CLIFTON OF WEEK ST MARY
This family is covered in Ronald Ames Hill, “The Remarkable Will of Anna Smith”, The Genealogist, 24(2010):3-28.
The will of Anna (Clifton) Smith helps to confirm that Mary (Clifton) Colwill was a daughter of John and Margery (Pearce) Clifton who were married at Week St Mary in 1652. Hill discusses the evidence showing that the John married to Margery was a son of an older John and grandson of the John Clifton of Ashbury who was buried in 1625.
Margery Pearce’s husband John should be distinguished from another John Clifton, son of Cornelius and Honor, who was baptised at Week St Mary on 2 May 1633[1] and who was mentioned in a marginal addition to the will of Judith Trick in 1648.[2] This John apparently married Philippa Langford at Bratton Clovelly on 14 January 1666/67 and had children baptised at Bideford starting in 1668.[3] The will of Richard Ley of Bideford, written in 1657/58, leaves “two parts in three parts divided or to be divided of and in one Tenement Called Sidnam and Sidnam Meadowe... within the parish of Mary Weeke” to his wife Hannah and after her death to “my Kinsman John Clifton the sonn of Cornelius Clifton of Weeke Saint Mary aforesaid and his heires forever”.[4] In 1718/19, Philippa Clifton, widow, and Henry Chope, both of Bideford, exchanged property including “two thirds of Sidnam” with Robert Robinson of Week St Mary.[5]
I welcome comments on this page. My e-mail address is on my home page.
CLIFTON
1 CLIFTON.
Children
of Clifton:
i THOMAS
CLIFTON of Lyons Inn, Middlesex, attorney,[6] d
ca 1615;[7] m
CATHERINE AYSH.[8]
2 ii JOHN
CLIFTON (bur 1625).
2 JOHN CLIFTON of Ashbury, Week St Mary, Cornwall, was buried on 21 July 1625 at Week St Mary.[9]
Children
of John Clifton:
3 i JOHN
CLIFTON (ca 1584-1652); m(1) ANN FOX; m(2) BLANCHE MEDHOP.
ii PHILLIP CLIFTON, bur 9 May 1665,
Week St Mary;[10]
m 28 Jun 1613, Week St Mary, WILLIAM JOURDAN.[11]
iii ELIZABETH
CLIFTON.[12]
iv THOMAS
CLIFTON of Week St Mary, bur 18 Jun 1671, Week St Mary;[13] m
ANN MORRIS alias SKINNER.[14]
v HESTER
CLIFTON, bur 10 May 1637, Week St Mary;[15] m
17 Apr 1626, Week St Mary, RICHARD COLE.[16]
vi JAMES
CLIFTON of Week St Mary, bap 8 Jun 1603, Week St Mary,[17]
bur 23 Feb 1667/68, Week St Mary.[18]
3 JOHN CLIFTON of Week St Mary, gentleman, was born ca 1584[19] and buried on 13 April 1652 at Week St Mary.[20] He married first, on 30 March 1613 at Sandford, ANN FOX,[21] daughter of John and Mary (Ford) Fox (see here). Ann was baptised on 10 January 1590/91 at Chacombe, Northamptonshire, and buried on 1 June 1626 at Week St Mary. John married second, on 12 January 1630/31 at St Martin by Looe, BLANCHE MEDHOP,[22] daughter of Stephen Medhop.[23] She was buried on 28 March 1675 at Week St Mary.[24]
Children
of John and Ann (Fox) Clifton:
4 i JOHN
CLIFTON (1613-1676); m MARGERY PEARCE.
ii PRUDENCE
CLIFTON, bap 14 May 1615, Sandford,[25]
bur 24 Dec 1689, Week St Mary.[26]
iii MARY
CLIFTON, bap 12 Apr 1618, Week St Mary.[27]
iv GERVASE
CLIFTON of Week St Mary, bap 10 May 1621, Week St Mary,[28]
bur 5 Mar 1676/77, Week St Mary;[29] m
31 Oct 1642, Week St Mary, ANN TREWINE.[30]
v HONOR
CLIFTON, bap 18 Mar 1623/24, Week St Mary.[31]
4 JOHN CLIFTON of Ashbury, Week St Mary, gentleman, was baptised on 27 August 1613 at Sandford[32] and buried on 21 November 1676 at Week St Mary.[33] He married on 20 May 1652 at Week St Mary, MARGERY PEARCE,[34] daughter of Digory and Mary Pearce[35] (see here). Margery was buried on 11 January 1664/65 at Week St Mary.
Children
of John and Margery (Pearce) Clifton:
i JOHN
CLIFTON of Week St Mary, gentleman, bap 4 Aug 1653, Week St Mary,[36]
bur 16 Feb 1719/20, Week St Mary;[37] m
2 Jun 1673, Marhamchurch, CHRISTIAN RATTENBURY.[38]
ii ANNA
CLIFTON, bap 25 Jun 1656, Week St Mary,[39]
bur 30 Jan 1741/42, Week St Mary;[40] m
15 Apr 1709, Week St Mary, NICHOLAS SMITH.[41]
iii MARY
CLIFTON, bap 5 Oct 1658, Week St Mary,[42]
bur 21 Apr 1728, Week St Mary;[43] m
24 Nov 1681, Week St Mary, WILLIAM COLWILL[44]
(see here).
iv MARGERY
CLIFTON, bap 18 Oct 1660, Week St Mary,[45]
bur 4 Jan 1729/30, Week St Mary;[46] m
ca 1685, ARTHUR BURDON.[47]
v HESTER
CLIFTON, bap 5 Feb 1662/63, Week St Mary,[48]
bur 22 Jan 1709/10, Week St Mary;[49] m
26 May 1686, Week St Mary, ANDREW COLWILL.[50]
[1] Week St Mary parish registers.
[3] Bratton Clovelly parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk); Bideford parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[4] National Archives, PROB 11/276/205. Richard Ley married Hannah, daughter of William Clifton of Week St Mary, at Bideford on 14 Oct 1656 (Bideford parish registers, online at www.findmypast.co.uk). William was the father of Cornelius Clifton.
[5] Kresen Kernow, catalogue entry for BRA833/319. Henry Chope was baptised at Bideford in 1688, son of Thomas Chope and Honor Clifton who were married there in 1686/87, and Honor was baptised there in 1671, a daughter of John Clifton: Bideford parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk); National Archives, PROB 11/474/412.
[6] National Archives, catalogue entry for STAC 8/217/10.
[7] Ronald Ames Hill, “The Remarkable Will of Anna Smith”, The Genealogist, 24(2010):3-28.
[8] Ronald Ames Hill, “The Remarkable Will of Anna Smith”, The Genealogist, 24(2010):3-28; National Archives, PROB 11/125/305; National Archives, PROB 11/150/151; Frederic William Weaver, ed., The Visitations of the County of Somerset (Exeter, 1885), 2.
[9] Week St Mary parish registers.
[10] Week St Mary parish registers.
[11] Week St Mary parish registers.
[12] She was probably the Elizabeth Clifton of Week St Mary, spinster, who was mentioned in Court of Common Pleas records of 1642 alongside John Clifton of Week St Mary and his daughter Prudence (National Archives, CP 40/2497). She may also be the “Elizebeth Clifton mayden” buried at Week St Mary on 29 May 1655 although that entry could relate to Elizabeth, daughter of Cornelius Clifton, who was baptised in 1630, or to Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Clifton.
[13] Week St Mary parish registers; Kresen Kernow, AP/C/1552.
[14] National Archives, PROB 11/270/320.
[15] Week St Mary parish registers.
[16] Week St Mary parish registers.
[17] Week St Mary parish registers.
[18] Week St Mary parish registers.
[19] Ronald Ames Hill, “The Remarkable Will of Anna Smith”, The Genealogist, 24(2010):3-28.
[20] Week St Mary parish registers.
[21] Sandford parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[22] St Martin by Looe bishop’s transcripts; Ronald Ames Hill, “The Remarkable Will of Anna Smith”, The Genealogist, 24(2010):3-28.
[23] National Archives, PROB 11/173/491.
[24] Week St Mary parish registers.
[25] Sandford parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[26] Week St Mary parish registers.
[27] Week St Mary parish registers. An entry was written at the end of the 1617/18 ones but crossed out and replaced by the one under 1618. The 1643 will of Mary (Ford) (Fox) Aysh refers to “Marie Clifton my grandchilde who liveth with mee” (National Archives, PROB 11/201/686).
[28] Week St Mary parish registers.
[29] Week St Mary parish registers.
[30] Week St Mary parish registers.
[31] Week St Mary parish registers.
[32] Sandford parish registers (online at www.findmypast.co.uk).
[33] Week St Mary parish registers.
[34] Week St Mary parish registers.
[35] Ronald Ames Hill, “The Remarkable Will of Anna Smith”, The Genealogist, 24(2010):3-28; Ronald Ames Hill, “The Pearce Families of Plymswood and Kerley in Jacobstow, Cornwall”, The Genealogist, 22(2008):32-58, 192-211.
[36] Week St Mary parish registers.
[37] Week St Mary parish registers.
[38] Ronald Ames Hill, “The Remarkable Will of Anna Smith”, The Genealogist, 24(2010):3-28.
[39] Week St Mary parish registers.
[40] Week St Mary parish registers; Kresen Kernow, AP/S/2959.
[42] Week St Mary parish registers.
[43] Week St Mary parish registers.
[44] Week St Mary parish registers.
[45] Week St Mary parish registers.
[46] Week St Mary parish registers; Kresen Kernow, AP/B/3330.
[48] Week St Mary parish registers.
[50] Week St Mary parish registers.