“Robert de Clifford was the eldest son of Roger de Clifford, who was accidently slain between Snowden and Anglesey in 1280. He was born about Easter, April, 1274, and in the 14th Edward I., 1286, he succeeded his grandfather in his baronial honours, being then twelve years of age. In the 13th Edward I., he was found to be one of the heirs of Ralph de Gaugy, and paid 100_l._ for his relief; after which, the next circumstance which has been found recorded of him is, that he was summoned to attend the King, with horse and arms, on his expedition beyond the sea on the 4th May, 25th Edward I. 1297; and on the 26th September following, he was ordered to be at Carlisle, similarly equipped, to serve against the Scots, at the ensuing Feast of Pentecost; but Dugdale asserts, that he was present at the battle of Dunbar, in 24th Edward I.; that in the 25th Edward I., he was sent with a hundred men-at-arms and twenty-thousand foot from Carlisle to plunder in Scotland; and that, after much slaughter, he returned with considerable booty on Christmas eve. In that year he was also appointed Justice of all the King’s forests beyond the Trent; in 26th Edward I., he was made governor of Nottingham Castle; and on the 27th Edward I., being constituted the King’s Lieutenant and Captain-General in the counties of Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancaster, and throughout Annandale and the Marches of Scotland, he was joined in commission with the Bishop of Durham and others, to consider of the means of garrisoning the castles in that kingdom, and for guarding the marches. Clifford was again summoned to the Scottish wars on the 7th May, 27th Edward I., 1299, and received his first writ to parliament on the 29th December in the same year.