Editing John Clitherow (section)

==Early life and family==
Clitherow was born at [[Essendon, Hertfordshire]], [[England]] in 1782, the son of Christopher Clitherow and Anne Jodrell. He was descended from Sir [[Christopher Clitherow]], Member of Parliament (1628-1629) and Lord Mayor of London in 1635.<ref name=DCB/> The Clitherow family were wealthy London merchants throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and owned [[Boston Manor House]] in [[Brentford]] (now part of London), from 1670 onwards.<ref>[https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/b292a2ca-9c28-4b37-8265-cf3875816561 "Clitherow Family", London Metropolitan Archives:  City of London.]</ref>

In 1809, Clitherow married Sarah Christie Burton, daughter of General [[Napier Christie Burton]] and granddaughter of General [[Gabriel Christie (British Army officer)|Gabriel Christie]], who had served with the British Army in the Revolutionary War, afterwards settling in [[Lower Canada]], where he acquired extensive land-holdings. Clitherow and his wife had one son, John Christie Clitherow, who eventually served in the [[Coldstream Guards]].  However, the marriage ended when Clitherow divorced Sarah in 1819, by private Act of Parliament.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/genealogicalmem06rogegoog#page/n28/mode/2up ''Genealogical Memoirs of the Scottish House of Christie''], [[Charles Rogers (author)|Charles Rogers]], (London: Royal Historical Society, 1878), pp. 22-25.</ref><ref>[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/changes/chron-tables/private/26 ''John Clitherow's Divorce from Sarah Clitherow'', 59 Geo. III (1819), c. 71.]</ref> In 1825, Clitherow married Millicent Pole of Gloucestershire.<ref name = DCB/>