[Illustration] The Clintons are traced to the reign of Henry I., when, by favour of that king, Geffery de Clinton "was raised from the dust," as a contemporary writer affirms, and made Justice of England. He was enriched by large grants of land from the crown, and built the castle of Kenilworth. The present family descend from the brother of this Geffery, whose issue were of Coleshill and Maxtoke in Warwickshire, of which latter place John de Clinton was created Baron in 1298. His descendant, Edward Lord Clinton, was advanced to the Earldom of Lincoln in 1572. No family was more nobly allied, few had broader possessions--all have been long dissipated; but a fortunate match with the eventual heiress of Pelham in 1717 revived the drooping fortunes of the Clintons; hence the estate of Clumber, the former seat of the Holles family, and the Dukedom of Newcastle. See Dugdale's Warwickshire, 2nd ed. vol. ii. pp. 992, 1007; and Brydges's Collins, ii. 181. ARMS.--_Argent, three cross crosslets fitchée sable, on a chief azure two mullets pierced of the first_. The original arms, as borne by Thomas de Clinton in the reign of Henry III., appears to have been _a plain chief_. See his seal engraved in Upton, de Studio Militari, p. 82. In the reign of Edward II. Sir John Clinton of Maxtoke bore, _Argent, on a chief azure two mullets or_. At the same period another Sir John Clinton bore, _Or, three piles azure, a canton ermine_. His son in the fifth of Edward III. bore, _Argent, on a chief azure two fleurs-de-lis or_. William Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, at the same period bore the present coat with the exception of _three mullets or_ in place of the _two mullets argent_, and John Clinton omitted the crosslets. William Clinton, Lord of Allesley, who lived at the same period, bore the present coat. John de Clinton in the succeeding reign, bore _two mullets of six points or pierced gules_, and Thomas de Clynton the same with _a label of three points ermine_. See Willement's and Nicolas's Rolls, and Montagu's Guide to the Study of Heraldry, p. 51. Present Representative, Henry Pelham Alexander Pelham-Clinton, 6th Duke of Newcastle. +Gentle.+ EYRE OF HAMPTON. [Illustration] The Eyres appear as witnesses to charters in the Peak of Derbyshire in the remotest period to which private charters ascend. The first of the name known is William le Eyre, of Hope, in the reign of Henry III. In the reign of Henry V. the family divided into three great branches: the present house descends from Eyre of Laughton in South Yorkshire, who spring from Eyre of Home Hall near Chesterfield. One moiety of Rampton was purchased by Anthony Eyre in the reign of Elizabeth; the other came from the coheiress of Babington, in 1624. See Hunter's South Yorkshire, i. 288; see also Lysons's Derbyshire, lxxxiii., for a note on the various branches of Eyre, and Gent. Mag. 1795, pp. 121, 212.