Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/74

 happiest poems. The romantic story of this noble's early years, and how he was brought up as a shepherd on his father's estates till he was restored to his full honours on the accession of Henry VII, can be traced back at least as far as the middle of the sixteenth century (1548), when it makes its appearance in Hall's 'Chronicle.' Hall, however, and Holinshed following him, give the name of this noble as Thomas, by mistake for Henry. Of Clifford's other children, Richard died abroad, while Elizabeth married Robert, son and heir of Sir John Aske.



CLIFFORD, MARGARET, (1560?–1616), was the wife of, third earl of Cumberland [q. v.], to whom she was married, 24 June 1577, at St. Mary Overies (now St. Saviour's), Southwark. She was the third and youngest daughter of Francis Russell, third earl of Bedford, and was born at Exeter about 7 July 1560 (, p. 342). Her husband's intrigue with a certain court lady led to his separation from his wife, who, however, together with her daughter Anne [see ], was present at his death 30 Oct. 1605. The next few years were occupied in collecting documents in support of the claim of her daughter to the family estates, which the last earl had, by a will dated only eleven days before his death, left to his brother Francis and his heirs male. On 12 Oct. 1607 the dowager countess and her daughter were denied entrance to Skipton Castle. She died at Brougham Castle in Westmoreland 24 May 1616, leaving the great lawsuit to be settled by a compromise dated 14 March 1617. Her daughter was present at her burial, which took place 7 July in Appleby Church, where her monument may still be seen.

The Countess Margaret seems to have been an affectionate mother. Her daughter Anne describes her as a 'woman of greate naturall wit and judgment, of a swete disposition, truly religious and virtuous, and endowed with a large share of those four moral virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The death of her two sonnes did so much afflict her as that ever after the booke of Jobe was her dayly companion.' She was also a lady with some pretension to literary tastes. In her portrait as it is preserved in the great family picture, drawn up for her husband in June 1589, she is represented holding the Psalms in her hands. A manuscript note in a Bodleian copy of Walpole's 'Noble Authors' ascribes to her 'some beautiful verses in the stile of Spencer.' They are said to appear on the monument of Richard Candish of Suffolk, in Hornsey Church, Middlesex (Auct. Bodleian. D. 111, pp. 172-3). Perhaps her highest praise is to be found in the pains with which she educated her daughter Anne for her high station. [q. v.], whom she engaged as her daughter's tutor from her tenderest years, dedicated to her several poems.



CLIFFORD, MARTIN (d. 1677), master of the Charterhouse, was probably connected with the family of, lord Clifford [q. v.], a member of the cabal administration. He was educated at Westminster, and in 1640 proceeded to Cambridge, taking his bachelor's degree as a member of Trinity College three years later (Cole MS. xlv. f. 265). What became of him during the civil war is not known with any certainty; Wood notes that 'one Martin Clifford was lieutenant in Thomas, earl of Ossory's regiment, 1660.' After the Restoration he hung about town, mainly supported by the dissolute noblemen of the court, among whom his licentious tastes and powers of buffoonery were especially acceptable. He was employed by the Duke of Buckingham, along with Samuel Butler and Thomas Sprat, in producing the famous 'Rehearsal.' Clifford's precise share in the composition is of course uncertain; the fact of his co-operation is noticed in the fourth stanza of the 'Session of Poets:'