Family

Gervase was the only son of Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet

Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet

Sir Gervase Clifton, 1st Baronet , K.B. was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1666. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.-Political career:...

, and his first wife Lady Penelope Rich, daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick

Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick

Robert Rich, 3rd Baron Rich, created 1st Earl of Warwick was the son of Robert Rich, 2nd Baron Rich, and Elizabeth Baldry.-Marriages and children:First married Penelope Devereux on 10 January, 1581...

 and Lady Penelope Devereux. His mother died in 1613, and his father married six more times and had many more children.

He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

. In 1629 he went on the Grand Tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

 with his tutor, the philosopher Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...

.

He married in 1633 Sara, daughter of Timothy Pusey of Selston, Nottinghamshire. They had no surviving children, although two daughters died in infancy.

Career

He was appointed as a Justice of the Peace for Nottinghamshire in 1635. However, his impulsive behaviour caused conflict with his father. He was described as "the wretched unfortunate, who was his father's greatest foil".

He was imprisoned in 1640 for assaulting two men serving a writ on him for unpaid debts.

In 1648 he relinquished his rights to the Clifton estates in favour of his younger half-brother Clifford.

Gervase succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet in 1666. On his death in 1675 the baronetcy passed to Clifford's son William.