Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/93

  Variolis,' Leyden, 1724, 4to, was included by Haller in the fifth volume of his 'Disputationes ad Morborum Historiam et Curationem facientes.' Clifton afterwards settled in London, where his classical and scientific attainments won him the friendship of many eminent men, among others of Sir Hans Sloane, at whose instance he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 22 June 1727. The same year he published 'Hippocratis Coi Operum quse extant omnium secundum Leges artis Medicae dispositorum, editionis novse specimen,' London, 1727, folio, which was followed in 1732 by 'Proposals for Printing, by subscription, all the works of Hippocrates in Greek and Latin, digested in a new and regular manner,' but from want of encouragement the intended publication never appeared (, Literary Anecdotes, ii. 14-15). Clifton received the honorary degree of M.D. from Cambridge on 26 April 1728, during the visit of George II; was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians on 23 Dec. in the same year, a fellow on 22 Dec. 1729, and read the Gulstonian lectures in 1732. He also held the appointment of physician to the Prince of Wales, which he resigned, and abruptly quitted London for Jamaica in 1734. Writing to Sir Hans Sloane from Kingston in that island on 3 June 1736, he says : 'My misfortunes came so fast upon me, and my brother's provocations were so frequently repeated, that I was hurried in a manner to death about 'em' (Sloane MS. 4041, f. 9). He died a few weeks afterwards, leaving no issue by his wife, Sarah Banckes, daughter of a merchant in Leadenhall Street. In the letters of administration P. C. C. granted on 6 Nov. 1736 to his widow, Clifton is described as 'late of the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, Middlesex, but at Kingston in Jamaica, deceased.' His widow survived until 1747, and was buried in the parish church of St. Andrew Undershaft (will reg. in P. C. C. 145, Potter).

At the time of his death Clifton was engaged in drawing up an account of the diseases of Jamaica, but left it unfinished. His other works were:
 * 1) 'Tabular Observations recommended as the plainest … way of practising and improving Physick,' London, 1731, 8vo.
 * 2) 'The State of Physick, Ancient and Modern, briefly considered,' London, 1732, 8vo. In this treatise the author maintains that Hippocrates had anticipated Newton in his idea of the system of gravitation. A French version by the Abbé Desfontaines was published at Paris in 1742.
 * 3) 'Hippocrates upon Air, Water, and Situation … To this is added Thucidides's Account of the Plague of Athens. Translated and … illustrated with notes,' London, 1734, 8vo.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys., 2nd edit, ii. 115-16; Nouvelle Biographie Generale, x. 864; Biographie Universelle, 453-4.]  CLIFTON, JOHN C. (1781–1841), musical composer, born in London in 1781, was intended by his father to become a merchant, but his early talent for music was so pronounced that he was placed under the care of a relation, [q. v.], with whom he studied music for five years. He next became the pupil of Charles Wesley, and eventually determined to follow music as a profession, throwing up an appointment in the Stationery Office, which he held for about two years. His first professional engagement was at Bath, where he conducted the Harmonic Society. In 1802 he went to Dublin, and in 1815 he produced there a musical piece called 'Edwin,' which is said to have been successful. He also gained some credit by organising (together with Sir John Stevenson) a concert on a very large scale in aid of the sufferers from the Irish famine. About 1816 he invented an instrument for facilitating singing by sight. This he called the 'Eidomusicon,' but it does not appear to have been patented. About the same time he finished a work on the theory of harmony, and came to London in 1818 in order to obtain the publication of his invention, in which he was unsuccessful. Clifton next adopted the Logierian system of musical instruction, and for some years was a teacher of repute in London. He married the proprietress of a ladies' school at Hammersmith, where the last years of his life were spent. About 1838 he became possessed with the idea that he was enormously wealthy, and the mania grew to such an extent that it was found necessary to place him under restraint. He died at Teresa House, Hammersmith, 18 Nov. 1841. His compositions were unimportant, chiefly consisting of songs and glees.

 CLIFTON, RICHARD (d. 1616), puritan divine, became pastor of a Brownist congregation at Scrooby, Nottinghamshire. Probably he was the Richard Clifton who, on 12 Feb. 1585, was instituted to the vicarage of Marnham, near Newark, and on 11 July 1586 to the rectory of Babworth, near Retford, and not very far from Scrooby. The separatist church in Nottinghamshire, which was probably Clifton's church, ordinarily met in Mr. Brewster's house at Scrooby. The