Baron Clinton - Barony Into First Abeyance

Barony Into First Abeyance

The abeyance of 1692 was terminated in 1721 in favour of Hugh Fortescue (d.1751), fourteenth Baron Clinton, the grandson of Lady Margaret Clinton (d.1688), the eldest daughter of Theophilus de Clinton, 4th Earl of Lincoln and 12th Baron Clinton (d.1667). Lady Margaret had married Hugh Boscawen (1625–1701), MP, of Tregothnan in Cornwall, and their daughter Bridget Boscawen (d.1708) married Hugh Fortescue (d.1719) (son of Arthur Fortescue by Barbara Elford) and had issue Sir Hugh Fortescue (d.1751). In 1746 he was created Baron Fortescue, of Castle Hill in the County of Devon (with remainder to his half-brother Matthew Fortescue) and Earl Clinton, with remainder to the heirs male of his body. The Earl was childless and on his death the earldom of Clinton became extinct but his two baronies continued. He was succeeded in the barony of Fortescue (according to the special remainder) by his half-brother, the second Baron Fortescue (see Earl Fortescue for later history of this title). The barony of Clinton was inherited by his second cousin Margaret Rolle, 15th Baroness Clinton, the grand-daughter of Lady Arabella Clinton, the younger daughter of Theophilus de Clinton, 4th Earl of Lincoln and 12th Baron Clinton (d.1667). Margaret Rolle was the widow of Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (d.1751) and the daughter of Samuel Rolle, the son of Robert Rolle (d.1660), MP, of Heanton Satchville, Devon, by his wife Lady Arabella Clinton. She was succeeded by her son, George Walpole, third Earl of Orford and sixteenth Baron Clinton (d.1791). He was childless and on his death in 1791 the earldom passed to his uncle, the fourth Earl of Orford (see the Earl of Orford for later history of this title), while the barony of Clinton became dormant.