The title was granted in 1298 to Sir John de Clinton, a knight who had served in the Scottish and French wars.

[2] The second Baron, John, fought with the king's army, which defeated Edward II's cousin Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1321.

The third Baron fought at the Battle of Poitiers in the Hundred Years' War and was the Constable of Warwick Castle (1390-97).

He married three times; firstly, to Anne Trivett, daughter of Sir Thomas Trivett; secondly, to Alice or Anne FitzWarin, daughter of the 2nd Baron Botreaux and the widow of the 6th Lord Fitzwarin; and thirdly to Mary Retford, widow of Sir Henry Retford.

[5] The barony, which had been dormant since 1791, was successfully claimed in 1794 by the late Earl of Orford's cousin Robert George William Trefusis (1764–1797), who became the 17th Baron Clinton.

He was the three-times great-grandson of Lady Arabella Clinton, the younger daughter of the fourth Earl of Lincoln.

He served as Under-Secretary of State for India from 1867 to 1868 in the Conservative administrations of the Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli and was also Lord Lieutenant of Devonshire.

His son, the 21st Baron, held minor office in the coalition government of David Lloyd George and served as Lord Warden of the Stannaries.

Baron Clinton had already in 1958 assumed by deed poll the additional surname of Trefusis and had inherited the 85,000-acre estate in Devon from his great-grandfather.

Mark Rolle in 1907, Bicton House became the main residence of the 21st Baron Clinton until his death in 1957,[8] where much grand entertaining occurred until the start of World War II and where a herd of 150 deer were kept in the park.

His son the 18th Baron when he came of age purchased Innes House on the other side of a marshy valley in the parish of Huish and renamed it Heanton Satchville.

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Edward Charles Rolle Fane-Trefusis (born 1994).