CLINTON, HENRY FYNES, was born January 14, 1781, at Gam ston in Nottinghamshire. He was the eldest son of the Rev. Charles Fynes Clinton, D.D., prebendary of Westminster, and incumbent of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and was descended in direct line from Henry, second earl of Lincoln. The family name was Fyues till his father obtained a royal licence, April 26, 1S21, to resume the ancient family name of Clinton.
Mr. Clinton was educated at Southwell School, Nottinghamshire, where he remained from 1789 till 1796, and was well grounded in the classic languages. In September 1796 he was removed to Westminster School, where he remained till Easter 1799, not on the foundation. In April 1799 he went to Oxford, whore he was entered a commoner of Christ Church, and remained till 1806. He graduated B.A. in 1803, and M.A. in 1805.
At the general election of 1806 he was returned M.P. for Aldborougb, through the interest of the Duke of Newcastle, and continued to be one of the representatives of that borough till the dissolution of 1826, after which he was succeeded in his seat by his next brother. He was diligent in his parliamentary attendance, but was not a speaker. In his politics he was a conservative. After the death of Mr. Plants, iu December 1827, he was a candidate for the office of principal librarian of the British Museum; but the claims of Sir Henry Ellis from long service and experience determined the choice of the Marquis of Lans downe, then Home Secretary, in lais favour. Mr. Clinton inherited an ample fortune from a distant relative. He died at his residence, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, October 24, 1852.
Mr. Clinton married Juno 22, 1809, but his wife died February 2, 1810. Ile married January 6, 1812, a daughter of Dr. Majendie, bishop of Bangor, who survived him, together with eight daughters. His only son, Charles Francis Clinton, graduated R.A. of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1836, served in Spain in the Christine army, was decorated with the Cross of San Fernando by Espartero, was appointed in 1843 British arbitrator under the treaty with Portugal for the abolition of slavery, and died at Loando, on the west coast of Africa, in 1844.
Mr. Clinton was a classical scholar of the highest class. He read
carefully all the best works of the Greek and Roman writers with a diligence perhaps unexampled, at least in modern times. He himself states, that while at Oxford, during less than seven years, be read 5223 Pages of the Greek poets and prose-writers ; hut that afterwards, between 1810 and he read about 40,000 pages : the reading at Oxford amounting to 746 pages annually, while the reading during 1810-20 amounts to 4000 pages annually, which is at any rate more than five times greater.
Mr. Clinton's two great works, the Fasti Hellenici' and Fasti Romani,' have a European reputation, and are literary works of which every English scholar may well be proud. The 'Fasti Hellenici' (the 'Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece '), 3 vols. 4to, Oxford, was commenced in 1810, and was published in four separate volumes in 1824, 1827, 1830, and 1834; but the work is now divided into 3 vola, which are sold separately-vol. i. extending from the earliest accounts to the 65th Olympiad, vol. ii. from the 55th to the 124th Olympiad, and vol. iii. from the 124th Olympiad to the death of Augustus. Besides the chronological tables, of which these volumes for the most part consist, they -are interspersed with dissertations on the early inhabitants of Greece, the Messenian wars, scripture chronology, the writings of Homer, the population of ancient Greece, and other inter eating subjects. The Faati Romani' (the ' Civil and Literary Chro nology of Rome and Constantinople, from the Death of Augustus to the Death of liermlitur), 2 vols. Ito, Osford, were published In 1845 and 1850. In 1.551 Mr. Clinton published 'An Epitome of the Civil and Literary Chronology of Oreece, from the Earliest Accounts to the Death of Augustus,' 8vo, Osford; and in 1853 appeared 'An Epitome of the Civil and Literary Chronology of Rome and Constantinople, from the Death of Augustus to the Death of Hemline,' Svo, Oxford: two abridgments which are eery useful to those students who cannot afford to purcluthe the larger and more expensive works.
(Literary Remains of II. P. Clinton, Edited by C. J. P. Clinton, 1354; (Eeeskinam's iformine.)