Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton

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Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton
Arms of Fortescue: Azure, a bend engrailed argent plain cotised or
Arms of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton: Fortescue quartering Clinton (Argent, six cross crosslets fitchée sable three two and one on a chief azure two mullets or pierced gules), detail from a contemporary engraving of Castle Hill (see below)
Arms of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton: Fortescue quartering Clinton

Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton (c. 1696 – 3 May 1751) was an English peer and landowner. He built the Palladian English country house of Castle Hill, which survives to this day.

Origins

He was the eldest surviving son and heir of

harbours at Port Gaverne and Port Isaac.[5]

14th Baron Clinton

On the death of his mother's childless first cousin

Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire, the Clinton seat, which was retained by the Fortescue family until 1910.[6]

Career

On 16 March 1721 he was summoned to the

Earl Clinton.[14]

Estates

Castle Hill, Filleigh, Devon, as built by Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton, whose arms, quartering Clinton, are shown at top right
Castle Hill in 2014

He consolidated his estates by selling most of his holdings in Somerset and Wiltshire and reinvesting the proceeds of £22,000 in purchasing more land in the vicinity of his North Devon manor of Filleigh, inherited from his father, where he demolished the ancient manor house and built in its place the surviving Palladian stately home which he named Castle Hill.[15]

Personal life

He died unmarried on 3 May 1751,[16] aged 55, although he had fathered a daughter by a mistress, for whom he built a house on his Filleigh estate. The illegitimate daughter married one of his cousins.[17]

Succession

As he died without legitimate issue, the Earldom of Clinton became extinct and the Barony of Fortescue descended to his younger half-brother,

special remainder. The ancient barony of Clinton, which had been created by writ in 1298, went into abeyance until 1760 between his childless sister Margaret Fortescue (1693-1760), who styled herself "Baroness Clinton",[18] and their second cousin Margaret Rolle (1709–1781), who in 1760 became 15th Baroness Clinton, the daughter of Col. Samuel Rolle (1646-1719), the son of Robert Rolle (d. 1660), MP, of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, Devon, by his wife Lady Arabella Clinton, the younger daughter of Theophilus Clinton, 4th Earl of Lincoln, 12th Baron Clinton (1600–1667). Margaret Rolle was then the widow of Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (d. 1751) (son of the Prime Minister Robert Walpole) and the wife of Sewallis Shirley, son of Robert Shirley, 1st Earl Ferrers
.

References

  1. ^ "The Visitations of Cornwall". Archived from the original on 14 September 2017.
  2. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.355, pedigree of Fortescue
  3. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of Cornwall: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1530, 1573 & 1620; with additions by J.L. Vivian, Exeter, 1887, pp.47-8 [1]
  4. ^ Lysons, Magna Britannia, Vol.3, Cornwall, 1814, p.85
  5. ^ Devon Archives and Local Studies Service (South West Heritage Trust), Reference: 1262M, Title: FORTESCUE OF CASTLE HILL [2]
  6. ^ "The history of Tattershall Castle in a nutshell".
  7. ^ Vivian, p.355
  8. ^ Lauder, p.77
  9. ^ Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.77
  10. ^ Lauder, p.77
  11. ^ "FORTESCUE, Theophilus (C.1707-1746), of Castle Hill, Filleigh, nr. Barnstaple, Devon. | History of Parliament Online".
  12. ^ Lauder, p.77
  13. ^ Vivian, p.355
  14. ^ Lauder, p.77
  15. ^ Lauder, p.77
  16. ^ Vivian, p.355
  17. ^ Lauder, p.78
  18. ^ Lauder, p.67
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Devon
1721–1733 		Succeeded by
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation
Earl Clinton

1746–1751 		Extinct
Baron Fortescue

1746–1751 		Succeeded by
Peerage of England
In abeyance
Title last held by
Edward Clinton 		Baron Clinton
1721–1751 		In abeyance
Title next held by
Margaret Rolle
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