Clifton is significant because it was built and used-by Thomas Mann Randolph (1768- 1828) who served as Governor of Virginia, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, member of the US Congress, and was son-in- law of Thomas Jefferson. Dating to the first quarter of the 19th-century, Clifton was part of the never- to- be port of North Milton, a sister port to the now extinct village of Milton directly across the Rivanna River. Spurred on by the economic prosperity of Milton, the most prosperous town in Albemarle County during the last quarter of the 18th-century, Randolph and several partners planned the town of North Milton adjacent to the Milton canal that supported agricultural commerce in the Albemarle region. The Clifton house is believed to have been built as an office but is referred to as a dwelling in Mutual Assurance Society policies. It was here that Thomas Mann Randolph spent time away from his family to work and in his later years, 1826-1827, with Edgehill sold to pay off debts, Clifton became his refuge when he became estranged with his son, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. Clifton has passed through the hands of seventeen owners, alterations and additions have been made to the once simple five- room house, yet at the core of the present fine Colonial Revival-style house remains most of the early 19th-century building. - NRHP Registration, 11 February 1989