Gervase Clifton (1516 - 1588)

Born 26 Mar 1516 in Clifton, Nottinghamshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 20 Jan 1588 at age 71 in Clifton, Nottinghamshire, England

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Biography

"Gervase the Gentle, Stanhope the Stout, Markham the Lion and Sutton the Lout."

Gervase Clifton was born about 1516 (Christening 26 Mar 1516) in Clifton, Nottingham, England the son of Robert Clifton and his wife Anne Clifford. He succeeded his father aged two in 1518.

Gervase was a loyal servant of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth and therefor a favorite of successive Tudor monarchs. He was dubbed 'Gervase the Gentle' by Queen Elizabeth I, in a rhyme referring to four Nottinghamshire gentlemen:^[1]

Gervase the Gentle,

Stanhope the Stout,

Marcham the Lion,

and Sutton the lout.

He was knighted on 15 Nov 1538 and went with King Henry VIII to France in 1544, participating in the siege and capture of Boulogne. He was also at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547. he was also in the army which besieged Leith in 1560. He was a Justice of the Peace and Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1540, 1546, 1554 and 1572.^[1] He was succeeded by his four-month old grandson Gervase Clifton, later 1st Baronet, in 1588. ^[2]

He enjoyed considerable favor with Henry VIII who granted to him the Yorkshire manor of Armyn, belonging to the dissolved monastery of the Virgin Mary in York, and the two profitable wardships of Gervase Boswell and Thomas Fairfax, both of Yorkshire.^[1]

Gervase married first, on 17 January 1530,^[3] Mary (d 1564), daughter of Sir John Nevile of Chevet, Yorkshire, and they had 5 children:^[2]

1) Elizabeth, m Peter Frecheville of Staveley, Derbyshire

2) Robert, died in childhood

3) Anthony, died in childhood

4) Gervase, died in childhood

5) Frances, died in childhood

Gervase married second, in 1569,^[4] Winifred, widow of Sir George Pierrepont of Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire (who d 1564), daughter and heiress of William Thwaites of Oulton, Suffolk (Winifred later married Sir Edward Gawsell of Wallington, Norfolk), and they had 1 child:^[2]

1) George (1567-1587), m Winifred, daughter of daughter of Sir Anthony and Lady Anne Thorold of Marston, Lincolnshire.

• Burial (20 Jan 1587) Clifton, Nottingham, England

Sir Gervase Clifton was also the guardian of his stepson Sir Henry Pierrepont (1546-1616), of Holme Pierrepont.

In his will dated 15 Oct 1587 and proved 13 March 1588, Sir Gervis Clifton gave, among other bequests, “to my brother Thomas Melford £20 and to my [sic] George Melford £10.” To his nephews John and Gervase Wastnes, he grants £20 apiece. Thomas Melford, named as a son in Ralph Melford’s will, would have been a half-brother of Sir Gervase Clifton through his mother, as was George Melford.^[5] Sir Gervis Clifton died in Jan 1488.^[1]

In the chuch at Clifton, England there is the large altar tomb hearing the recumbent effigy of a knight ("Sir Gervies Clifton") and two ladies, on which the date 1564 (the year his first wife died) looks rather like 1764 to those unaccustomed to old English lettering. The inscription gives the full name and date of death of all three and concludes "whose soules we hope rest in God our Saviour."^[3]

Research Notes

John and Gervase Wastneys (Wastnes) are listed as living 1575, in the published record of the Visitation of Nottingham. They are shown there as sons of George Wastnes of Hedon and his wife, Mary Melfford[sic]. Mary Melford, called Mary Meringe in her father’s will, would have married secondly George Wastneys. Based on her sons being called nephews by Sir Gervase, it is evident that she was his half-sister.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} A C Wood, Notes on the early history of the Clifton family, Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 37, 1933
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} The University of Nottingham, "Manuscripts and Special Collections", Biography of Sir Gervase Clifton (d.1588)
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Bruce, Rev. Rosslyn. The Clifton Book (1906). Chapter III. The Cliftons of Clifton.
4. ↑ Marshall, George William. The Visitations of the County of Nottingham in the Years 1569 and 1614 (London, 1871) Page 50
5. ↑ Mahler, Leslie: "Samuel Levis, Quaker Immigrant to Pennsylvania", The Genealogist, Spring 1999, Vol 13, No 1, p. 30-36 (PDF download)

See also:

• Correspondence of the Clifton Family; 1555-1911

There are 738 items shown. No images are available, but the items have been individually paraphrased and summarized. Additional information might be found by reading these letters.Pierpont-94 06:39, 22 March 2015 (EDT)

• Thoroton, Robert. The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire (1677) Page 87
• Standish, John. Transactions of the Thoroton Society (W. B. Cooke, Nottingham, 1900) Vol. 3, Page 34

• On the monument to Sir Gervase Clifton (who died in 1587) is the motto vivit post funera virtus, adopted by the Town of Nottingham (English: Virtue lives after the funeral or Virtue outlives death.)

• Godfrey, John Thomas. Notes on the Churches of Nottinghamshire: Hundred of Bingham (Phillimore, 1907) Page 249.

• By his second wife, Sir Gervase Clifton, who died 20 January, 1587[/8], had at least, four sons and two daughters.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all that have contributed to this profile of Humphrey Need, including

• John W Sigh, Jr for creating this biography as part of the Profile Improvement Project.
• John Floyd for creating the original profile.