Gervase Clifton, 1st Baron Clifton

In 1605, he sold his paternal estate of Barrington Court and moved his seat to Leighton Bromswold, County Huntingdon.

In 1608, he was raised to the Peerage by writ of summons Baron Clifton, of Leighton Bromswold, County Huntingdon.

This ancient form of creation by writ enabled the title to descend via female lines.

He was then prosecuted by the Star Chamber on 17 March 1618 and moved to Fleet Prison, where he stabbed himself to death the following October.

His only son had died in 1602 as a result of wounds received from a bear, which had broken free during a bear-baiting show at Nottingham, and so Clifton's title passed to his daughter, Katherine.

Arms of Clifton of Clifton , Nottinghamshire ( Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold ): Sable semée of cinquefoils and a lion rampant argent