Clinton was born in Little Britain, Province of New York, He was the son of Col. Charles Clinton and Elizabeth Denniston Clinton, Presbyterian immigrants who left County Longford, Ireland, in 1729 to escape an Anglican regime that imposed severe disabilities on religious dissenters.
During the French and Indian War he first served on the privateer Defiance operating in the Caribbean,[REF] before enlisting in the provincial militia, where his father held the rank of Colonel.