The Baronetcy of Clavering of Axwell was created in the Baronetage of England on 5 June 1661 for James Clavering, the grandson of James Clavering (1565–1630), a merchant adventurer of Newcastle upon Tyne, who was mayor of that city and who bought the estate of Axwell Park, near Blaydon, Northumberland in 1629.
The Clavering family descended from the 13th-century Lords of Clavering and Warkworth and from Alan de Clavering (died 1328) of Callaly Castle, Northumberland. Branches of the family include Axwell, Callaly, Duddo, Berrington and Chopwell. The marriage of Mary Clavering of Chopwell to William Cowper in 1706 led to the creation of the Clavering-Cowper family