Family and Education

s. of Gabriel Clinkard of Westminster. m. (1) 1654, Anne, da. of Sir John Wayne, 1st Bt., of Linton, 3s. (2 d.v.p.) 2da. (2) lic. 21 Jan. 1675, Margaret, da. of Thomas Tyndall of Sutton Valence, wid. of Maximilian Taylor of Sutton Valence, s.p.1

Offices Held

Capt.-lt. vol. horse, Kent Oct. 1660, capt. by 1672-bef. 1680, commr. for assessment 1673-80, j.p. ?1675-8, 1679-89, sheriff 1681-4, dep. lt. 1682-9; freeman, Maidstone 1683.2

Biography

Clinkard’s father, head bailiff of Westminster before the Civil War, claimed kinship with the Buckinghamshire gentry. According to his own account after the Restoration he was ‘plundered and tried for his life, and deprived of his place’ for his loyalty, while Clinkard himself was taken prisoner at Worcester; but this is improbable, for only four days before the battle he was in custody at Gravesend, and the Council of State ordered him to be sent up to London for questioning. He may have attended the exiled Court for a time, but he had returned to England by 1654, when he married the daughter of a zealous Kentish Royalist with Buckinghamshire connexions. His name appears on a list of royalist suspects at this time, and he was probably the ‘John Clinkard’ who was proposed for the order of the Royal Oak at the Restoration, with an income of £600. His father was granted arms in 1664, and Clinkard himself entered the service of the Duke of Richmond, witnessing his will in 1671.3

After Clinkard’s second marriage he was appointed a j.p., but as a follower of Sir Vere Fane he signed the protest against government support for Sir John Banks at Winchelsea in 1677, and was removed from the county bench. He was restored a year later, and made a deputy lieutenant in 1682, the King having ‘received a good testimony’ of his loyalty. He held the shrievalty for three consecutive years, but the reason for this unusual extension of tenure is not known. In 1685 he was returned for Maidstone, six miles from Sutton Valence. A moderately active Member of James II’s Parliament, he was appointed to the committees for two naturalization bills, and to those to estimate the yield of a tax on new buildings and to provide for the conveyance of fresh water to Rochester and Chatham. In 1688 he gave affirmative answers on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws, and the lord lieutenant recommended his retention in local office. It was reported that he had a ‘good interest’ at Maidstone, but he was not named as a court candidate. His attitude towards the Revolution is not known, but though his son served as captain under Edward Dering in Ireland, Clinkard himself was not again appointed to local office. His will, dated 24 Feb. 1696, was proved at Canterbury a month later. No other member of his family entered Parliament.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. Harl. 1172, f. 60; Misc. Gen. et Her. (ser. 5), ix. 120; St. Paul Covent Garden (Harl. Reg. xxxi), 1; Canterbury Mar. Lic. iii. 98; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 1319; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. liv), 172; Eton Coll. Reg. ed. Sterry, 76; M. Temple Adm. Reg. 213; Kent AO, PRC 17/79/19; London Mar. Lic. (Harl. Soc. xxiv), 184; Hasted, Kent, v. 371.
• 2. Stowe 744, f. 51; Harl. 1172, f. 60; Add. 21948, ff. 340, 384; Maidstone Recs. ed. Martin, 161.
• 3. Harl. 1172, f. 60; CSP Dom. 1651, p. 395; 1671-2, p. 283; Bodl. Rawl. A3, f. 204; Arch. Cant. xi. 271; Add. 21948, ff. 340, 384; Cal. Ct. Mins. E.I. Co. ed. Sainsbury, ix. 234.
• 4. Kent AO, Sa/ZB3/1; HMC Finch, ii. 44; CSP Dom. 1682, p. 370; 1683-4, p. 341.