[Illustration] Gervase de Clifton, living in the fifth of John, is the patriarch of this honourable family, who took their name from the manor of Clifton, which was the inheritance of Sir Gervase Clifton, in the ninth of Edward II. One of the most remarkable members was the first Baronet, Sir Gervase Clifton, who died in 1666, "very prosperous and beloved of all, after having been the husband of seven wives." See an interesting account of him and of the family and their curious monuments in Thoroton's Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, p. 53, &c.; see also Wotton's Baronetage, i. 34. ARMS.--_Sable, semee of cinquefoils, and a lion rampant argent, armed and langued gules_. This coat reversed was borne by Monsieur John de Clyfton, in the reign of Richard II. (Roll of the date.) Present Representative, Sir Robert Juckes Clifton, 9th Baronet. SUTTON OF NORWOOD, BARONET 1772. [Illustration] Sutton-upon-Trent gave name to this ancient family, the first upon record being Roland, son of Hervey, who lived in the reign of Henry III., and married Alice, daughter and coheiress of Richard de Lexington. From this match came the manor of Averham or Egram in this county, which long continued the seat and residence of the Suttons, who were represented in the days of Queen Elizabeth by Sir William Sutton, whom her Majesty coupled, not in the most complimentary manner, with three other eminent Nottinghamshire knights in the following distich:-- "Gervase the gentle,* Stanhope the stout, Markham the lion, and _Sutton the lout_." In 1646, Robert Sutton, the head of this family, was raised to the Peerage as Baron Lexington, extinct 1723, who is represented in the female line by Viscount Canterbury. The present family descend from Henry, younger brother of the first Lord Lexington. See Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, pp. 327, 359; and Courthope's Debrett's Baronetage, p. 195. ARMS.--_Argent, a canton sable_. Present Representative, Sir John Sutton, 3rd Baronet. * _i.e._ Sir Gervase Clifton. STANHOPE OF SHELFORD, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 1628. [Illustration] Stanhope, in the wapentake of Darlington in the bishoprick of Durham, gave name to this knightly family, of whom the first recorded ancestor is Walter de Stanhope, whose son Richard died at Stanhope, in 1338 or 1339. In the reign of Edward III. we find Sir Richard Stanhope, grandson of Walter, Mayor of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Hampton and other manors in this county came by marriage with the heiress of Maulovel about 1370; but on the death of Richard Stanhope in 1529, these estates went to his only daughter and heiress, who became the wife of John Babington. The monastery of Shelford was soon after this period granted to Sir Michael Stanhope (in the 31st of Henry VIII).