[1] He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford on 6 December 1814, the same day as his elder brother Henry.
[2] In 1821 Clissold was ordained deacon and in 1823 admitted to priest's orders by Thomas Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury.
[2] Clissold became a follower of Emanuel Swedenborg and withdrew from the Anglican ministry about 1840, but remained nominally connected with the Church of England to the end of his life.
In 1854 he purchased for the use of the society seventy years' lease of 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, which later became a distribution centre for "New Church" literature.
In 1870 he busied himself with promoting the publication of the Documents concerning the Life and Character of Emanuel Swedenborg 2 vols.
1875–1877, based on originals collected, translated, and annotated by Johann Friedrich Immanuel Tafel.
During the last two years of his life he assisted similarly in the publication of Swedenborg's posthumous work on The Brain, 1882, part of the Regnum Animale perlustratum.