Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet

Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet, K.B. (25 November 1587 – 28 June 1666) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1666. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge.

In 1603, at the English coronation of King James I, Clifton was made a Knight of the Bath. He became a Justice of the Peace for Nottinghamshire in 1609, remaining until 1646. In 1611 he was third on the list of creations for the new order of baronet. He was active in local Nottinghamshire and national politics in both the reign of James I and Charles I. He was High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1610 and High Steward of East Retford from 1616 to 1647. During the reign of King James he was elected Member of Parliament for Nottinghamshire in 1614, 1621, 1624 and 1625. He was County Treasurer from 1625 to 1626, and Deputy Lieutenant from 1626 to 1642. In 1626, he was elected MP for Nottingham and in 1628, he was re-elected MP for Nottinghamshire in 1628. He sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.

In November 1640, Clifton was elected MP for East Retford in the Long Parliament. He took up arms in the King's cause in the Civil War. He was a Commissioner for the King at Newark and Oxford, and a Commissioner of Array for Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire in 1642. When King Charles called for members of the Long Parliament loyal to him to meet in session Oxford Clifton did so and was disabled from sitting in parliament at Westminster. With the defeat of the Royalist cause in 1646 and the capture of the King, Clifton lost his political influence both nationally and locally. He was declared a "delinquent" and fined £7,625 (equivalent to £1,118,882 in 2015) . By the time sequestration of his estates was ended in 1650 he had paid off about half of the money. He was not active in politics again until after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

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