, intending to make the law his profession; but his ardour in the pursuit of chemistry and in painting (in which he took lessons of Barry) induced him, after a residence of several years in London, to abandon his original plans. In 1798 he married Marianne, eldest daughter of Colonel James Capper, and after a few years' residence at the seat of his father-in-law, Cathays, near Cardiff, Glamorganshire, he took possession of his paternal estate at Watford, where he continued to reside until his death, on 25 May 1831. He was a county magistrate and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. For eighteen years he was busily engaged in the compilation of a new history of his native county. The work appeared under the title of ‘The History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford; compiled from the best printed authorities and original records preserved in public repositories and private collections. Embellished with views of the most curious monuments of antiquity, and illustrated with a map of the County,’ 3 vols. London, 1815, 1821, 1827, fol. The plates in this work have never been surpassed in an similar publication. Several of them were from his own sketches, and he also secured the assistance of Edward Blore [q. v.] and other eminent draughtsmen and engravers. Clutterbuck published, in 1828, an ‘Account of the Benefactions to the Parish of Watford in the County of Hertford, compiled from Authentic Documents.’ His portrait has been engraved by W. Bond.
[Gent. Mag. ci. (i.) 565; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, 14343, 14344; Upcott’s English Topography, i. 623*; Egerton MS. 1533; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Nichols’s Illustr. of Lit. vi. 437, 447, 448; Cat. of Oxford Graduates (1851), 135.]