Born Frederick Catt at Gillingham, Kent, on 22 June 1828, he was fifth son of Jesse Catt a Kentish man by his wife Mary Pearse. After private schooling, he started before he was twenty in provincial journalism. In 1852 he settled in London and joined the parliamentary staff of The Times, of which his elder brother George was already a member at this time both he and George renounced the name Catt and adopted Clifford as their surname. This employment he combined with other work. He retained his connection with the provinces by acting as London correspondent of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, a conservative journal, and in 1863 he became joint proprietor of the paper with William Christopher Leng.
