Individual

Go to List of Family Names Go to List of People    < Previous Next >

Birth:          ABT 1103 St. Pierre-de-Semily, St. Lo, Normandy
Death:          1135 Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, England

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_de_Clinton
Geoffrey de Clinton (died c. 1134) was an Anglo-Norman noble, chamberlain and 
treasurer to King Henry I of England. He was foremost amongst the men king Henry 
"raised from the dust".[1] He married Lescelina.

Life[edit]

Clinton's family origins are a little obscure. The surname probably derives from the 
village of Glympton in Oxfordshire.,[2] though the family ultimately hailed from Saint-
Pierre-de-Semilly (Manche, arr. St. Lô, canton St.-Clair) in western Normandy.[3]

It appears that Clinton spent some years as a minor official of the king, until the 1118 
fall of the treasurer Herbert camerarius, who was accused of plotting against the king. 
By 1120 Clinton had taken his place.

Not too long afterwards Clinton was appointed Sheriff of Warwickshire (c. 1121), to 
act as counterweight to the Earl of Warwick, Roger de Beaumont, whom Henry I did 
not trust. The 1122 rebellion of Roger's cousin Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of 
Worcester increased the king's suspicions still further, and he compelled Roger to 
grant Clinton substantial parts of his Warwickshire domain.[4]

Clinton further secured his position by starting work on the great castle of Kenilworth, 
only two miles from the Beaumonts' central fortress at Warwick.[5]

Clinton received other grants of land from Henry I, and he used his position of political 
influence to enrich himself in other ways;[6] his sum total of wealth rose to become 
just below the level of the greatest magnates of the kingdom.[7] He had enough to 
spend 2,000 pounds to insure his nephew Roger de Clinton's election as Bishop of 
Coventry.[8]

Around Easter 1130 Clinton was accused of treason, but was acquitted by a tribunal 
including King David I of Scotland, who was sitting in his capacity as Earl of 
Huntingdon. The substance of the accusations against Clinton are not known, 
although since he was Henry I's treasurer, financial malfeasance of some sort seems 
possible.[9] The Beaumonts were back in favor, and it may be that they were behind 
the proceedings.[10]

Clinton remained in the royal service, though he was never as influential as he had 
been. He died sometime between 1133 and 1135.[11]

It appears that Clinton's land-holding must have been primarily life tenancies since his 
descendants' property was not nearly so great.[12] His son and successor, also named 
Geoffrey, became engaged in a violent quarrel with the Earl of Warwick early in the 
reign of King Stephen of England. The Clintons nearly lost everything, but in the end a 
settlement was reached (probably in the summer of 1138) by which the younger 
Geoffrey de Clinton married Warwick's daughter Agnes.[13]

The direct Clinton male line seems to have died out during the reign of Henry III. The 
later Baron Clintons, Earls of Lincoln, and Dukes of Newcastle-Under-Lyne descend 
from the elder Geoffrey's nephew Osbert de Clinton.[14]
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jweber&id=I04694

Parents
DE TANCARVILLE Renebault (ABT 1083 - 1140)
STIGAND Agnes (ABT 1085 - )

Siblings
DE CLINTON Geoffrey (ABT 1103 - 1135)

Marriage To ----- Lesceline (ABT 1103 - )
    m.  

Notes


Children by ----- Lesceline ABT 1103 - 
DE CLINTON Lesceline (ABT 1120 - AFT 1155)
DE CLINTON Osbert (ABT 1126 - )

Produced by Fzip 1.7 6/20/2017