Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/61

 guilty of abetting the rebellion (Rolls of Parliament, ii. 406; the matter is curiously misunderstood in Baines's 'Lancashire,' ed. Harland, ii. 172). Cliderhou was one of those who were accused by the commissioners, and he was brought to Nottingham to take his trial at Michaelmas 1323. The charges against him were that he had preached in the church of Wigan in favour of the rebel cause, telling his parishioners that they owed allegiance to the earl, and promising absolution to all who supported him; and, further, that he had sent his son, Adam de Cliderhou, and another man-at-arms, with four foot-soldiers, to join the rebel army. Cliderhou is said to have met both charges with a full denial. The jury, however, found him guilty, and he was imprisoned, but afterwards released on bail, the name of his son Adam appearing in the list of sureties. In November of the same year he presented himself for judgment, and agreed to a fine of 200l. (three hundred marks). He, however, retained his benefice, and in the reign of Edward III (the date is not stated) presented a petition for redress of his grievances. He did not on this occasion deny having furnished military aid to the earl, but pleaded that in this respect he had only done what was required of him by his duty to his feudal superior. With regard to the charge of advocating rebellion in the pulpit, he asserted that he had merely exhorted the people to pray for a blessing on the earl and the other barons of the kingdom, and for the deliverance of the king from 'poisonous counsel.' He further stated that in order to raise money to pay the penalty imposed upon him he had had to sell his land; he had paid two hundred marks into the exchequer, besides thirty marks to the queen's treasury, and Sir Robert de Leyburn, the sheriff of Lancaster, had levied upon him the remaining hundred marks, but had never paid over the sum into the exchequer. The answer to this petition was that as Cliderhou had voluntarily agreed to the fine ('fit fin de gre') nothing could be done.

In another petition in parliament (also of unknown date) Cliderhou asks that the burgesses of Wigan may be restrained from holding unlicensed markets, which competed injuriously with the market on Mondays, from which the parson was authorised by royal charter to receive tolls. It was answered that the parson had his remedy at common law.

In 1331 he assigned to the monks of Cokers and his manor of Bayley, where he had built a chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist. He died in or before 1339, in which year a chantry was founded at Bayley by Henry de Clyderhowe 'for the repose of the soul of Robert, late rector of Wigan.' Foss says that in 1334 he recovered possession of some land at Clitheroe and Dinkley; but the person to whom this statement refers is another Robert de Cliderhou, who is frequently mentioned in documents belonging to the locality. As Robert was clearly a priest, it is singular that he should have had a son bearing his surname; possibly, as Foss suggests, Adam de Cliderhou may have been born before his father took orders.

 CLIFF, HENRY (d. 1334), judge, is first mentioned as accompanying the king abroad in May 1313; and on 11 May 1317, as a master in chancery, he had charge of the great seal at the house of the lord chancellor, John de Sandale, bishop of Winchester. There is another master in chancery in Edward II's reign of the same name, probably a brother. From 1317 till 1324 he continued to be one of the clerks under whose seal, during the absences of the lords chancellors Sandale, Hotham, bishop of Ely, Salmon, bishop of Norwich, and Baldock, the great seal was constantly secured. On the opening of parliament on 6 Oct. 1320 he was auditor of petitions in England and Wales. On 23 Feb. 1324 he appears as a canon of York and as procurator in parliament at Westminster, both for the dean and chapter of York and for the bishop of St. Asaph. On 4 July 1325 he was appointed master of the rolls, and after the abdication of Edward II in 1326 he was, on 17 Dec., directed to add his seal to that of the Bishop of Norwich to secure the great seal. Until the appointment of Bishop Hotham of Ely as lord chancellor on the accession of Edward III, the Bishop of Norwich and Cliff discharged the chancellor's duties. For some dispute with Thomas de Cherleton, bishop of Hereford, in connection with the presentation to the prebend of Blebury in Salisbury Cathedral he incurred the penalty of excommunication, in regard to which, within a month of his accession, and again in the following March, Edward III personally wrote letters on his behalf. The great seal continued to be often entrusted to him. From the resignation of John de Hotham to the appointment of Henry de Burghersh, bishop of Lincoln (1 March to 12 May 1328), he held it along with William de Herlaston, and during absences of 