CLIFTON, Sir Robert (1826-1869), of Clifton Hall, Nottingham, Notts.

Prior to his election as MP for Nottingham in December 1861, Sir Robert Clifton had enjoyed an indulgent and raffish existence.1A.C. Wood, ‘Sir Robert Clifton, 1826-69’, Transactions of the Thoroton Society, lvii (1953), 48-65. He owned racehorses from the age of nineteen, and quickly lost most of his money to gambling, prompting him to heavily mortgage his estates and leave England to live in Paris in order to escape his debtors. Even when, on the death of his father in 1852, he inherited estates near Nottingham said to be worth £10,000 a year, he failed to recover his considerable losses.2Ibid., 48-9; The Times, 31 May 1869. Yet, despite his past, of which he was noticeably impenitent, Clifton, who became known affectionately by his supporters as ‘good old Bob’, brought both colour and controversy to political life in mid-Victorian Nottingham during his short parliamentary career.

Having been largely resident in France in the preceding years, his entrance into the 1861 Nottingham by-election was unexpected, although the family of Clifton did have a history of parliamentary service, most notably Sir Gervase Clifton, the first baronet, who had represented the town in 1626.3He had also served as MP for Nottinghamshire and East Retford. Sir Clifford Clifton was MP for East Retford (1640-6), while Sir William Clifton, 3rd bt., was MP for Nottinghamshire (1685-6). In the eighteenth century, Sir Robert Clifton, 5th bt., was MP for East Retford (1727-1741). HP Commons, 1660-1690, ii. 95-97. Nevertheless, Clifton’s decision to stand as an independent Liberal candidate, following the appointment of the Liberal member John Mellor as a judge, was ridiculed by the supporters of his only opponent, the official Liberal candidate Lord Lincoln, the son of the duke of Newcastle, who claimed Clifton was a man of ‘no distinction’ and had ‘yet to acquire political knowledge’.4Nottingham Daily Guardian, 28 Dec. 1861.

However, a number of factors ensured his election. Firstly, he effectively had the field to himself, following the failure of local Conservatives to put forward a candidate, and the total absence of Lincoln through ailing health. Secondly, his ‘rollicking, free and easy personality’, encapsulated best by his openness about his love of a ‘flutter’ and his complete disregard for teetotalism, appeared to transcend his dubious past in the eyes of his supporters.5Wood, ‘Sir Robert Clifton’, 49. Finally, his self-proclaimed independent spirit and his willingness to attack the dictation of the local Whig leadership, known as ‘Number 30’ after the room in the Exchange where they met, endeared him to local Conservatives and radicals alike. In terms of his political leanings, his campaign speeches, which called for abolition of church rates and supported the extension of the franchise, echoed advanced Liberalism.6Daily News, 27 Dec. 1861. However, his victory owed more to his personality than his platform, and his political faith was rather nebulous, with promises of everything to everybody.7Wood, ‘Sir Robert Clifton’, 56.

Given his political elasticity, it is not surprising that there has been some confusion about his political allegiance.8Clifton is classified as a ‘Liberal Conservative’ in McCalmont’s Parliamentary Poll Book, ed. J. Vincent and M. Stenton (8th edn., 1971), 225. In contrast, he is described as having ‘very liberal opinions’ in Dod’s Parliamentary Companion (1862), 169. An initially regular attender, he voted for the abolition of church rates in 1862 and defended the government during the Schleswig-Holstein difficulties.9House of Commons Division Lists, 1862 sess., 14 May; 1864 sess., 8 July. However, he never really became a loyal party man, and although he had supported Palmerston’s position of British neutrality during the American civil war, he voted with the Conservatives over the release of armed ships which were being surreptitiously built in British yards for the Confederate states.10The Conservatives supported the release. Wood, ‘Sir Robert Clifton’, 58. He was also critical of Britain’s increased expenditure on national defences, openly questioning the prime minister’s estimation of French armaments.11Hansard, 23 May 1862, vol. 166, cc. 2113-4; 24 Feb. 1863, cc. 760-1. Meanwhile, he opposed the government over the volunteers bill, and although he was generally an infrequent speaker, he made several interventions in debate on this subject.12Hansard, 4 June 1863. vol. 171, cc. 353-4, 356, 364-5; 8 June 1863 vol. 171, c. 519; 11 June 1863, vol. 171. cc. 766-7; 15 June 1863, vol. 171, c. 961. Discussing the clause which authorised a commanding officer to dismiss any volunteer for specified causes, Clifton moved an amendment proposing that the inculpated volunteer have the right of trial by a court of inquiry, which was defeated, 108-21.13Hansard, 4 June 1863, vol. 171, cc. 353-4; House of Commons Division Lists, 1863 sess., 4 June 1863. Thereafter, his participation in parliamentary life appears to have declined, and save for his appearance on a private bills committee to consider Scottish railway legislation in 1864, he is not known to have served on any select committees.14PP 1864 (0.131), xlvii. 67.

His generally sober first four years in parliament contrasted sharply with his re-election for Nottingham in July 1865. Standing again as an independent Liberal, he now faced a single Conservative candidate, although his real battle was against the official Liberal candidates Samuel Morley and Charles Paget, both selected by ‘Number 30’. In the ensuing campaign, election agents from both sides hired hundreds of local men to dominate the streets of Nottingham and intimidate voters. Against a backdrop of ‘bribery and near-terrorism’, Clifton, benefiting from Conservative votes, came in second. 15J. Beckett, ‘Radical Nottingham’, in J. Beckett (ed.), A Centenary History of Nottingham (1997), 304-5.

Not surprisingly, the result was contested. In February 1866, a petition headed by Paget was presented to parliament, complaining of an undue election.16CJ, vol. cxxi, 7 Feb. 1866, 22. The subsequent investigation by the General Committee on Elections, which lasted an almost unprecedented four weeks, reported that neither Clifton nor Morley had been duly returned.17The Times, 21 Apr. 1866. Due to ‘bands of men armed with sticks’, who on his behalf on polling day ‘created an alarm which was not without its influence on the result of the election’, Clifton was ‘by himself and by others on his behalf, guilty of undue influence’. The committee also found that bribery had taken place, although ‘said bribery was practised without the knowledge and consent’ of Clifton.18Hansard, 20 Apr. 1866, vol. 182, cc. 1766-8; The Times, 21 Apr. 1866. Further ignominy followed when it was announced in the Commons by Viscount Cranborne that, after the determination of the Committee on Elections, Clifton had been arrested for debt, although the allegation proved to be false.19CJ, vol. cxxi, 20 Apr. 1866, 236-7; The Times, 23 Apr. 1866.

Clifton’s ejection from the Commons seemed to have little effect on his popularity in Nottingham. Although barred from standing in the borough’s 1866 double by-election, the irrepressible Clifton returned to electioneering in Nottingham at the 1868 general election; his handsome victory at the top of the polls leading one local newspaper to declare ‘if Liberalism is in the ascendant in this town it can be at any time completely overridden by the paramount personal influence of Sir Robert Clifton’.20Nottingham Daily Express, 18 Nov. 1868. However, he did not enjoy his victory long, dying prematurely of typhoid fever on 30 May 1869 at the age of forty-two. Over 20,000 locals paid their respects at his funeral at St. Mary’s church in Clifton. His marriage having produced no children, the baronetcy became extinct upon his death and the Clifton estates passed to his cousin’s son, Henry Robert Markham. Clifton’s estate papers are now located in the Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham. His papers aside, his memory is kept alive by a rather remote statue which stands next to the Wilford toll bridge on the Trent embankment, a bridge, opened the year after his death, which Clifton originally had built in an attempt to generate revenue to pay off his gambling debts.21http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1217888