Sir Thomas Clifford-Constable, 1st Baronet (1762–1823) was an English topographer and botanist.

Life

He was born as Thomas Clifford into a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

family, the eldest son of Thomas Clifford, fourth son of

Hugh Clifford, 3rd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh Hugh Clifford, 3rd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (14 April 1700- 26 March 1732) of Ugbrooke, Ugbrooke House near Chudleigh in Devon, was a peer. Origins He was the son of Hugh Clifford, 2nd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (d.1730) by his wife Anne Pres ...

, and his wife Barbara Aston, youngest daughter of James Aston, 5th Lord Aston of Forfar; among his brothers were Henry Clifford, the second son, and Arthur Clifford. He was educated at a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

academy in

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

, going on to the

College de Navarre The College of Navarre (, ) was one of the colleges of the historic University of Paris. It rivaled the University of Paris, Sorbonne and was renowned for its library. History The college was founded by Queen Joan I of Navarre in 1305, who provi ...

, in Paris. He then made a walking tour in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Left an orphan in 1787, Clifford settled at

Tixall Tixall is a small village and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the English county of Staffordshire lying on the western side of the Trent valley between Rugeley and Stone, Staffordshire and roughly 4 miles east of Stafford. The populati ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, on the Aston estate that he had inherited from his mother. Residing at

Bath, Somerset Bath (Received Pronunciation, RP: , ) is a city in Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman Baths (Bath), Roman-built baths. At the 2021 census, the population was 94,092. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, Bristol, River A ...

, Clifford welcomed French emigrés. When

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

visited Bath in 1813, a few months before the

Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * Ab ...

, he twice invited Clifford to dine. By patent dated 22 May 1816, Clifford was created a baronet, at the request of Louis XVIII. According to Goldbloom, he was a fervent Catholic, reputedly a disciple of Abbé Guy-Toussaint-Julien Carron in London. In the 1806 general election he with his brother Henry were behind the successful nomination in the

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

constituency of Richard Mansel Philipps, a Whig radical. In 1821 Clifford succeeded to the estates of Francis Constable of

Burton Constable Burton Constable is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies approximately north-east of Hull city centre and south-east of the village of Skirlaugh. The civil parish is formed by the village of Burton C ...

and Wycliffe Hall. Two years later he was, by royal sign-manual, permitted to take the name of Constable only. He died at

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

on 26 February 1823.

Works

Clifford-Constable published: *''Flora Tixalliana'', appended to ''Historical and Topographical Description of the Parish of Tixall'' (Paris, 1817, privately printed), with his brother Arthur Clifford. *''Meditations on the Divinity and Passion of Christ'', self-published, an English translation of part of his work ''L'Evangile Médité'' written in French. He translated ''

La Fontaine's Fables Jean de La Fontaine collected fables from a wide variety of sources, both Western and Eastern, and adapted them into French free verse. They were issued under the general title of Fables in several volumes from 1668 to 1694 and are considered cla ...

'' into English verse; and composed a complete set of

metrical Psalms A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a verse translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or harmonisatio ...

Family

Clifford married in 1791 Mary Macdonald, second daughter of John Chichester of

Arlington, Devon Arlington was a manor, and is a village and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon in England. The parish includes the villages of Arlington and Arlington Beccott. The population of the parish is 98 (2001 census). Arlington Court, ...

. Their children included the diarist Mary Chichester, wife of Charles Chichester, and Sir Thomas Clifford-Constable, 2nd Baronet, a Member of Parliament.

Notes

External links

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Clifford-Constable, Thomas 1762 births 1823 deaths English Roman Catholics English botanists English topographers