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Knights of the Bath appointed at the time of the accession of Edward the Sixth. He accompanied his father in his embassy to the French Court in the reign of Elizabeth. On their landing at Boulogne the company were honourably received, and from there conveyed to the Chateau de Louze, where they were attended by the King's officers. He was one of the peers in commission for the trial of the Queen of Scots; and also for the trial of Secretary Davison " for that in contempt of her Majesty, and contrary to the Queen's commands, he had acquainted the Council with the warrant for the execution of the Scottish Queen, without Queen Elizabeth's knowledge." In 1589 he was one of the lords appointed on the trial of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel.1
His lordship died on September 29, 1616; having married Catherine, daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon, and secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Morrison, Knight. By the first lady he had Thomas, his successor; and Sir Edward Clinton, who, by his wife Mary, daughter of Thomas Dalton of Stourton, in Lincolnshire, had three sons, first, Charles, who died young; second, Robert, who left no issue; and third Francis, who was progenitor of the Duke of Newcastle.
Thomas, son and heir to the last Earl Henry, third Earl of Lincoln, was forty-five years of age when his father died; during whose lifetime he served in Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's reign for St. Ives, Cornwall, and Grimsby, in Lincolnshire. In the reign of James the First he was one of the commissioners appointed by Act of Parliament to treat with certain Scottish commissioners for the union of the two countries.
In 1609-10 he had summons to Parliament as Baron Clinton and Saye. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Knevett, of Charlton in Wilts, by whom he had issue, eight sons, the third, Theophilus, being his successor.
This Theophilus, the fourth Earl of Lincoln, was nineteen years of age at his father's decease. He was made Knight of the Bath in 1616, at the same time as Prince Charles.
During the Civil War, Parliament gave orders for £1,700 to be paid to the Earl out of delinquents' estates in Lincolnshire, which sum he had disbursed in their service, but in 1647, on his opposing the power of the army, and endeavouring to enter into a treaty with the King, an impeachment for high treason was carried against him. From this impeachment the Earl was afterwards discharged; and on June 20, 1649, he petitioned for damages from the destruction of Tattershall Castle, belonging to him. He lived to see the restoration of the royal family; and at the coronation of Charles the Second performed the office of carver.
Edward, the fifth Earl of Lincoln, was made Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Charles the Second. He married Jane, daughter of Peter de Guliere, Lord of Verune in France, who died without issue by his lordship. The Earl died in November, 1692.
Francis, sixth Earl, succeeded to the estates on the death of Earl Edward, 1692, and died in the following year, aged fifty-eight.
He married first Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Killigrew, by whom he had a son, Francis, who died an infant. By his second wife, who was daughter of Sir Thomas Penniston, of Oxfordshire, he had two sons, and a daughter, Lady Susannah.
Henry, seventh Earl of Lincoln, who in 1693 succeeded his father, was one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to Prince George of Denmark; but during the last four years of Queen Anne's reign, having vigorously opposed the measures brought forward by the Court party, and the peace made at Utrecht, he refused both place and pension offered to him. In this action the Earl of Torrington was so thoroughly in agreement with Clinton's conduct that on his decease the bulk of his estate was left to Lord Lincoln.
Although the Clintons held no extensive possessions in the neighbourhood of Clumber until the latter part of the eighteenth century, a circumstance occurred, in 1711, which ultimately proved to be a source of great wealth and influence to the family.
On the death of John Holles, the last Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, it was found that he had bequeathed the Clumber estates, and a great part of his other vast possessions, to his nephew, Thomas, the only son of the first Lord Pelham, by his second wife, Lady Grace, youngest daughter of Gilbert Holles, third Earl of Clare, and sister of the above-named Duke. Thomas Pelham, before he attained his eighteenth year, succeeded to his father's title of Lord Pelham, and five months afterwards to the estates of his uncle the Duke, when he added to his surname that of Holles. He married Lady Harriet, daughter of Francis, Earl of Godolphin, and, there being no children born of this marriage, on his retirement from the ministry of George II. in 1756, the King, in reward for his long service, created him Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, in Staffordshire, with remainder on default of his issue male, to Henry, Earl of Lincoln, and his heirs male by Catherine his then wife. On the death of Thomas Pelham-Holles, first Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, in 1768, by this deed Henry, the ninth Earl of Lincoln, who was the twenty-first in paternal descent from Renebald de Clinton, carried the titles and estates of the Duke of Newcastle into the Clinton family.
It was in consequence of a memorial addressed to Queen Anne by John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, in 1707, that Clumber Park was made : for the enjoyment of her Majesty during the whole course of her life, the improvement and ornament of the royal Forest of Sherwood, also for the use of the proprietors and tenants of the adjacent land. For this purpose it was determined to enclose not less than three thousand acres of the Duke's own land of inheritance.
For making the pale of the park it was arranged that a riding should be cut through her Majesty's decayed wood in Birkland, not to exceed eighty yards in width, and the timber thus obtained be disposed of as the Duke might determine. But, as this riding would not furnish sufficient material to make the pale of the park, in addition to that required for building the lodges, houses, barns, and other conveniences, his grace agreed to supply the deficiency from his own woods; the pale of the park to enclose part of Clumber, part of Hardwick, part of Bothamsall, or Normanton, and part of Carburton.
One thousand pounds per annum to be paid to the Duke for the expenses of construction and maintenance of the park; such payment to commence at Michaelmas, 1708, and to be paid quarterly at the Exchequer, out of the treasure there applicable to the uses of the Government during her Majesty's lifetime; it was also agreed that the Duke shall hold the office of ranger of the park in his power.
The Duke and his heirs for ever to have free chase and free warren within this park and the lands to be enclosed therein; and after her Majesty's decease to have these lands again, as in the present estate, with the stock of deer, and the fences, lodges, and other buildings thereunto belonging.
Before the Conquest "Clumber" or "Clumbre" was the name by which the part of the forest where the park now stands was known. Adelwol and Ulchil then held lands and a mill at Clumbre; which afterwards passed into the hands of Roger de Busli, who is described in the Domesday Book as holding two manors in Clumbre.
The boundaries of the park have been extended since the Duke of Newcastle first made the enclosure. It is said now to contain about four thousand acres, but there is little evidence remaining that it once constituted a part of Sherwood Forest.
Probably many of the old oaks were felled either when the park was made, or in the latter part of the previous century, when Thomas Baskerville, in his notes of a journey through Sherwood, says: "As we rode through the forest, we saw many old decayed oaks, of which abundance were cut down "by the Duke of Newcastle's order, to make charcoal." This was about the time when Evelyn was lamenting the destruction of the woods for this purpose, and regretting that a patent which had been granted by King James to Simon Sturtivant for melting iron ore and other metals with pit coal, sea coal, and brush fuel, did not succeed.
A feeling of melancholy is inspired by the long line of pines leading from the Worksop road to the lodge, but on entering the park the aspect is more cheerful, for although the pine is still the most prevalent tree, it is of a nobler growth and relieved by the birch. Looking back from the park, the appearance of the gateway is pleasing, with its lofty arch; but as a piece of architecture it is far surpassed by the lodge at the entrance to Clumber from Apleyhead, which seldom fails to receive an admiring glance from passers-by, even from those tourists who dwell in the busy manufacturing towns (where everything supposed to be artistic must be florid), who wonder they should be so charmed by the simple grace of this building.
The most pleasing feature of the park is the view which suddenly bursts upon the spectator as he crosses the bridge over the lake on the road to Thoresby. Standing on this bridge, which was probably the work of the same architect who designed the lodge at Apleyhead, he looks from a considerable elevation upon a large expanse of water, and the fine trees which clothe its steep banks on either hand ; while on the north side of the lake is Clumber House, the gardens, and the church.
One is so accustomed to look upon the loveliness and grandeur of the world, that the senses are apt to become dull and unappreciative; but when nature is so well aided by art as in this scene, even the most careless observer is roused from his apathy.
Thomas Pelham Holles, the first Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, was an active politician, who, on the accession of George I. in 1714, is said to have endeared himself by every testimony his youthful heart could suggest, of unbounded zeal for the House of Hanover; and his endeavours to suppress and discourage the libels and tumults by which it was immediately assailed were carried to a generous extravagance which even exposed him to some personal danger. He was immediately received into great favour, for in very little more than a month after the King's arrival in England he was created Earl, and in the following year, Marquis of Clare, and Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne.
For nearly half a century the Duke filled the highest offices in the State, and actually took part in ruling the destinies of Europe. This long tenure of office arose partly from the aid given to the Duke by his brother Henry, and also from his own strong sense of honour and honesty, the lustre of which frequently astonished the most keen-sighted, and subdued the boldest of his antagonists. Six years after his inheritance of the Clumber estates he married Lady Harriet, daughter of Francis, Earl of Godolphin, and grand-daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough ; during the same month he was appointed Lord Chamberlain of the King's household and sworn of the Privy Council: while in the succeeding year the Order of the Garter was conferred upon him. During the rebellion of 1715, the Duke, in conjunction with his brother, Henry Pelham, raised a troop of volunteers for service against the Pretender.2
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1 Gervase Holles records him as a great
tyrant among the gentry of Lincolnshire, whom Denzil Holles used to confront
on the bench, and carry business against him in spite of his teeth.—Collins'
Peerage.
2 The Prince of Wales (afterwards George II.)
is said to have been accustomed to speak of Newcastle as "an impertinent fool," which
may explain his conduct as related in the following incident:—
On the birth of a son to the Prince in 1717,
the Duke was invited by the King to be godfather to the infant in place
of the Duke of York (as
proposed by the Prince), along with himself. To this the Prince, being
on bad terms with Newcastle, objected, but the King was obstinate, and
after the ceremony in the Princess's bedroom the Prince shook his fist
in the Duke's face, exclaiming in his broken English: " You are
a rascal, but I shall find you." On this the King confined the Prince
to his room, as though to prevent a duel. Two submissive letters from
the Prince induced the King to set him at liberty, but he was still excluded
from St. James's Palace ; the Princess having the option of remaining
there with her children, or accompanying the Prince and leaving them
behind her. She afterwards joined the Prince at the Earl of Grantham's
house in Arlington Street.—Dictionary of National Biography.