| Honorific Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Clifford of Chudleigh | |
| Constituency Mp: | Totnes |
| Parliament: | English |
| Term Start: | 1660 |
| Term End: | 1673 |
| Term Start2: | 28 November 1672 |
| Term End2: | 24 June 1673 |
| Predecessor2: | In Commission |
| Successor2: | The Viscount Latimer |
| Office3: | Treasurer of the Household |
| Term Start3: | 1668 |
| Term End3: | 1672 |
| Predecessor3: | Charles Fitzhardinge, 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge |
| Successor3: | The Lord Newport |
| Office4: | Comptroller of the Household |
| Term Start4: | 1666 |
| Term End4: | 1668 |
| Predecessor4: | Sir Hugh Pollard, Bt |
| Successor4: | The Lord Newport |
| Birth Name: | Thomas Clifford |
| Birth Date: | 1 August 1630 |
| Death Cause: | Suicide |
| Nationality: | English |
| Spouse: | Elizabeth Martin |
| Children: | 15, including Hugh Clifford |
Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1 August 1630 – 17 October 1673) was an English statesman who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1672 when he was created Baron Clifford. He was one of five leading politicians who formed the Cabal ministry between 1668 and 1674 in the reign of Charles II.
Clifford was born in Ugbrooke, the son of Hugh Clifford of Chudleigh, Devon, and his wife Mary Chudleigh, daughter of Sir George Chudleigh, 1st Baronet. He was baptised on 4 August 1630 at Ugbrooke. He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford in 1647 and entered Middle Temple in 1648.[1]
His aunt, Sabina Clifford, married Matthew Hals (or (Halse) of Kenendon. Their daughter, Anne, married Rev John Tindal and was the mother of Dr Matthew Tindal, the eminent deist and author of Christianity as Old as the Creation.
In April 1660, Clifford was elected Member of Parliament for Totnes in the Convention Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Totnes in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament.[1] He distinguished himself in naval battles, and was knighted. During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Clifford served as one of four Commissioners for taking Care of Sick and Wounded Seamen and for the Care and Treatment of Prisoners of War (the others were Sir William D'Oyly, John Evelyn and Bullen Reymes).[2]
In August 1665, Clifford was named Ambassador Extraordinary to Sweden; he traveled to Denmark in October, before returning to Britain the following February.[3] He became Comptroller of the Household in 1666[4] and a member of the Privy Council. At the end of the Dutch war in 1669 he intrigued against the peace treaty, preferring the French interests.[5]
He was one of the five Counsellors who formed the Cabal, each of whom pursued their own interests. Clifford was known as 'the Bribe Master General'. King Charles II entrusted for safekeeping to Clifford, his favorite aide, the British state papers of the 1670 Treaty of Dover, which "led to war between England and the Netherlands and might have ended British parliamentary rule and the Church of England".[6]
Clifford was created the first Baron Clifford of Chudleigh on 22 April 1672 for his suggestion that the King supply himself with money by stopping, for one year, all payments out of the Exchequer.He was Lord High Treasurer from 28 November 1672 to June 1673, when, as a Roman Catholic, he found himself unable to comply with the Test Act and resigned.[7]
He died possibly by his own hand[7] (perhaps "strangled with his cravatt upon the bed-tester") a few months after his retirement.
He married Elizabeth Martin, who died in 1709. She was the daughter of Richard (William) Martin of Lindridge House, Devon.
And their sons were:
|-|-