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,[1] 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,
- ↑ This Sir William de Clifton was accused in the year 1337 of having taken possession of twenty marks belonging to the Abbot of Vale Royal, and of having forcibly obstructed the rector in the collecting of tithes within the manors of Clifton and Westby; also with having inflicted certain injuries upon the hunting palfrey of the latter gentleman.
