Robert Clifford (1448 - 1508)

Born 1448 in Skelton, Yorkshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1508 at about age 60 in Aspeden, Hertfordshire, England

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Biography

Robert was a knight, and, of Brackenborough, co. Lincoln. There is at least one visitation pedigree for the family he founded.^[1]

His wife was Elizabeth. She was a daughter of William Barlee, apparently of Aspenden. She was widow of Sir Ralph Jocelyne, Joslyn-112, Lord Mayor of London. Her brother Henry was an MP and has a Wikipedia article.

According to brother-in-law Henry's Wikipedia article (as of 23 Feb 2017):^[2]

Sir Robert Clifford was a Knight of the Body and Master of the Ordnance to King Henry VII, and one of the earliest supporters of the pretender to the Crown, Perkin Warbeck. There is a canopied altar tomb with brasses to Elizabeth (née Barley) and her second husband, Sir Robert Clifford, in the parish church at Aspenden, Hertfordshire, and portraits of Elizabeth and both her husbands in the stained glass windows of Holy Trinity church, Long Melford, Suffolk.

Robert's father's Wikipedia article (as of 23 Feb 2017) says:^[3]

Sir Robert Clifford (d. 15 March 1508), who married Elizabeth (née Barley), widow of Sir Ralph Jocelyn (d. October 25, 1478), twice Lord Mayor of London, and daughter of William Barley of Aspenden, Hertfordshire by Elizabeth Darcy. Both Sir Robert Clifford and his father-in-law, William Barley, were supporters of the pretender to the Crown, Perkin Warbeck.

One online source says:

Sir Robert Clifford but it seems that he was working for the king all along and informing him of those who were plotting to betray Henry. Clifford received a full pardon for his conspiracy and a reward.^[4]

Robert and Anne apparently had issue. The Hertford VCH for Aspenden says that:

Ralph was son of Geoffrey Jocelyn of Sawbridge- worth. In 1464 and 1477 he was Lord Mayor of London," and in 1465 was made a knight of the Bath." On the death of his wife Philippa he married Elizabeth daughter of William Barley. He left no issue at his death in 1478." The manor of Aspenden had been settled on his wife Elizabeth," who married as her second husband Sir Robert Clifford," a prominent supporter of the Perkin Warbeck conspiracy, who afterwards obtained his pardon and a substantial reward by betraying the names of his fellow-conspirators. He died in 1508 and his widow Dame Elizabeth Clifford about 1526." In 1527 their son Thomas Clifford conveyed the manor to trustees for Agnes Marsh, widow of Thomas Marsh, citizen and mercer of London,*' who died seised in 1528, when Aspenden descended to her son William Byrche. ^[5]

Robert's wife left a testament which has survived. It was proved 20 Feb 1526 (or maybe 1527?)^[6]

The son Thomas had a son Thomas with his wife Ellen, daughter and heir of John Ewerby of Ewerby, and this Thomas has a History of Parliament biography online and it explains that he also had a brother George. It refers to them as Cliffords of Brackenborough (Lincolnshire).

They were the grandsons of Sir Robert Clifford, himself a younger son of Thomas, 8th Lord Clifford. Sir Robert had acquired Aspenden on his marriage to Elizabeth Barley or Barkley, widow of Sir Ralph Jocelyn, and although his son appears to have disposed of his interest there the family continued to be described as of Aspenden. Thomas Clifford, who was aged 30 and more in November 1558, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Skipwith of South Ormsby, Lincolnshire, but if George married the name of his wife has not been found.^[7]

This Elizabeth left a will, which shows she had a son and daughter Clifford.^[8]

The Cliffords of Brackenborough clearly lived there for several more generations at least. William Clifford of Brackenborough was a cleric there who died 1670, and C 104/219 in the National Archives is a bond from 1674 involving Ursula Clifford of Brackenborough.

Sources

1. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/LincolnshirePedigreesV50/LincolnshirePedigrees_Maddison_v50#page/n269/mode/1up
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Barley
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Clifford,_8th_Baron_de_Clifford
4. ↑ http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/tudor-england/the-perkin-warbeck-rebellion/
5. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/cu31924088434463/cu31924088434463
6. ↑ https://books.google.be/books?id=DwlaAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA626
7. ↑ http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/clifford-george-1524-69-or-later
8. ↑ https://books.google.be/books?id=p6KyBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA129

• French, Miss Elizabeth. Genealogical Research in England, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 1917) Vol. 71, Page 239

Discussion about relatives:

• http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/2007-02/1170557858
• http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/clifford1299.htm
• About the monument in Aspenden and the Barley family there: http://www.barlowgenealogy.com/england/SirMontague/BFR-CH6B.pdf

Note about online sources

• The popular Genealogics website made by the late Leo van der Pas has Robert's information confused with that of his brother Roger.