Henry Fynes Clinton

Henry Fynes Clinton (14 January 1781 – 24 October 1852) was an English classical scholar and chronologist, born in Gamston, Nottinghamshire.

He was descended from Henry Clinton, 2nd Earl of Lincoln; for some generations his family bore the name of Fynes, but his father resumed the older family name of Clinton in 1821. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied classical literature and history. From 1806 to 1826 he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Aldborough. He died at Welwyn, Herts, where he had purchased the residence and estate of the poet Edward Young.

His reading was extraordinarily methodical (see his "Literary Remains"). The value of his "Fasti", which set classical chronology on a scientific basis, can scarcely be overestimated, even though subsequent research has corrected some of his conclusions.

His chief works are: "Fasti Hellenici, the Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece from the 55th to the 124th Olympiad" (1824-1851), including dissertations on points of Greek history and Scriptural chronology; and "Fasti Romani, the Civil and Literary Chronology of Rome and Constantinople from the Death of Augustus to the Death of Heraclius" (1845-1850). In 1851 and 1853 respectively he published epitomes of the above. "The Literary Remains of H. F. Clinton" (the first part of which contains an autobiography written in 1818) were edited by Clinton James Fynes Clinton in 1854.