CLIFTON OF CLIFTON, WESTBY, AND LYTHAM.
The family of the Cliftons, whose present seat is Lytham Hall, has been associated with the Fylde for many centuries. The earliest ancestor of whom there exists any authentic record, was Sir William de Clyfton, who lived in the time of William II., surnamed Rufus, and during the last year of that monarch’s reign, A.D. 1100, gave certain lands in Salwick to his son William upon his marriage. In 1258 a namesake and descendant of this William de Clyfton held ten carucates of land in Amounderness, and was a collector of aids for the county of Lancaster. His son Gilbert de Clyfton was lord of the manors of Clifton, Westby, Fylde-Plumpton, etc., and High Sheriff of the county in the years 1278, 1287, and 1289. He died in 1324, during the reign of Edward II., and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir William de Clifton, who was Knight of the Shire for Lancaster 1302-1304. Sir William de Clifton,[59] knt., the son of the latter gentleman, came into possession of the estates on the demise of his father, and married in 1329, Margaret, the daughter of Sir R. Shireburne, knt., of Stonyhurst, by whom he had issue one son, Nicholas, afterwards knighted. He also entailed the manors of Clifton and Westby on his male issue, and settled the manor of Goosnargh upon his son and heir. He died in 1365. Sir Nicholas de Clifton, during one portion of his life, held the post of Governor of the Castle of Ham, in Picardy. He married Margaret, the daughter of Sir Thomas West, of Snitterfield, in Warwickshire, and had issue two sons—Robert and Thomas. The former, who succeeded him, was Knight of the Shire 1382-1383, and espoused Eleyne, the daughter of Sir Robert Ursewyck, knt., by whom he had three sons—Thomas, Roger, and James. In course of time, Thomas, the eldest, became the representative of the family, and married Agnes, the daughter of Sir Richard Molyneux, of Sefton. This gentleman (Thomas Clifton), accompanied the army of Henry V., when that monarch invaded France in 1415. He settled Goosnargh and Wood-Plumpton upon his second son, James, while the other portion of the estates passed, on his death in 1442, to Richard, his heir. Richard Clifton formed a matrimonial alliance with Alice, the daughter of John Butler, of Rawcliffe, from which sprang one child, James Clifton, who afterwards espoused Alice, the daughter of Robert Lawrence, of Ashton. The offspring of the latter union were Robert and John Clifton. The former on inheriting the property married Margaret, the daughter of Nicholas Butler, of Bewsey, in Lancashire. His children were Cuthbert and William; and now, for a few generations, we have two separate branches, the descendants of these gentlemen, which afterwards became united in the persons of their respective representatives:—
This Thomas Clifton retained the Fairsnape estates, which he had inherited from his mother, during his lifetime, but on his decease they passed to his uncle. He married Eleanora Alathea, the daughter of Richard Walmsley, of Dunkenhalgh, in Lancashire. At his death he left a family of five daughters and two sons, the eldest of whom, Thomas Clifton, of Clifton, Westby, and Lytham, subsequently espoused Mary, the daughter of the fifth Viscount Molyneux. His heir, also Thomas, and born in 1728, rebuilt Lytham Hall, and allied himself to the noble house of Abingdon by marrying, as his third wife, Lady Jane Bertie, the daughter of the third earl. The children of this union were seven, and John, the eldest, born in 1764, inherited the estates, and married Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Horsley Widdrington-Riddell, of Felton Park, Northumberland. John Clifton was succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas, who had four brothers and three sisters—John, William, Charles, Mary, Harriet, and Elizabeth. Thomas Clifton, of Clifton and Lytham, born in 1788, was a justice of the peace, a deputy-lieutenant, and in 1835, High Sheriff of the county of Lancaster. He married Hetty, the daughter of Pellegrine Trevis, an Italian gentleman of ancient lineage, by whom he had issue John Talbot, born in 1819; Thomas Henry, lieut.-colonel in the army, and knight of the Legion of Honour and of the Mejidie; Edward Arthur, died abroad in 1850; Charles Frederick, who espoused Lady Edith Maud, eldest daughter of the second Marquis of Hastings, and assumed in 1859, by act of parliament, the arms and surname of Abney Hasting; and Augustus Wykenham, late captain in the Rifle Brigade, who married Lady Bertha Lelgarde Hastings, second daughter of the second Marquis of Hastings. John Talbot Clifton, esq., is still living, and is the present lord of Lytham, Clifton, etc. He was for some years colonel of the 1st. Royal Lancashire Militia, and sat in Parliament from 1844 to 1847 as Member for North Lancashire. In 1844 he married Eleanor Cicily, the daughter of the Hon. Colonel Lowther, M.P., and has one son, Thomas Henry Clifton, esq., who was born in 1845, and is now one of the Members of Parliament for North Lancashire. John Talbot Clifton, esq., is a justice of the peace, and deputy-lieutenant of this county. Thomas Henry Clifton, esq., M.P., espoused, in 1867, Madeline Diana Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Sir Andrew Agnew, bart., and has issue several children.
In 1872 Henry Lowther succeeded his uncle as third earl of Lonsdale, and at the same time his sisters Eleanor Cicily, the wife of John Talbot Clifton, esq., of Lytham Hall, and Augusta Mary, the wife of the Right Hon. Gerard James Noel, M.P., younger son of the first earl of Gainsborough, were elevated to the rank of earl’s daughters.