TOWARDS 1,000 YEARS OF HISTORY AND GENEALOGY.

From the Norman Conquest to the American Revolution, from medieval castles to the corridors of political power, the story of the de Clinton family spans almost a thousand years and reaches across continents. 

 

In this remarkable work of historical and genealogical research, archaeologist and historian Mark Clinton traces thirty generations of one family, from its origins in Normandy through its establishment in England and Ireland to its descendants in America and beyond. Along the way, the Clintons emerge as participants in some of the defining events of European and American history: the Crusades, the Hundred Years’ War, the Battle of the Boyne, the American War of Independence and the Battle of Waterloo. 

 

Among their number were earls, dukes, generals, bishops, politicians and diplomats, including a vice-president of the United States. Yet this is also the story of farmers, merchants, soldiers and emigrants, whose lives illuminate the wider experiences of families across the centuries. 

 

Drawing on decades of painstaking research, historical records, family archives and genealogical evidence, Mark Clinton brings together the many branches of this extraordinary family in a richly detailed account of ancestry, migration, ambition and survival. 

 

Both a substantial contribution to genealogical scholarship and a sweeping family history, this work reveals how the fortunes of a single family became entwined with the great events of nearly a millennium.

 

Author Bio
 Mark Clinton graduated from University College Dublin in 1973 having studied Early and Medieval Irish History under Professors F.J. Byrne and Donnchadh Ó Corráin, and Archaeology under Professor Ruaidhrí de Valera. 
 
A career in field archaeology spanning 40 years followed, including senior positions at such renowned sites as Rathgall Hillfort in County Wicklow under Professor Barry Raftery, and Wood Quay in Dublin under Dr Patrick F. Wallace. 
 
Two decades spent exploring and researching souterrains led to the conferring of a doctorate from University College Galway in 1998, the thesis having been supervised by Professors Etienne Rynne and Charles Thomas CBE. 
 
Dr Clinton has contributed papers to many journals and publications. He is the author of the standard textbook The Souterrains of Ireland. From 2000 to 2002 he directed excavations at Carrickmines Castle in south County Dublin. The history of the castle, and the people associated with it, was documented in his book Carrickmines Castle: Rise and Fall. 
 
In 2010 he directed the research excavation that led to the discovery of the long-sought Viking longphort of Linn Duachaill. 
 
Dr Clinton served for twenty years (2004–24) as the chair of the Monuments and Antiquities Committee of 
 An Taisce (the National Trust for Ireland).