CLINTON, Sir Henry (1730-95), of Portland Place, Mdx.

During his first 12 years in Parliament Clinton sat as the nominee of his cousin, the 2nd Duke of Newcastle. The public scapegoat for the British defeat at Yorktown, he opposed Shelburne’s peace preliminaries and supported the Fox-North Coalition. His cousin did not return him in 1784. He came in in 1790 for the Duke of Northumberland’s borough of Launceston. He voted against Pitt on the Oczakov question, 12 Apr. 1791, and on Whitbread’s motion on arming against Russia, 1 Mar. 1792. He made no reported speech in this period. When in December 1792 he was listed a Portland Whig, the Duke of Portland wrote ‘Duke of Northumberland’ against his name. He was thought of for the ‘third party’ in February 1793 and evidently became a supporter of Pitt. He had written unsuccessfully to Pitt, 25 May 1792, seeking to have the commission for the claims of American loyalists reopened. In December 1793 he was offered the military command at Toulon. In July 1794 he was appointed governor of Gibraltar where he died, 23 Dec. 1795.NLS mss 11196, ff. 76, 94; PRO 30/8/123, f. 178; Geo. III Corresp. ii. 991.