Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/102

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Clinton
96
Clinton

had to resist many charges of cavalry. After the battle Clinton was made a knight of the orders of Maria Theresa, of St. George of Russia, and of William of the Netherlands, and on 9 Aug. 1815 he was made colonel of the 3rd regiment, the Buffs. In 1818 he resigned his seat in the House of Commons, where he had sat for Boroughbridge, together with his brother Sir William, since 1808, in the interest of the Duke of Newcastle, and retired altogether to his country seat in Hampshire, where he died on 11 Dec. 1829. Sir Henry Clinton married in 1799 Lady Susan Charteris, daughter of Francis, lord Elcho, who died in 1816, but had no issue.

[Royal Military Calendar; Napier's Peninsular War.]

H. M. S.


CLINTON, HENRY FIENNES, ninth Earl of Lincoln and second Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (1720–1794), was the second son of Henry Clinton, seventh earl of Lincoln, K.G., P.O., paymaster-general of the forces, cofferer of the household, and constable of the Tower, by Lucy Pelham, daughter of Thomas, first lord Pelham, and sister of Thomas, duke of Newcastle, and the Right Honourable Henry Pelham, prime ministers of England. He was born on 24 April 1720, and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and succeeded his brother George as ninth earl of Lincoln on 30 April 1730. Soon after coming of age, in 1742, he was appointed a lord of the bedchamber by his uncle, Henry Pelham, the prime minister, whose elder daughter, Catherine Pelham, he married on 16 Oct. 1744. This marriage and his relationship to the Pelhams secured him further advancement; he was made lord-lieutenant of the counties of Cambridgeshire in 1742 and Nottinghamshire in 1768, was sworn of the privy council, and appointed cofferer of the household in 1746, received two lucrative sinecures, the offices of auditor of the exchequer, and comptroller of the customs in the port of London; was made a knight of the Garter in 1751, and appointed high steward of Westminster in 1759. His relationship to the Pelhams brought him still higher rank, and on 17 Nov. 1768 he succeeded his uncle, Thomas Pelham, as second duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, under a special patent, dated 13 Nov. 1756, by which Thomas Pelham, duke of Newcastle-on-Tyne, was created Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, with remainder to his nephew, the Earl of Lincoln, when he resigned the prime ministership. The second Duke of Newcastle, who added the name of Pelham to his own by royal license, did not play any very great part in politics, though his great borough influence made his assistance eagerly sought by every section of the whig party. He kept himself, however, free from political life, and preferred the pleasures of the country and of sport. He died on 22 Feb. 1794, and was succeeded by his only surviving son, Thomas Pelham Clinton, a major-general in the army, as third duke of Newcastle.

[Collins's Peerage of England, ed. Brydges, vol. ii.; Foster's Peerage; Gent. Mag. March 1794.]

H. M. S.


CLINTON, HENRY FYNES (1781–1852), chronologist, born at Gamston in Nottinghamshire on 14 Jan. 1781, was a son of the Rev. Charles Fynes Clinton, LL.D. (whose name Clinton was not assumed till 26 April 1821), by Emma, daughter of Job Brough of Newark. Dr. Clinton (who was the son of Norreys Fynes, appointed governor of Jamaica in 1757) held the rectories of Gamston and of Cromwell (Nottinghamshire), became in 1788 prebendary of Westminster, and in 1797 minister of St. Margaret's, Westminster. He was descended from Henry, second earl of Lincoln, who died in 1616. Henry Fynes Clinton was educated at Southwell School (1789-96), and at Westminster (September 1796-9). At Southwell his master was the Rev. Magnus Jackson, a 'very severe' preceptor, who inspired Clinton with a 'contempt for versions, clavises, and all the pernicious helps by which the labour of learning is shortened.' Clinton was admitted a commoner of Christ Church, Oxford, 5 April 1799. He graduated B.A. 17 March 1803, M.A. 1805. From 1803 till June 1806 he acted as private tutor at Oxford to Earl Gower. He entered the university with 'a strong passion' for Greek literature, and his curiosity to read the Greek historians had been excited by the perusal of Mitford's 'History of Greece.' While at Oxford he went through, in seven years and eight months, about 69,322 verses of the Greek poets and about 2,913 pages of the prose authors, making-together an amount of about 5,223 pages. The less obvious Greek authors were still unknown to him; and later in life he read five times as much in the same space of time. On 3 Nov. 1806 he was brought in by the Duke of Newcastle as member for Aldborough. He began to seek for such parliamentary knowledge 'as the shortness of the time would allow,' and devoted the forty days before the assembling of the house 'to the study of Smith's "Wealth of Nations" and Smollett's "Continuation of Hume."' He was re-elected M.P. in 1807, 1813, 1818, 1819, and in 1820, when the votes were: Antrobus and Clinton, 40; Pringle and Bryant, 7. He retired from parliament in June 1826, having taken no