Author: Clifford, Arthur
Biography:
CLIFFORD, Arthur (1777-1830: ODNB)
The fourth son of nine children born to Henry Thomas Clifford and his wife Barbara Aston, daughter and co-heir of James, 5th Lord Aston of Forfar. On her father’s death she brought the estate of Tixall into the Clifford Family. Arthur Clifford was born on 5 July 1777. The family was Roman Catholic and in 1786 he was sent, with his twin, to be educated at the English school in Douai in France but both boys were imprisoned during the revolution. On their release they returned to England where Clifford spent one term at Stonyhurst college before attending St. Edmund’s College, Old Hall Green, near Ware in Hertfordshire. On 15 June 1809 at Berwick Upon Tweed, Northumberland, he married Eliza Matilda McDonnell of Inverness; they had one daughter and two sons. During 1809 Clifford worked on preparing for publication The State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler. The book was based on papers which had been taken from Standon Lordship, Sadler’s home in Hertfordshire, to Tixall in an old wooden box. Although Clifford’s name appears as editor on the book, the papers were in fact transcribed in the 1790s by the Rev. John Kirk of Litchfield and Walter Scott (q.v.), to whom Clifford appealed for help, wrote the memoir of Sir Ralph and the historical notes. Tixall Letters (1815) and Tixall Poetry (1822) were prepared by Clifford from materials found at the estate; he added verse of his own to the latter. Two other publications, Collectanea Cliffordiana and Topographical and Historical Description of the Parish of Tixall (written with his eldest brother) were issued in Paris in 1817. Clifford lived for a few years in Paris where he undertook some editing and wrote guide books. His wife died in 1827 and was buried in the Chapel of St. Ignatius, Oxford. Clifford died in Winchester on 16 Jan. 1830 and was buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery. (ODNB 12 Feb. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 12 Feb. 2024; Millgate) SR