CLIFTON 309 CLIFTON (of Leighton Bromswold).(') He m. (lie. Bp. of London, 25 June 1 591), Katherine, da. and h. of Sir Henry Darcy,() by his 2nd wifCjC^) Katherine, widow of Michael Pulteney (who d. is^l)^ da. of Sir John Fermor. He^.j./'.»z.5.,earlyinOct. i6i8,()having, it is said, committed suicide by stabbing himself "through ennui." n. 161 8. 2. Katherine, suo jure,(^) Baroness Clifton (of Leighton Bromswold), da. and h. She /«., in 1609,0 Esme Stuart (2nd s. of Esme, Duke of Lennox [S.]), who, on the death of his father, 26 May 1583, had become Lord of Aubigny, in France. On 7 June 1619, he was a: BARON STUART OF LEIGH- TON BROMSWOLD, co. Huntingdon, and EARL OF MARCH. On 16 Feb. 1623/4, he sue. his elder br. as DUKE OF LENNOX, ^c. [S.]. He d. 30 July 1 624. His widow m., in or before 1 632, James (Hamilton), 2nd Earl of Abercorn [S.], and had royal lie, 28 Nov. 1632, to retain her title, rank, and precedency, as Duchess of Lennox, notwithstanding such (*) J. H. Round, who discusses the case of this barony at considerable length in his Peerage and Pedigree, there (vol. i, p. 21 9) traces to its source the error of Colh'ns, Cruise, and Courthope, that " there was but one writ " to this Gervase. In Creations 1483-1646, in App., 47th Rep. D.K. Pub. Records, the date of Gervase Clifton's first writ of sum. is given as 31 Jan. 1603/4. The compiler of the list was misled by the Pari. Pawn of this date, at the end of which Clifton's name was added, presumably on the day on which his name first appears in the daily list in Lords' 'Journals, i.e. 9 Feb. 1609/10, for Thomas Clinton and Say and Theophilus Howard de Walden, who immediately precede Clifton on the Pawn, have the date 8 Feb. 1609/10 added after their names. V.G. C") He was grandson of Thomas, Lord Darcy, beheaded 1538. V.G. (") The fact that she was the da. of his 2nd wife has been discredited because the date of Michael Pulteney 's death has hitherto been given as 1577 instead of 1567, as on his tomb. Sir Henry Darcy 's 1st wife, Katherine, da. of Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, of Leighton Bromswold, d. v.p. and s.p., 1 567. The Leighton Bromswold estate seems to have been given to Sir Henry D. by Sir Robert T., whose will, pr. 23 June 1572, appoints his son-in-law his executor, but does not mention the property. V.G. C*) " Of him," writes Dugdale, somewhat scornfully, " I have not seen anything farther memorable [;.^. nothing beyond the mere writ of summons] than his commitment to the Tower, 30 Dec. 161 7, by reason that he expressed that he was sorry he had not stabbed Sir Francis Bacon, then Lord Keeper, for decreeing a case in Chancery against him; and that, in Oct. 161 8, he murt/iered himse/f." Pym writes, in his MS. Journal {Hist. MSS. Com., loth Report, App., vol. vi, p. 84), apparently under date " 1614," that "the Lord Clyfton, having maryed his da. to the Viscount D'Aubigny, since Earl of March, who was at lawe with him for his landes and being put into [the] Fleete, did, or would have, cut his own throate." He had a son who d. soon after Feb. 1 60 1. See Manningham's Diary of that date, where is an account of his gallantly saving the boy from a bear which had broken loose at a baiting at Notting- ham. It was not he but his cousin Sir Gervase C, Bart., who figures as " Gervase the Gentle" in the well-known rhyme on the Notts gentry. G.E.C. and V.G. if) According to the decision of 7 Feb. 1674. (*) Their eldest child, Elizabeth, was ^.17 June 1610.
