Select Clinton Miscellany



Here are some Clinton stories and accounts over the years:

Clinton English Lineage


The family of Clinton was said to be of Norman origin, settling in England after the Conquest.  They took their name from the lordship of Climpton in Oxfordshire.  Roger Climpton was Bishop of Coventry from 1228 to 1249.  John de Clinton was summoned to Parliament by Edward I.  His son William was Lord High Admiral of England.  Various Clintons fought in the Wars of the Roses.  Edward was Lord High Admiral and created Earl of Lincoln in 1572.  His successor Henry was one of the commissioners at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots.  


Clinton Irish Lineage

The Clinton name appeared on the records in the Dowdell deeds of County Louth from the thirteenth century.  Hugh de Clinton was sheriff there in 1301 and Sir John Clinton a leading member of the landed gentry in the 1500's.  Later, however, three Clintons from this family appeared on the list of Jacobite outlawries.  Stephen Clinton of Clintonstown is recorded among those whose lands were confiscated.  

Charles Clinton Arrives in America

In 1729 Charles Clinton determined to emigrate to America.   Being a man of influence, he prevailed upon a large number of his neighbors and friends to go with him.  He sailed from Dublin on the George and Anne in May 1729.

They were unfortunate in the choice of vessel and captain, as the following family account reveals:

"They had laid in a sufficient stock of provisions for an ordinary voyage.  But instead of a common passage, the captain kept them at sea twenty one weeks and three days.  During the passage they came one morning in full sight of the coast of Virginia, which the boatswain affirmed he knew perfectly well as he had frequently been on that coast before.  But the captain called him a lying skulking dog and immediately ordered him to put the ship about and set off to sea.

In this shocking dliemma, the captain extorted from the passengers a very considerable sum of money, as a bribe for landing them on any part of the coast.  Soon after this agreement he landed them at Cape Cod."


According to Clinton's diary, 93 passengers died during the journey.
Charles Clinton himself remained in Massachusetts until the following spring when he moved onto New York. He settled there in a place he called Little Britain, now part of Orange County.  Though within a few miles of the Hudson river and some seventy miles from New York City, this place was at the frontier of civilization. "These hardy pioneers were so exposed to the incursions of the Indians that it was found necessary to construct a palisade around their house for security."


George Clinton and His Money

As a general in the Revolutionary War, George Clinton was an American hero and probably the best-known of the war generals after Washington.  He had long-term ambitions for the Presidency.  But these were never fulfilled.

He was a shrewd man who was said to be very tight with his money.  He was a partner with George Washington in several profitable land deals, selling his Greenwich Village farm to John Jacob Astor for $75,000 in 1805.  Other stories suggest that at one stage, when he was allocated a certain amount of money to entertain visitors and dignitaries, he didn't use it but kept it to himself.  Noted for his carefulness with money, he died one of New York's wealthiest men.


Bill and Raymond Clinton

The most influential male figure very early in his life, and indeed later in his political start, was his stepfather's brother, a man named Raymond Clinton.  Raymond had a Buick franchise in Hot Springs in Arkansas and ran slot machines out at the back, not just at his own dealership but at other businesses and properties around town.   

Raymond was always there to take care of Bill Clinton as a boy when he was mistreated or abandoned by his stepfather or mother.  He was very protective.  Perhaps he even adopted Bill in some aspects, seeing him, very early on, as the political figure, the charmer, the publicly acceptable face that he would eventually become.

At one point, Raymond played a very important role in Bill's life.  This was the man to whom Bill Clinton turned when confronted with the prospect of being drafted to Vietnam.  It was Raymond who used his local connections to stave off the draft.



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