Family and Education

b. c.1715, 1st s. of Sir William Clayton, 1st Bt., M.P., of Marden, by Martha, da. of John Kenrick, London merchant of Flower, Surr. educ. Corpus Christi, Camb. 1732. m. 13 Feb. 1736, Henrietta Maria, da. of Henry Herring of London, director of the Bank of England, 1s. 2da. suc. fa 28 Dec. 1744.

Offices Held

Biography

In 1754 Clayton was returned unopposed for Bletchingley, his family’s pocket borough, and was classed by Dupplin as a country gentleman supporting Administration. On 10 Dec. 1761 he wrote to Newcastle that he was ‘very unwilling to do anything against your Grace with whom I have acted without once deviating ever since the year thirty-four’.1 But in Bute’s list he is described as ‘discontented with the Duke of Newcastle for the omission of some civilities’. His name appears neither in Fox’s list of Members favourable to the peace preliminaries, December 1762, nor in the minority lists of 9 and 10 Dec. In the autumn of 1763 Jenkinson classed him as ‘contra’; he voted with Opposition on Wilkes, 15 Nov. 1763, and general warrants, February 1764; and on 10 May 1764 was classed by Newcastle as a ‘sure friend’. Rockingham in July 1765 listed him as ‘pro’ and in November 1766 as ‘Whig’. He did not vote on the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767, and was classed by Newcastle, 2 Mar., as ‘doubtful or absent’. There is no record of any other vote of his or of his having spoken in the House.  He died 10 Mar. 1769.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

• 1. Add. 32932, f. 58.