The Noble and Gentle Men of England / or, notes touching the arms and descents of the ancient knightly and gentle houses of England, arranged in their respective counties.

by Evelyn Philip Shirley

Willoughby of Wollaton and of Middleton in the county of Warwick bore, Or, two bars gules, the upper charged with two waterbougets, the lower with one waterbouget, argent.

Present Representative, Henry Willoughby, 8th Baron Middleton.

Clinton of Clumber, Duke of Newcastle 1756.

The Clintons are traced to the reign of Henry I., when, by favour of that king, Geffery de Clinton "was raised from the dust," as a contemporary writer affirms, and made Justice of England. He was enriched by large grants of land from the crown, and built the castle of Kenilworth. The present family descend from the brother of this Geffery, whose issue were of Coleshill and Maxtoke in Warwickshire, of which latter place John de Clinton was created Baron in 1298. His descendant, Edward Lord Clinton, was advanced to the Earldom of Lincoln in 1572. No family was more nobly allied, few had broader possessions—all have been long dissipated; but a fortunate match with the eventual heiress of Pelham in 1717 revived the drooping fortunes of the Clintons; hence the estate of Clumber, the former seat of the Holles family, and the Dukedom of Newcastle.

See Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed. vol. ii. pp. 992, 1007; and Brydges's Collins, ii. 181.

Arms.—Argent, three cross crosslets fitchée sable, on a chief azure two mullets pierced of the first. The original arms, as borne by Thomas de Clinton in the reign of Henry III., appears to have been a plain chief. See his seal engraved in Upton, de Studio Militari, p. 82. In the reign of Edward II. Sir John Clinton of Maxtoke bore, Argent, on a chief azure two mullets or. At the same period another Sir John Clinton bore, Or, three piles azure, a canton ermine. His son in the fifth of Edward III. bore, Argent, on a chief azure two fleurs-de-lis or. William Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, at the same period bore the present coat with the exception of three mullets or in place of the two mullets argent, and John Clinton omitted the crosslets. William Clinton, Lord of Allesley, who lived at the same period, bore the present coat. John de Clinton in the succeeding reign, bore two mullets of six points or pierced gules, and Thomas de Clynton the same with a label of three points ermine.

See Willement's and Nicolas's Rolls, and Montagu's Guide to the Study of Heraldry, p. 51.

Present Representative, Henry Pelham Alexander Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle.

Gentle.