Clay Book Chapter 1

Claybook DRAFT 19th November, 2009

Ancestor Map for

Henry Clay

Joseph Spender Clay

Charles John Clay

┌─── Joseph Clay, d. 24 Oct 1728 │ ┌──┤ Thomas Clay, b. 8 Apr 1698, d. 18 Apr 1767 aged 69 │ │ │ └─── Elizabeth Gybson, d. Oct 1722 │ ┌──┤ Joseph the middle Clay, b. Jul 1726, d. 10 Feb 1800 aged 73 │ │ │ └─── Elizabeth Adams, b. Jun 1700, d. 14 Jul 1740 aged 40 │ ┌──┤ Joseph III Clay, b. 3 Aug 1756, d. 22 Jun 1824 aged 67 │ │ │ │ ┌─── Antony Robinson, d. 1738 in Gibraltar │ └──┤ Elizabeth Robinson, b. 1726, d. 10 May 1780 aged 54 │ │ ┌─── William Hastings │ └──┤ Elizabeth Hastings, b. 1695, d. 1779 aged 84 │ ┌──┤ Henry Clay, b. 11 Aug 1796, d. 4 Jan 1874 aged 77 │ │ │ │ ┌─── James Spender, b. Feb 1683, d. Jul 1748 aged 65 │ │ ┌──┤ Rev. Arthur Spender, b. Apr 1706, d. May 1752 aged 46 │ │ │ └─── Ann Wood, b. 1680, d. 1748 aged 68 │ │ ┌──┤ John Spender, b. Jun 1742, d. 22 Sep 1820 aged 78 │ │ │ └─── Sarah Stephenson, d. 1752 │ └──┤ Sarah Spender, b. 1768, d. 4 Jun 1831 aged 63 │ └─── Ellen (Eleanor) Wright, b. 1744, d. 11 Jan 1808 aged 64 │ ──┤ Henry Clay, b. 4 Aug 1825, d. 3 Mar 1921 aged 95 ──┤ Joseph Spender Clay, b. Nov 1826, d. 3 Nov 1885 aged 59 ──┤ Charles John Clay, b. 21 Aug 1828, d. 14 Apr 1910 aged 81 │ │ ┌─── Thomas Leigh, d. 17 Aug 1701 │ ┌──┤ John Leigh, b. Feb 1691 │ ┌──┤ Thomas the younger Leigh, b. 20 Nov 1725 │ │ │ ┌─── Thomas Wright │ │ └──┤ Jane Wright, d. Apr 1736 │ ┌──┤ John the younger Leigh, b. 14 Dec 1752, d. 20 Dec 1823 aged 71 │ │ │ ┌─── Robert Cross │ │ └──┤ Eleanor Cross └──┤ Elizabeth Leigh, b. 2 Nov 1799, d. 19 Apr 1887 aged 87 │ ┌─── Richard Gerard, b. 1726, d. 1 Jul 1792 aged 66 └──┤ Elizabeth Gerard, b. Feb 1764, d. 25 Mar 1843 aged 79 │ ┌─── Thomas Shaw, b. 1695, d. 1 Feb 1779 aged 84 └──┤ Elizabeth Shaw, b. 25 Apr 1726


C O N T E N T S

PART ONE - From Merrybower, circa 1650 to Piercefield, 1861............................................................... 2

PART ONE - CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................... 6

The Origins. ................................................................................................................................................... 6 Joseph Clay of Merrybower........................................................................................................................... 8 Thomas Clay of Merrybower ......................................................................................................................... 9 Where the early Clays lived. ........................................................................................................................ 12

PART ONE - CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................... 14

Thomas Clay ................................................................................................................................................ 14 Joseph Clay, the First of Burton.................................................................................................................. 15 George Clay................................................................................................................................................. 20

PART ONE - CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................... 21

William Clay ................................................................................................................................................ 21 Joseph Clay, the Second of Burton .............................................................................................................. 22

PART ONE - CHAPTER FOUR.................................................................................................................. 26

Henry Clay, of Burton and Piercefield (Ancestor of the Clays of Piercefield) .......................................... 26 The Rev. Joseph Clay (Ancestor of the Bonham Clays).............................................................................. 30 The Rev. John Clay (Ancestor of the Harden Clays) .................................................................................. 31

PART ONE - CHAPTER FIVE – The three sons of Henry Clay I of Piercefield .................................... 33

Henry Clay, the second of Piercefield ......................................................................................................... 33 Joseph Spender Clay (the Spender Clays) .................................................................................................. 34 Charles John Clay, of Burton ...................................................................................................................... 35

PART ONE - CHAPTER SIX – The sons of the Revd. Joseph Clay, the Bonham Clays....................... 39

(Joseph) Bonham Clay................................................................................................................................. 39

PART ONE - CHAPTER SEVEN – The son of the Revd. John Clay, the Harden Clays ...................... 40

John Harden Clay........................................................................................................................................ 40


PART ONE - CHAPTER ONE

The Origins.

It has long been family tradition that Joseph Clay (the first of Burton) arrived in Burton in 1751 and bought

the Lamb and Flag Inn. Where he came from and in what circumstances had been a mystery, and for at least

the last hundred years and probably a great deal longer nothing about the family before that date was known.

It almost seemed that Joseph had deliberately covered his tracks. There were one or two clues which

members of the family of succeeding generations have tried to follow up :

o In his will Joseph Clay left a legacy to his niece Elizabeth Dawson.

o It was known from his age at death that he must have been born in 1726, and there was a family

story that he had brought his wife on a pillion from Yorkshire.1

o His wife Elizabeth Robinson was known to have been the daughter of Antony Robinson who was an

officer in the garrison of Gibraltar who had died there in 1736.

o Elizabeth Robinson had a brother who was Vicar of Lichfield.

o There was a story that the family was descended from the Clays of Crich in Derbyshire and it was

known that the signet ring of early members of the family was identical with the crest of the Clays of Crich.

However the last Clay of Crich, who married twice, left three heiresses when he died, and though he did have

two sons nothing is known about them, except that one died young. It seems very likely that when our family

became well-off they took the crest of the only Clay who had ever borne arms, and whether they were in any

way related to the Clays of Crich is very doubtful.

Some years ago Gervas began to research the family and got in touch with the Derby Public Library. Luckily

the staff were both knowledgeable and helpful, and they discovered that the marriage of Joseph Clay and

Elizabeth Robinson had taken place on 28 February 1751 at Breadsall near Derby, and that he was of

Barrow-upon-Trent, thus solving the mystery of where the family had come from before they arrived at

Burton. The next step was to look at the registers of the church at Barrow and it was there discovered that

Joseph Clay was born 16 July 1726 - thus tying in with the date given by Joseph Clay's age at death. The

missing link had been found - Joseph was a son of Thomas Clay by his wife Elizabeth Adams, and they lived

in a hamlet called Merrybower in the parish of Barrow-on-Trent, some five miles South of Derby. The trail

backwards now lay open.

Following on from this breakthrough, Gervas managed to unravel two more previous generations before

getting lost in a morass of conflicting information which still (1994) requires resolution.

Tracing the Clays of Merrybower is not always straightforward, for though the expression "of Merrybower" is

often used, this is not always the case, and there was another Clay family living in the adjacent hamlet of

Sinfin in the same parish. Again, the expression "of Sinfin" occurs often but not always. It will be noted that

the names Thomas and Joseph are as common among the Sinfin Clays as those names are among the Clays of

Merrybower. It seems very likely that the two families were closely connected and descended from a

common ancestor. It is interesting that there were Clays "of Sinfin" by the name of Thomas and Roger in the

years 1652 and 1655, for they are mentioned in the Fair Books of those years as standing pledge for certain

horses sold at the fairs. They were described as "of Sinfield", a previous name for Sinfin. Again it seems

very likely that these were ancestors of our family but no proof has yet been discovered.

1 In the next Chapter we are told the tradition says that they came from Derby.



Joseph Clay of Merrybower

The first Clay of our family of which we are certain is Joseph Clay of Merrybower, although where and when

he was born has yet to be established. We know little of his life, but he appears to have married twice. His

first wife was Miriam, and they had two daughters and a son:

Miriam, baptised at Barrow in December 1683, married at St Peter's, Nottingham on

16 April 1710, when she was 27, Joseph Shirebrook, `taylor', and one of

their children was born at Merrybower.

Mary, baptised at Barrow on 11 December 1685, and was married at Twyford, the

neighbouring parish to Barrow, on 11 May 1714 when she was 29, to

Thomas Paget of Melbourne

Joseph, baptised at Barrow on 28 July 1688, of whom nothing more is known, so

presumably he died young.

Joseph Clay of Merrybower married Elizabeth Gybson as his second wife at Barrow on 5 September 1696,

Gybson (or Gibson) was a common Barrow name. They had but one child,

Thomas, from whom we are descended (see page 9).

Joseph Clay was described in about 17121 as "Husbandman" - that is, a yeoman farmer. Joseph Clay was

buried also at Barrow, on 24 October 1728.

Miriam

The surname of Joseph Clay’s first wife, Miriam, has not been discovered, nor the date or place of her

marriage, nor of her death. We know her name from the records of the births of their children

Elizabeth Gybson

Joseph Clay married again, at Barrow on 5 September 1696. His second wife was Elizabeth née Gybson,

who died in 1722, and was buried at Barrow on 25 October. Gybson (or Gibson) was at that time a common

Barrow name.

1 in the Repton School Register's account of his son.


Thomas Clay of Merrybower

Thomas Clay was baptised at Barrow 8 April 1698, the son of Joseph Clay (see page 8) and his wife

Elizabeth Gybson of Merrybower. Thomas was sent to school at Repton, not far away. When Thomas was

married he was described as `of Merrybower'. Two licences were issued for the marriage of Thomas Clay by

the Bishop's office in Lichfield, one specified the marriage was to take place at Barrow, the other, at Barrow

or Derby. However, there is no record of Thomas's marriage at either place. Gervas, by a very lucky1 stroke,

found the record of the marriage of Thomas, quite by chance, when he was looking for another marriage in

the register of Lichfield Cathedral, for that is where our Thomas married Elizabeth Adams on 2 July 1721,

when he was 23 and she was 21. They had three sons, and two daughters :-

Thomas baptised at Barrow 22 January 1722, see page 11.

Samuel baptised at Barrow 13 July 1724, who probably died young, as, unlike his

brothers, he is not mentioned in his father's Will.

Joseph our ancestor, baptised at Barrow 1 July 1726, referred to hereafter as Joseph

I of Burton, and of whom we shall see more in the next chapter, see page

15.

Elizabeth baptised at Barrow 3 March 1729; what happened to her is not known and

there is no trace of her marriage in the Barrow register.2

Prudence baptised at Barrow in January 1731, and died at eighteen months on 21 June

1732.

Following the death of his wife in July 1740, Thomas re-married on 3 December 1742 Eleanor3 Cooper, a

widow, and by her he had four more daughters, and another son :-

Ann baptised at Barrow on 16 October 1744, and of whom nothing more is

known;

Eleanor baptised at Barrow on 12 June 1745, married at Barrow on 27 December

1769 a James Dawson of Foremark and to them four sons and a daughter

called Martha were born between 1771 and 1783,

1 Note for Robin typed by Gervas Clay, but undated and unsigned.

On a recent visit to Lichfield we found the marriage licences with allegation bonds of the two marriages

of Thomas Clay - we are descended from the first marriage. Half the first form is in Latin but it does

refer to Thomas as Lanium (lanius means butcher), and continues in English "... the above bounden

Thomas Clay, bachelor aged 22 years and Elizabeth Adams of the same parish (i.e. Barrow) Spinster,

aged 21 years and upwards."

John Cartwright who was bounden on behalf of the bride was of the parish of Swarkestone, Derbys - the

next parish to Barrow.

The second marriage licence concerned "Thomas Clay in the parish of Barrow in the County of Derby

widower aged 40 years butcher and Eleanor Cooper of the parish of Barrow widow aged 30 years."

Francis Meynell who was bounden on behalf of the bride was "of the parish of All Saints Derby in the

said County, Apothecary." (It could be that he was the father the bride - the name Eleanor is a typical

Meynell name).

The first Licence specifically stated that the marriage should take place at Barrow, while the second

specifies Barrow or St Michael's Derby. Neither can be traced in the Bishop's transcripts for Barrow,

but by a wonderful stroke of luck, when I was looking for an Arden / Cotton marriage in Lichfield

Cathedral marriages, I found:-

"July 1721. Thomas Clay and Elizabeth Adams."

I have written to Lichfield to trace the actual entry in case it gives witnesses or other details.

The dates of the two marriage licences were 1. 2 July 1721. 2. 3 December 1742. 2 Is there a record of her burial ? Probably not worth searching `on spec'. 3 Spelt Elenor in the Register.


Martha baptised at Barrow on 8 June 1747, died at the age of 25 and was buried at

Barrow 9 May 1772;

George baptised at Barrow 22 August 1748, see below, and page 20.

Lucy born in 1751 and died on 4 April 1769 at the age of 18, her gravestone is in

the Barrow churchyard with that of her parents;

It is interesting that Eleanor and James Dawson's daughter's name was Martha, not Elizabeth (see `clue' at the

start of the Chapter). It does seem likely, though, that they did have a daughter Elizabeth - baptised elsewhere

- and this is borne out to some extent by the fact that an Elizabeth Dawson married a John Porter at Barrow

on 13 November 1800 nine months after Joseph Clay had died leaving a legacy to Elizabeth Dawson his

niece. Did the legacy enable her to get married ?

Thomas Clay the father described himself at the time of his two marriages in 1721 and 1742 as a butcher, but

in his Will as a farmer. He died at Barrow aged 69 and was buried with his first wife Elizabeth née Adams in

the churchyard there on 18 April 1767. The gravestone still survives; it states that he was aged 66 when he

died and there is a discrepancy in this, but he would have been buried by his second wife and may have told

her he was younger than he really was? At his death he was "of Arlestone", another hamlet in the Barrow

parish.

Thomas made a Will which was proved 5 May 1767. It is a short but very interesting document. He left Ann

and Lucy £20 each, and Ellen and Martha £50 each, but he added that it was his will "that all my aforesaid

four daughters shall reside and have their maintenance at Arlestone with my said wife and son George

Clay", or with the Executors of the Will, until they married or chose to leave that place. While they lived

there, they were to do such work and service as they could for the Executors. However, if any of them

married without the consent of his sons Thomas Clay and Joseph Clay (who were the sons of the first

marriage, though this is not stated in the Will) they lost their legacies.

He left everything else he had to his wife and son George and made them the Executors of his Will.

However, he provided that "if my wife shall happen to marry again or shall wilfully waste or embezzle any

part of the residue of my personal estate or shall do any act matter or thing in the execution of this my Will

which shall be made to appear to my said sons Thomas Clay and Joseph Clay to be detrimental to the said

personal estate or to the interest or advantage of my said son George Clay then I will and direct that from

such time the aforesaid bequest to my said wife and also the executorship shall cease and be utterly void and

in such case I appoint my said son George Clay to be sole Executor hereof and do give and bequeath unto my

said wife the annual sum of Ten Pounds a year and nothing more for and during the term of her natural life to

be paid to her by four quarterly payments ... " He goes on to say that if George shall marry before he is 23

years old without the consent of Thomas and Joseph, the bequest to him and the Executorship shall cease and

be void. Nothing whatever is left to Thomas and Joseph, for whom it seems certain he had already provided

during his lifetime. It is interesting to find that George did in fact get married just under four months after he

attained the age of 23. Further, George soon acquired a very bad reputation for himself, see page 20.

One can well imagine that George's half-brother Joseph Clay, at that time an up-and-coming businessman in

Burton, was only too anxious to forget his connection with George, and this may well account for the fact that

none of his great-grandsons appear to have had any knowledge of the origin of the family at Merrybower.

Elizabeth Clay (nee Adams)

Elizabeth married Thomas Clay in Lichfield Cathedral on 2 July 1721, when she was about 21. She was

buried on 16 July 1740 and her grave-stone in the Barrow churchyard states that she was then aged 38,

although it is thought1 that she was born in 1700.

1 Her marriage Licence dated 2 July 1721 describes her as "aged 21 years and upwards", see earlier

footnote.


Eleanor Cooper

Eleanor Cooper was a widow when she married on 3 December 1742. It has not yet been discovered whether

that was her maiden name or her married name, nor when nor where she was born, nor any details of her first

husband nor any children she may have had by him.


Where the early Clays lived.

The parishes of Barrow and Twyford lie in very open flat country through which flows the River Trent and

the Trent and Mersey Canal. Apart from the villages of Barrow and Twyford, there are three small hamlets,

Merrybower, Arlestone and Sinfin.

Arlestone House was thought by Dr Cox in his "Little Guide to Derbyshire" to have been the Preceptory or

Camera of the Knights Hospitalers attached to the Preceptory or Yeavely towards the end of the 14th

Century. There is a fuller description in the current List of Scheduled Buildings :-

Apparently C14 origin, now largely C16. L-shaped. Two stories, black-and-white timber

framing in square panels. Ashlar ground floor. Gabled wing to the right. Casement

windows, old tile roof. South front of ashlar to ground floor with seven buttresses of

mediaeval character, each with three offsets. Upper floor rebuilt C18 (?) in red brick,

casement windows. Interior has beamed ceilings and three four-centred headed C16 stone

fireplaces.

The following extracts from "The Making of the English Landscape" by W.G. Hoskins (1977) are of some

interest :-

Page 155 By the 1560's and 1570's, the wealthier yeomen had begun to build

themselves larger and better houses. Sometimes they added to and re-constructed the

ancestral dwelling; often they made a clean sweep of the older house and re-built in free-

stone where it was available. Before the end of the century the fashion for re-building had

spread down to the lesser farmers - the husbandmen - and in some instances perhaps to the

more prosperous cottagers.

Page 160 In the Midlands ... the graziers were prosperous in the days of William and

Mary and Anne, and built themselves many seemly houses in hand-made brick.

White's "Directory of Derbyshire" of 1857 states :-

Sinfin and Arlestone form a joint township, returned in 1851 as being in the Appletree

Hundred, and contains together 791 acres ... 12 houses and 69 souls, of whom 40 were males,

and 29 females; rateable value £1317.18.6d

Sinfin, two and a half miles South from Derby, contains two farms and two cottage houses.

Sir J.H.Crewe, Bart., is the sole owner. Sinfin House is a neat residence ...

Arlestone, four and a half miles South by West from Derby, contains two farms and six

scattered cottage houses, Sir J.H. Crewe, Bart., is owner .... Arlestone House is a very

ancient building, supposed to have been formerly a chapel. The front is supported by stone

buttresses, and in the interior is a place in which there was a bell. On the North side formerly

stood a large hall or castle, which was taken down some years ago. The Trent and Mersey

Canal occupies 8 acres 2 roods 34 perches of land.

Merrybower, a quarter mile South, was formerly an open Common ...

By 1891, according to Bulmer's Derbyshire Directory of 1895, the population of Arlestone and Sinfin had

dropped to 33, a decrease of 22 since 1881 and of 36 since 1857. We do not know what the population was

around 1750 when our ancestor Joseph moved from the area to Burton at the start of the "drift from the land".

When I (Gervas) visited the area in August 1977, I recorded that at Merrybower there are two cottages and

then on a corner a little old farmhouse built of brick; it used to be thatched. Sinfin had two small houses, one


of brick and the other white, and that was all that remained of the old hamlet on a corner of a huge new

housing estate, now almost part of the City of Derby. Of Arlestone we recorded that there were two houses

about ¼ mile apart. Arlestone House is obviously very old, on stone foundations with buttresses, and part of

the house is white and half-timbered.


PART ONE - CHAPTER TWO

Thomas Clay

Thomas Clay was baptised at Barrow on 22 January 1722, the eldest son of Thomas Clay of Merrybower (see

page 9) and Elizabeth nee Adams. Thomas was mentioned in his father Thomas's Will made in 1765 but

nothing more is known about him, though a George Francis Hastings Clay was born at Barrow 3 July 1805

and, as Hastings was the surname before marriage of Elizabeth Robinson's mother, some relationship with our

family seems likely, and Thomas the son might have been his father.


Joseph Clay, the First of Burton

Joseph Clay was born at Barrow and baptised there on 1 July 1726. He was the second son of Thomas Clay

of Merrybower (see page 9) and Elizabeth nee Adams. Nothing has yet been discovered about his childhood

or his schooling, except that there is no record that he followed his father and his brother Thomas to Repton.

When he was married, he described himself as "Grazier" which the OED defines as "someone who feeds

cattle for market." There was certainly plenty of grazing in the Barrow area and the town of Derby nearby

would have provided a good market. On 28 April 1751 Joseph, then aged 25, married Elizabeth Robinson

(also 25) at Breadsall, near Derby. She was at that time of the parish of St Werburgh, Derby. A note about

her and her family will be found below, but her father was an Army Officer at a time when commissions were

purchased, so he must have been of some standing. As the Historian of Burton, C.H. Underhill, wrote, Joseph

Clay must have had a good background or he would not have succeeded as he did at Burton.

Three months after this wedding, the following notice appeared in the Derby Mercury of 26 July 1751 :-

To be Sold or Let

and entered upon immediately

A Good Freehold House

consisting of six rooms on a floor, and a malthouse to steep ten quarters, with a brew house,

tun house, and other conveniences for malting and brewing, situate in Burton-on-Trent, in the

County of Stafford, lately used as an Inn and now compleated for a common brewer.

For further particulars enquire of

Mr Fenton, Attorney in Burton aforesaid.

N.B. Mashing tubs, working tubs, backs and other vessels to be disposed of, with some

household furniture.

This was the old Lamb and Flag Inn, at No. 5, Horninglow Street1. Joseph Clay bought it and one wonders

how he managed to raise the money. Family tradition suggests that he came to Burton from Derby2 on

horseback, with his wife riding pillion, and his household goods in a wagon behind. We don't know when this

exodus took place, they may have moved to Burton before the advertisement appeared. If it was the

advertisement that prompted the move, then his wife, although she may not have been aware of it, would have

been pregnant for the journey, as their firstborn arrived on 4 May 1752.

One wonders if Joseph had spent a few weeks or months after his marriage in learning to be a maltster in

Derby, which was at that date a more important centre of brewing than was Burton. But Burton was

changing:

A "Bill for making and keeping the River Trent in the Counties of Leicester, Derby and

Stafford Navigable" became law on 4 May 1699, and in the early years of the eighteenth

century improvements were made to the River Trent as far upstream as Burton, which

thereafter became of great importance in opening up the Midlands. Large quantities of cheese

arrived at Burton for despatch to London, and imported bar iron from Sweden and Russia

arrived at Burton Wharf on its way to Birmingham and South Staffordshire hardware

manufacturers. Other important commodities taken downstream were hardware, coal, lead,

millstones, scythestones, ale, coney skins, timber and salt, while on the return journey the

1 The inn, which had brewed ale for export since the beginning of the century, had recently been closed

and the premises converted into a house and brewery. - Dr C.C. Owen 2 Not Yorkshire - see first page ??


boats carried hemp, flax, groceries, timber, potash, corn and linen, brought from London or

from ports in Northern Europe. Burton was now at the head of navigation and this made it a

significant distributing centre. C.C. Owen, Burton on Trent "The Development of

Industry" Phillimore 1978

Not long after the arrival in Burton of Joseph Clay, control of navigation passed into the hands of John Hayne

and Abraham Hoskins, a solicitor, with whom Joseph Clay had had dealings - perhaps he acted for him in the

conveyance of the Lamb and Flag Inn. By the 1750's canal building was in full swing, though it was not till

1777 that the Trent and Mersey Canal was finally completed, thereby linking Burton to the sea-ports of Hull,

Liverpool and Bristol.

The Derby to London wagon service began in 1734 and by 1750 similar services were being operated to

Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham and other towns, while in 1753 the Burton to Derby road was

turnpiked with a tollgate at Horninglow and a weighing machine at the Eastern end of Burton bridge. Burton

was being changed by all these events, as Owen has said

"from an isolated and impoverished market town into a prosperous industrial centre. In the

case of the brewing industry ... the purchase of prime barley from Eastern England and of

hops from Kent and Worcestershire, and the export of ale to continental markets would all

have been uneconomic without the transport improvements described."

Brewing in Burton goes back to days when the Benedictine Abbey was flourishing, and there are references

to brewing in the Abbey muniments going back to 1295. Burton ale had a reputation as being of superior

quality, no doubt in great part due to the hardness of the local waters, and was able to withstand long and

arduous journeys without deteriorating. In early times all inns and large houses had their own brewhouses.

The Trent Navigation was the turning point1 for Burton beers, because it enabled the brewers to take

advantage of cheap return rates to the Baltic, whose exports of timber and iron ores were heavy and bulky,

but greatly needed by this country. It is known that by 1712, John Wilders - at that time proprietor of the

Lamb Inn2 in Horninglow Street - and other innkeepers in the same area had an agreement for the transport of

ale and casks from Gainsborough to Wilden Ferry.3 Owen comments on the move from Derby to Burton of

men with capital, ability and progressive ideas, and instances Joseph Clay as one of them.

In 1760, Wyatt produced a plan of Burton-on-Trent which lists Joseph Clay, nine years after arriving in

Burton and now 34, as a freeholder owning extensive buildings in Horninglow Street with a house on the

frontage, and a courtyard surrounded by other buildings, in which appears to be No. 5. There is no doubt that

by this time Joseph Clay was producing ale mainly for export, and there is a record (William Bass book,

1762-4) recording that, during the 1762-3 season, William Bass's wagons carried over 100 barrels of Burton

ale to London on behalf of nine Burton brewers including Clay, and later brought back the empty casks. No

doubt other carriers were similarly engaged. The population of Burton increased from under 2,000 in 1700 to

almost 5,500 in 1800. English exports to Russia and the East Country increased rapidly from a mere 740

barrels in 1750 to 11,025 barrels in 1775. The brewing season was largely confined to the period October or

November until April. The brewers occupied the rest of the year in dealing with other commodities or in

Banking.

By 1774, Thomas Salt (whose family later took over all the Clay's brewing activities) was employed as

Maltster by the Clays.

The land tax records of 1781 show that, apart from his house and malthouse, etc., already bought, Joseph

Clay by now also owned another large house in Horninglow Street, called Sketchley's House, and in addition

rented from Lord Paget another house, malthouse and shop there. By this time his brewing was certainly

1 ouch ! 2 Was this the Lamb and Flag ? 3 Wherever they may be !


concerned with brewing for export. But he also had many other interests arising from his successful brewing

activities. Owen records that

"during the 1780's John Walker Wilson, Joseph Clay & Son, William and Thomas

Worthington and William Kinder, all of whom were brewers, were the leading timber

merchants in the town."

In 1788, when he was 62, Joseph Clay served as Townmaster of Burton, while (to quote Owen yet again)

"J.W. Wilson and Joseph Clay were largely responsible for the establishment of the first

commercial banks in the town. It is probably true to say that they (the brewers) had become

the most influential and dynamic group within the community."1

In 1790 Joseph Clay with other brewers and freeholders signed a certificate of affection to Mrs Stanton's

Company of Players. At that time, he had become a relatively wealthy man; he was the proprietor of two

houses, shops and another brewery on the North side of the street (previously owned by Samuel Sketchley)

and a cooperage on the West side of High Street.

Tunnicliffe's "Survey of Staffordshire" published in 1789 describes Joseph Clay & Son as Brewers,

suggesting that Joseph junior had now been taken into the business. The "British Directory" of 1791 includes

Joseph Clay & Son as one of the famous "nine common brewers of Burton-on-Trent." By the time Joseph

senior died at the age of 74 in 1800 he was one of the wealthiest men in the town. As C.H. Underhill has said

to me in correspondence "The Clays must have had a good background or Joseph Clay would not have

succeeded as he did at Burton. Correspondence I have seen suggest he was a very strong character, who

knew exactly what he was doing."

While all these business activities were going on, Joseph and Elizabeth Clay had thirteen children, including

two pairs of twins :

Richard, the eldest son, was born on 4 May 1752, but died on 7 December at the age

of six months.

William, the next son, was born on 8 June 1753, of whom nothing is known apart

from the fact that he was alive when his father died in 1800.

Joseph junior followed, on 3 August 1756, see page 22.

Diana their first daughter, was born on 27 July 1757. She married in 1799 Daniel

Dalrymple, a solicitor, of Burton, and herself had two daughters, one of

whom married a Des Voeux, whose son inherited a baronetcy which

continued until the last of the line was killed in World War II.2

Elizabeth, born 11 January 1758; died 24 April 1759 aged fifteen months.

Thomas, born 1 August 1760; buried 31 December 1761 aged sixteen months.

Mary, born 28 December 1761; died in infancy.

Eliza, born 25 November 1762; died 9 July 1763 aged eight months.

Richard \ twin; not mentioned in his father's Will, so probably died young.

Sarah / twin; born 23 March 1764, baptised 10 May 1764, died in infancy.

Ann born 14 October 1766

Thomas \ twin; not mentioned in his father's Will, so probably died young.

Daughter / stillborn twin; born in 1768, when their mother was 42.

1 See Note on Banking in Burton by Dr C.C. Owen in an Appendix 2 What became of the other daughter ?


Only William, Joseph and Diana appear to have survived childhood. Joseph's wife Elizabeth née Robinson

died in 1780 at the age of 54, and was buried at St Modwen's Church, Burton, on 10 May. Joseph was to

outlive her by twenty years.

Joseph Clay made his Will on 4 November 1799. He describes himself as a Gentleman of Burton-on-Trent in

the County of Stafford, He left £100 to his niece Elizabeth Dawson,1 £100 to his brother-in-law, the Rev.

Richard George Robinson, and £100 to a maid servant "for her attention to and care of me during my illness."

Next he left to his younger son Joseph the house in which he was then living, with the malthouse, brewhouse,

tun house and other buildings, and the gardens, etc., which belonged to it, which were freehold. He also gave

to his son Joseph all his household goods, furniture, plate, silver and china which were in the house.

To his son Thomas and his daughter Diana Dalrymple he left £1000 each. He then goes on to leave to

William, Joseph and Diana as tenants in common, all his other buildings, houses, lands, hereditaments and

real estate in Burton and elsewhere, and all the rest of his moneys, securities, etc., goods, chattels and

personal estate of all kinds and wherever it might be. What happened to William and whether he married and

had children is unknown. It could be that he inherited some other business from Joseph's elder brother

Thomas2 if the latter had no living children when he died, but this is pure speculation. It would however

explain the rather odd fact that it was the younger son Joseph who inherited the Burton brewery and his

father's house, and not the elder son William.

The Derby Mercury of 13 February 1800 contained the following notice :-

Died on Thursday morning last at Burton-upon -Trent after a long illness in the 75th year of

his age Joseph Clay Esq: formerly an eminent brewer of that place.

He was buried also at St Modwen's, 11 February 1800, but the site of his grave has not been found.

The executors of the Will were "the Rev. Richard George Robinson of the City of Lichfield, Clerk, and my

two sons William and Joseph Clay, and the said Daniel Dalrymple." The Will was proved on 6 March 1800

in London by Joseph junior on behalf of the four executors.

Elizabeth Clay, née Robinson

Elizabeth Robinson was born in 1726, to Antony Robinson and Elizabeth née Hastings; the date and place

have not yet been established.

In 1909, Gerard Clay, bought a very small oil painting of an old lady from J. Lane of Bodley Head, Vigo

Street, who had found it in an antique shop in Barnstaple. On the back is written :

Elizabeth, daughter of William Hastings Esq. wife of Antony Robinson Esq. an Officer in the

Garrison of Gibraltar, where he died about 1783. She was born in 1695, and died April 1779.

Aged 84.

She was the mother of the Rev. R.G. Robinson and of the wife of Joseph Clay Esq. of Burton.

In another hand has been written :

She was the only woman who ever spoke in the House of Lords & came over from Gibraltar

to give testimony about the slaves.

Another emendation, against the name Robinson, states :

Vicar of Lichfield Cathedral

1 Might she have been a niece on his wife's side, i.e. née Robinson ? 2 Has Thomas's Will been discovered ?


Gerard Clay's aunt, Caroline Baskerville-Mynors (Aunt Carrie) wrote to her eldest brother Henry Clay :

I remember the picture from my earliest childhood, when it hung in the ante-room through

which we passed to the nurseries and Father and Mother's rooms in the old house at Burton.

You probably do not recollect it as I do, as your bedrooms did not lead past it. We were told

it was our great-great-grandmother, and that she had forced her way into the House of Lords,

and when they would not listen to her, she had stamped her foot and said "I will be heard, my

Lords." I conclude that the picture belonged to our grandfather, and was left by him in the

Burton House when he handed over the Bank to Father, I think when he got married."

Returning to the Robinson family, Elizabeth had a brother, Rev. Richard George Robinson, who married

Mary Thorpe, daughter of R. Thorpe and Martha Disney. Richard George and Mary had five children, Mary,

Richard, William, Disney and Hastings. The last, Elizabeth's nephew Hastings, became a Doctor of Divinity

and was appointed Canon of Rochester. He married Margaret (Ann) Clay, his first cousin once removed, a

daughter of Joseph Clay junior, so his name will appear later, on page 22.

Elizabeth's death is recorded above.


George Clay

George was baptised at Barrow 22 August 1748, the third son of Thomas Clay of Merrybower (see page 9)

and Eleanor Cooper. George was married to Mary Hutchinson (aged 19) on 12 December 1771 at Barrow,

just under four months after he attained the age of 23, see discussion of his father’s Will on page 9. Further,

George seems soon to have acquired a very bad reputation for himself:-

White's "Directory of Derbyshire" (1857), page 250, under the heading of "SINFIN and ARLESTONE"

states

"Merrybower ... was about 100 years ago noted for a public house upon it, kept by George Clay,

who had a cock-pit here, and was celebrated as a deer-stealer. His house was a noted rendezvous for similar

characters."1

George was buried at Barrow on 7 October 1810 aged 62.

Mary Hutchinson

Mary Hutchinson was born in 1752, for she was aged 19 when she married on 12 December 1771.

1 100 years before publication would be 1757, when George was 9. Another George, perhaps ?

Further research is indicated.


PART ONE - CHAPTER THREE

William Clay

William Clay was born on 8 June 1753, the eldest surviving son of Joseph Clay the first of Burton (see page

14) and Elizabeth nee Robinson. Nothing is known about William apart from the fact that he was alive when

his father died in 1800.


Joseph Clay, the Second of Burton

Joseph Clay, the second of Burton, was born on 3 August 1756, the second surviving son of Joseph Clay the

first of Burton (see page 14) and Elizabeth nee Robinson. He was baptised at St Modwen's three days later.

Nothing is known about his youth and schooling1 but by 1789 (when he was 33), according to the Tunnicliffe

"Survey of Staffordshire", he was in partnership with his father as Joseph Clay & Son, Brewers, of Burton.

Two years later, according to the District Registry of 1791, he had branched out on his own and is referred to

as Joseph Clay Junior, Wine and Brandy Merchant, but still retaining his partnership in his father's brewery.

On 15 September 1791 he was married at the age of 35, in the Burton Old Church (St Modwen's) to Sarah

Spender, about whom more will be found at the end of this chapter. At marriage, he described himself as

"Joseph Clay, Junior, Gentleman, aged 28". Sarah was then 22; she was to become an heiress, like her

mother, so financially it was a good match for Joseph, although there was no reason for him to have had any

inkling of this at the time, for the youngest of her ten siblings was only six at the time.

It is thought that this Joseph was the moving spirit2 when Clay's Bank was started in the 1780's or 1790's, at

the time that, in France, Napoleon Buonaparte just was getting into his stride.

When his father died in 1800, Joseph junior inherited the business and in the following year purchased the

nearby Leeson brewery for £700. As a result of this, the Clay family appears at that time to have owned all

the Horninglow

property up to the High Street corner. The Leeson brewery round No. 6 Horninglow Street was described as

having a brewhouse and later a malthouse, supplying these commodities for the Three Queens and other large

inns in Horninglow Street whose own brewhouses would have been too small for such large quantities, and

who would have had to buy malt in any case.

C.W. Underhill, the Burton historian, has given a description of the house at No.6 Horninglow Street -

"the house appears to have been adapted from at least two old small houses, and probably

three. These would have been round the small yard near the old brewhouse since it was

customary for the men employed to live near their job, the employer living in a slightly larger

house. The oldest of the houses appear to date from the 16th century, and would have a wide

stick hearth, probably concealed in the right hand wall of the hall, and the timbers of the

ceiling in the space filled up over the hall. The conversion from at least two small houses

probably took place in the early 18th century. Then the additional room took the place of the

yard on the right hand side, and the front door put into the street. Prior to then there would be

a blank wall to the street, the windows looking inwards to the yard. The house would then

only be two stories high, the third storey being built in the early 19th century. ... the owner of

this property had a share in the common lands of the town, so that a small-holding would

probably be worked in the fields at the back and running down to the stream which formerly

ran past Machins Yard where the Pavement House used to be."

On 12 August 1803, as war on the continent loomed, Joseph, now aged 47, was gazetted as Captain in the

Burton Volunteers. He and Sarah had had six children, three sons and three daughters :-

Margaret (Ann), baptised on 9 August 1793, married her first cousin once removed, Canon

Hastings Robinson, who has already been mentioned above on page 19.

His father was the brother of Elizabeth Robinson, her grandmother and wife

1 He may have gone to his father's old school - but we don't know where that was. 2 Well, he would be, wouldn't he - moving from his Wine and Brandy business !


of Joseph Clay senior. He became Canon of Rochester; he and Margaret

had no children.

Sarah, baptised on 8 May 1795, never married, and lived in the Burton

neighbourhood for many years.

Henry, born on 11 August 1796, see page 26.

Caroline, born on 27 July 1798, married the Rev. Charles John Fynes Clinton in

1826, and on 11 January the following year, she died giving birth to a

daughter also called Caroline, who died soon after. The two Carolines were

buried in the Clay tomb at Burton. Her husband C.J. Fynes-Clinton was a

relation of the Duke of Newcastle; he re-married and had other children.

We have a “pocket” Bible inscribed :-

Charles John Clay [see page 35]

With the affectionate good wishes of his godfather

C.J. Fynes-Clinton

8th May 1829 [possibly on the occasion of his baptism]

Proverbs 9th

Chap : 11 & 17 ver.

Isaiah 55th chap : verse 6

John 5th chap : verse 39

John 3rd chapter.

Pasted into the flyleaf is part of a letter dated 30.9.1930 from Rev. H.J.

Fynes-Clinton, Rector of St. Maurice(?) the Martyr, 8 Finsbury Sq. ,

London Bridge:

I am very interested to hear about your connection with us.

CHARLES JOHN was my grandfather, but we are descended from

his second wife, Rosabella Mathews. There are two of her

brothers still living, dear old gentlemen. Yours truly

Also an obituary notice from The Telegraph(?)

FYNES-CLINTON – On July 3, 1934, at Gladstone, Invercargill,

New Zealand, GEOFFREY, last surviving child of the late REV.

CHARLES JOHN FYNES-CLINTON, Rector of Cromwell, Notts,

aged 87.

Joseph, baptised on 1 August 1800, see page 30.

John, baptised on 19 April 1805, see page 31.

By 1810 when his son Henry went to Repton School, the family were living at Stapenhill House,1 which had

belonged to the Spenders at one time, and which Joseph was later to be in the process of buying when he

made his Will in January 1824.

The early years of the nineteenth century were years of great and increasing anxieties for the brewers of

Burton. The Baltic trade on which so much had depended ended suddenly in 1807 owing to the Napoleonic

blockade. The brewers then had to use their ingenuity to find markets for their beer, and fortunately the

opening of the canals had made it possible to send their beers to London, Liverpool and Manchester. Only

when the war ended after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 did the trade to the Baltic begin again, and even then

1 Joseph's father-in-law, John Spender, died in 1820, four years before Joseph was negotiating to buy

Stapenhill House - from whom ? Perhaps the other three surviving children of John Spender, Joseph's

father-in-law, Margaret, John and Richard, had "moved out", and when their mother died in 1808, her

father invited Sarah and her husband Joseph to move into Stapenhill House with him. Where had they

been living before that ? Joseph's father had died in 1800, so they could have moved into his house ? In

1808 their children ranged from 3 to 15.


it never recovered to its previous levels. It finally ceased between 1822 and 1825, when the Baltic countries

began to set up their own breweries and put heavy tariffs on imports from England. Joseph Clay's Wine and

Brandy business must also have suffered from the Napoleonic blockade, and it seems fortunate (or far-

sighted) that he and his eldest son Henry turned more and more to what became known as The Old Bank.

By 1818 the name of Clay & Son, Brewers, did not appear in the Parsons and Bradshaw Directory, but in

their place was the name of "Clay & Son, Bankers, Horninglow Street, on Robarts, Curtis & Co. of London."

By this time Henry was 22 years old and had been taken into partnership with his father. The old brewing

premises were leased to Thomas Salt who had been employed by the Clays as a Maltster 44 years before, and

who had established his own brewery on the east side of the High Street in 1800. However the Clays retained

the front of their brewery as the premises for their Commercial Bank. Deeds have survived concerning the

mortgage of both Bass and Alsop properties to the Clays in 1819 and 1822.

A brief personal glimpse of Joseph Clay in his later years has survived. His grandson Charles John Clay was

not born until two years after his grandfather's death, but he told his sons that he "had a childish memory of a

description given him of his grandfather as an old man wearing a bright blue coat with brass buttons sitting

outside the house in Horninglow Street smoking a long churchwarden pipe."

On 23 June 1824 Joseph Clay junior died at Burton. The following notice appeared in the Derby Mercury :-

Suddenly of apoplexy, on Wednesday morning the 23rd June, Joseph Clay, Esq., of Burton-

on-Trent, senior partner in the Old Bank there. He was a man of the very strictest honour and

integrity, and died possessed of a very large property."

His Will was proved at London on 17 July 1824. It had been signed on 10 January 1824. He described

himself as being "of Burton upon Trent in the County of Stafford, Banker." He left to his wife Sarah "all my

household goods and furniture, beds, bedding, glass, plate, linen and china, printed books, drawings, prints

and pictures, and also my wines and spirits and other liquors of every sort. ... also ... all the watches, rings,

trinkets, jewels, pearls and other ornaments of her person usually worn by her or called hers together with all

her wearing apparel paraphernalia whatsoever to and for her own use and benefit absolutely for ever."

(I cannot resist commenting that the word paraphernalia which appears at first sight to be just the sort of word

any Clay would use, up to the present day, to describe his wife's possessions, has in fact a technical meaning

as used here. Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionary (1979) gives this meaning as "formerly, property

other than dower that remained under a married woman's own control, esp. articles of jewellery, dress,

personal belongings ...")

Joseph also left to Sarah "my barouche and a pair of horses and harness thereto belonging." Apart from his

possessions which included land and buildings at Burton and elsewhere, he left legacies in money to his wife

and children which totalled £157,000. The boys received £20,000 each, with John (still a minor) getting

£23,000 (perhaps because the cost of his education was included), and the girls £18,000 each. He was

obviously a very wealthy man when he died.

Sarah Clay née Spender

Sarah Spender was the second of eleven children of John Spender and his wife who was born Miss Wright in

about 1745. Her name is given as Eleanor in the Marriage Licence, as Ellen in her husband's Will, and as

Helen in the Burial Register. Her husband John Spender was born at Edgmond, Salop, on 24 June 1742. He

married Ellen (as he called her) at Stone, Staffordshire, on 9 December 1765, and he died at Burton on 29

September 1820, having been a surgeon there for many years. Ellen was buried on 16 January 1808 at

Burton-on-Trent. She is known to have had one brother, John, who died in 1816 and left all his possessions,

including land, to John Spender his brother-in-law for the benefit of his sister Ellen's children.


The Spender male line has been traced back to Cheswardine, Salop, in 1602. John's father was the Rev.

Arthur Spender, educated at Magdalene Hall, Oxford (B.A. 1729), who was Vicar of Edgmond when his son

was born. Arthur was the son of James Spender, born at Soudley, Salop, but of Cheswardine, and described

as "Gentleman", when his son was born.

Returning now to Sarah, it is not known where she was born (see below), nor exactly when, but, from her age

(63) when she died at Stapenhill in 1831, it appears that she was born in 1768. Somewhat surprisingly, none

of her six brothers or four sisters married, but nearly all died young. For this reason all the Spender

possessions eventually came into the Clay family; these included the inheritance which Sarah's mother had

brought into the Spender family, as seen above. Sarah's elder sister Margaret, who was born about 1766, died

on 10 December 1844, aged 78, leaving a long and interesting Will. Her younger brother John, also a

surgeon like his father, was born about 1771 and died intestate on 23 January 1847 aged 76, and his Will was

administrated by his nephew Henry Clay. Margaret and John, sister and brother, lived in some affluence on

opposite sides of Burton High Street1. The Spender Mausoleum is behind the church of St Modwen.

People who completed the 1841 Census form were required to say whether they were born in the county in

which they were currently living, or elsewhere. Sarah's elder sister said she was born "elsewhere" (in 1766).

Her younger brother said he was born in Staffordshire (in 1771). Sarah was born between them, in 1768, but

as she died in 1831, she did not complete the 1841 census form; so it is not yet known where she was born.

The youngest five children were all born in Burton, but the elder six were not, and it has not yet been

discovered where their parents were between their marriage at Stone and their arrival at Burton.

1 Do we know which houses ?


PART ONE - CHAPTER FOUR

Henry Clay, of Burton and Piercefield (Ancestor of the Clays of Piercefield)

Henry Clay, the eldest son of Joseph Clay was born 11 August 1796, probably at 5 Horninglow Street,

Burton. He was baptised at St Modwen's Church, Burton, on 4 November 1796, and according to an old

family Bible presently in the possession of Clay1, he had measles in September 1797 and was

inoculated on 15 November 1798. In 1810, at the age of 14, he entered Repton School, and at this time the

family was living at Stapenhill. By 1818, as we have already seen2, the brewing interests of the Clays had

been sold3 and Henry had become a partner with his father as bankers.

However, young Henry had other interests, not concerned with commerce. In January of that year, 1818,

when he was 22, the Needwood Forest Association,4 a body of local landowners who had acquired a

controlling interest in the Needwood Forest lands after the disafforestation, and tried to restrain the sporting

proclivities of the people of Burton, passed a Resolution "That Mr Clay, son of Joseph Clay, Banker, have a

notice given by our Solicitor not to trespass upon Crown lands and lands of John Spencer and Robert

Stone." And a year later in 1819, another Resolution was passed "That a representation having been made to

the Association of the conduct of Mr Henry Clay in his passing upon the land in the occupation of Mr Robert

Stone. It is Resolved that the Association will support Mr Stone in any action against Nr Henry Clay which

he may be advised to commence against him touching such trespass." As Mr Underhill has commented

"This was, of course, one of the many episodes which characterised the rivalry between the old established

country families and the rising commercial magnates of Burton-upon-Trent."

On 22 June 1824 Henry's father died, and as his two brothers had gone into the Church5, Henry became sole

owner of the bank. On 15 November 1824 he married Elizabeth Leigh at Walton-on-the-Hill, Liverpool, and

between 1825 and 1834 they had the following children -

Henry (junior) see page 33.

Joseph Spender see page 34.

Charles John see page 35.

(Caroline Elizabeth) "Carrie" born in 1831, married Rev Walter Baskerville-Mynors (1826-99), on 3

April 1856, and died on 3 October 1922 aged 91, with descendants now

living, see also below, page 27.

Emily Jane born 1833, married Richard Bott (1834-97) of Hanbury, in 1865, and died

in 1885 aged 52; her descendants farm at Benington Lordship, Stevenage,

Herts.

For the year 1828/9 Henry was a churchwarden of the Burton Parish Church. In 1831 his mother died at

Stapenhill, where she may have remained when Henry married and moved back to Burton - Stapenhill is on

the other side of the River Trent, in Derbyshire. In 1832 Henry is recorded in the Poll Book as Henry Clay of

Burton; Freehold, Stapenhill.

1 Who has the Bible now ? 2 We have not. All we have seen is that the name of Clay & Son, Brewer, was not in the Directory ! 3 How, then, did Charles John, Gerard, etc. come to be Directors of Bass & Co. ?? When and to

whom were the interests sold, and how much of them ? 4 A cue, here, for a note about Needwood Forest and the disafforestation, and its effect on Burton and

district. 5 See Note much later by John Clay about the moral attitude of these two Churchmen with regard to

"Strong Drink".


The history of Stapenhill House is complex. When Joseph Clay made his Will in January 1824, he stated that

he had lately contracted to purchase "a messuage, dwelling house or tenement with all the outbuildings,

yards, gardens, orchards and other appurtenances thereto belonging, situate and being in Stapenhill in the

County of Derby, containing in the whole one acre, one rood and 26 perches ... together with a seat in the

north gallery of the parish church of Stapenhill ..." and he left them to his wife Sarah for her lifetime and

then equally to his five children. By 1824, the local Directory locates Henry at Horninglow Street, and it

seems he was still living above the Bank when his two daughters were born in 1831 and 1834; they were

baptised at the new Holy Trinity Church.1

Let us turn now to the history of Clay's Bank. It has already been noted that by 1818 Henry Clay had

becomes a partner in his father's bank. Among the family papers is a note in Gerard's handwriting from which

is gleaned the following information concerning the later history of the Bank. Apparently, in 1839, Henry got

together with the banking firm of Blurton, Webb, Peel & Co., and founded the Burton, Uttoxeter and

Ashbourne Union Bank. By 1843/4 this had become the Burton Union and Ashbourne Union Bank. Henry

Clay was a director from 1843 to 1863, when, after losing money in the Overend, Gurney crash2 of 1863, he

retired at the age of 67, owing to ill-health and anxiety, and sold a share in the Bank. His youngest son

Charles John Clay then took over as Director from 1863 to 1867 when he was Chairman. The bank became a

limited company in 1880, the name was changed again in 1893 to the Burton Union Bank, which was finally

sold to Lloyds Bank on 1 January 1899.

Returning now to Henry Clay - by the time of the Census of 1841, he was then 45 and had moved to Barton-

under-Needwood, a few miles from Burton, and he was still there in 1842 when his second son Joseph

Spender Clay went to Repton School. From 1843 until 1850 he leased Sudbury Hall beside the River Dove

in Derbyshire until its owner, the then Lord Vernon, came of age. By the next Census on 30 March 1851,

when he was 55, he had moved to Garnons, near Hereford, leased from the Cottrell family, again until the heir

should come of age, in 1855/6. After that he moved to Foremark in Derbyshire (one of the largest houses in

the country, and now a Preparatory School for Repton), which he leased from the Burdett family. He was

there for the 1861 Census, at which time his three sons were all still unmarried and living with him, as was his

daughter Emily. Staying with him and his wife on that Census night were his daughter Caroline and her

husband Walter Baskerville-Mynors and their first two children Harry aged three and Evelyn aged three

months; more were to follow. Caroline and Walter had met when the Clays were living at Garnons. After

leaving Garnons, and before moving to Foremark, the family had spent a winter in Brighton, and there

Caroline and Walter were married, on 3 April 1856.

The 1861 Census also records the names of the seventeen servants who completed the Clay household, and

among these was the groom Bancroft, with whose great-grandson I have corresponded and have had the

pleasure of meeting.

Finally, in 18613, when he was 65, Henry bought the estate of Piercefield Park, near the village of St Arvans

outside Chepstow, Monmouthshire, where he was for the 1871 Census. He died at Piercefield 4 January

1874, and was buried at St Arvans. I have not traced any obituary of Henry Clay in the Press4 of the time, but

it is interesting to note that an obituary of his son Charles John Clay5 in the Burton Chronicle of 21 May 1910

states "Death, it transpires, was due to sudden heart failure, and it may be mentioned that Mr Clay's father

died in a similar manner." His Will had been made and witnessed on the 22 January 1868, and was proved

on 13 February 1874. It was then stated that he left effects under £80,000 and no leaseholders.

1 What dates were these baptisms ? 2 See Error! Reference source not found. 3 Although he didn't retire from his Directorship of the Bank for another two years (see above). At

what stage did he stop going to work every day ? Commuting must have been difficult from Sudbury

Hall, Garnons and Foremark ! 4 Some work here is obviously indicated ! 5 See Chapter 9 and Appendix.


Perhaps the most interesting section of Henry Clay's Will reads :

"My son Joseph Spender Clay being possessed of very considerable property and having

therefore out of kind consideration for his brothers and sisters requested me not to leave him

anything, I wish it to be understood that this is the only reason he takes no beneficial interest

under this my Will, although I have the same love for him that I have for my other children

..."

According to the note entitled `My lineage' written by my father Gerard Clay, "Uncle Joe made money in S.

African diamond mines in the early days." He had also married the only daughter of a millionaire ...

Henry left all his land and property in Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire to his eldest son Henry, and all his

land and property in Derbyshire and Staffordshire to his son Charles John Clay, and, having made due

provision for his widow, left £10,000 each to his two daughters Caroline and Emily.

A photograph of Henry Clay, probably in front of Piercefield, has survived, and is, so far as I know, the

earliest picture or photograph of any Clay ancestor to have survived. It is believed he was very tall.

Elizabeth Clay née Leigh.

Elizabeth Leigh was born at Basnett Street, Liverpool, on 2 November 1799.

Quoting again from `My lineage' :- My grandfather married in 1824 Elizabeth, second daughter of John

Leigh of Sandhill and Upton in Lancashire, whose father, a solicitor, had at one time owned a large part of the

Mersey foreshore, and whose sister's husband De Falbe owned Luton Hoo." The male descendants of the

Leighs can be found in Burke's Landed Gentry under Leigh of Thorpe Satchville Hall, formerly of Luton

Hoo.

Elizabeth's mother was Elizabeth Gerard, daughter of Richard Gerard, surgeon, and Alderman and Receiver

of Dock Dues, Liverpool, and his wife Elizabeth Shaw, whose father Thomas Shaw was a potter and also an

Alderman of Liverpool. Elizabeth Gerard was heiress of the Gerard family, and it seems likely that her

mother was heiress of the Shaw family. It was from the families of Shaw and Gerard that the Leighs inherited

the Mersey foreshore.

My father Gerard Clay remembered well his grandmother1 and always spoke of her as "a brilliant woman

with a very good brain". She kept a diary all her life which most unfortunately was destroyed by her

granddaughter Edith Clay.

Elizabeth's father died on 23 December 1823; she married Henry Clay on 15 November 1824. His Will is an

interesting document and refers to her forthcoming marriage to Henry Clay, as follows :-

"... and forasmuch as since the drawing of the former part of this my Will my dear daughter

Elizabeth is become engaged to marry with Henry Clay, Esquire, of Burton-on-Trent and on

the treaty for that marriage I have agreed to pay her portion into the hands of the Trustees of

that settlement I therefore revoke the legacy of seven thousand pounds hereinbefore directed

to be paid for her benefit hereby declaring that the advancement of that sum on her marriage

is in discharge of what I intended to have given to her by my Will, but as I cannot bear the

idea of executing this solemn act without some further remembrance of so dear a child, I

direct my son John in a convenient time after my death to lay out one hundred pounds in plate

for her separate use to be given her as a memorial of her father's most affectionate regard, and

1 She died when he was 16.


to lay out the further sum of nineteen guineas in plate for her husband - this I do as a

testimony of my approbation of the intended marriage."

Elizabeth died on 19 April 1887 at Piercefield Park, and was buried at St Arvan's, Chepstow.


The Rev. Joseph Clay (Ancestor of the Bonham Clays)

This Joseph Clay was the second son of Joseph Clay and Sarah Spender, and the younger brother of Henry

Clay. He was born at Burton on 1 August 1800 and educated at Repton and St John's College, Cambridge, to

which he was admitted on 2 February 1818 as a Scholar. He became a B.A. in 1822 and M.A. in 1825. He

was Vicar of Newhall, near Burton, and also of Stapenhill. On 19 March 1835, he married, at Great Warley,

Essex, Agnes Bonham, daughter of General Pinson Bonham of Great Warley Place. He was 35 and she was

29; they had three children :-

Agnes Margaret, born 1836 and died unmarried 1856 aged 20,

Elizabeth, born 20 February 1837, who married Colonel Edmund Southey (who died

in 1883) and had three children, and

Joseph Bonham, born 10 February 1839, and about whom more on page 39.

It was 24 October 1839, when his son was eight months old, that Rev. Joseph died in Cairo, whence he had

travelled "for his health." The trip did not help. He was 39.

Agnes Clay, née Bonham

Agnes was the elder daughter of General Pinson Bonham, and was born 26 November 1806 in Barbados in

the West Indies, where her father was serving at the time. He later became Governor of Surinam from 1811

to 1816, when the colony was surrendered to the Dutch. Following his twenty two years of service in the

West Indies, he was granted a pension for his distinguished services. He finally retired to Great Warley Place

which he had inherited from his father, and died there in 1855 in his 93rd year. His wife was Agnes, daughter

of John Braithwaite Skeete, and she died at Great Warley place in 1852 at the age of 71. See Berry's "Essex

Pedigrees."

Agnes died in Upper Norwood on 21 January 1880, aged 73.


The Rev. John Clay (Ancestor of the Harden Clays)

John was the third and youngest son of Joseph Clay and Sarah Spender, and the younger brother of Henry and

Joseph, who have been discussed above. John was born at Burton and baptised there on 19 April 1805. He

was educated at Rugby and, like his brother Joseph before him, at St John's College, Cambridge, to which he

was admitted on 10 June 1822, the year Joseph came down. John became B.A. in 1829 and M.A. in 1836.

He was a Fellow of his College, and was ordained Deacon in 1835, and Priest at Lichfield the following year,

before he moved to Stapenhill in 1837, where he remained as Vicar for the next 38 years, until 1875. Many

of the marriages in the Clay family during this period were performed by him. In 1843, when he was 38, he

married Jessie Harden, aged 29, at Miller Bridge, Ambleside, Westmoreland.

They had three children :-

John Harden born in 1848, of whom more on page 40.

Jessie Caroline baptised 27 September 1850, married in Stapenhill on 13 April 1871 the

Rev. Frank Mather (1838 - 1922) who was Curate at Stapenhill and later

Prebendary of Wells, and died aged 72 at Hitchin, Herts, in 1923, leaving

issue;

(Mary) Jane baptised 17 August 1856 at Stapenhill, married at Brathay Church in 22

April 1880 the Rev. (later Right Rev.) John (Nathaniel) Quirk (1849 -

1924), who had also been at St John's College, Cambridge, Curate of

Doncaster and later Bishop, first of Sheffield, then of Jarrow. Jane died

aged 78 on 21 August 1934 at Lake End, Nibthwaite, Ulverstone, leaving

issue.

After he retired they moved to Ambleside, where John died, aged 72 on 22 December 1877. Jessie died 31

years later, on 23 August 1908 at the age of 94; they were both buried at Brathay Church.

It is, I think, fair to say that most of the marriages in the Clay family in the later years of the nineteenth

century and the earlier years of the twentieth were conducted by one of the three brothers-in-law, John

Harden Clay, Frank Mather or John Quirk.

Jessie Clay, née Harden

Jessie was born 30 January 1814, and was the daughter of a distinguished artist, John Harden of Brathay Hall,

Ambleside. She lived to be 94, and was visited in 1906 by Gerard and Violet Clay on their honeymoon, she

having expressed a wish to meet the bride, as she had not attended the wedding. Gerard recorded in his diary

:-

9 May ... to Miller Bridge, Ambleside ... found Aunt Jessie looking well but very old (she

was then just over 92) and very deaf, Aunt Carrie (Caroline Baskerville-Mynors) and two


Mather girls, Lillian and Una (children of Jessie's daughter, then aged 30 and 24). At night

looked at old drawings of Aunt Jessie's father John Harden; very interesting. She is very

proud of them. What a wonderful old lady she is, still very active and interested in everything

...

11 May ... We (Aunt Carrie, Violet and I) drove over to the Quirks at Conniston ... Found the

Bishop, Janie (his wife) and Margery (daughter, then aged 20) there, nice little cottage and

charming views. Took a short row on the lake, the Bishop and I at the oars, and Violet and

Margery ...

14 May ... We left Windemere ... Aunt Jessie was very unwell with rheumatism and we did

not see her ...

In the diary is a contemporary photograph of her, and a page from `Daily Light on the Daily Path' inscribed

"Violet and Gerard Clay. With warm love and prayers ... from Aunt Jessie 13 May 1906

She was a friend of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Tennyson.

Jessie died in 1908 aged 94, and is buried at Brathay Church.


PART ONE - CHAPTER FIVE – The three sons of Henry Clay I of Piercefield

Henry Clay, the second of Piercefield

Henry Clay, junior, the eldest child of Henry Clay (see page 26) and Elizabeth Leigh was born on 4 October

1825 in Burton-on-Trent, and baptised the following day1. He was sent to Rugby2 on 4 October 1839 aged

13, and matriculated at Michaelmas 1844 after having been admitted as pensioner on 13 April 1844 at Trinity

College, Cambridge, from where he obtained B.A. in 1848 and an M.A. in 1851. He was admitted to the

Inner Temple on 3 May 1848, but withdrew in 1857.

At the time of his marriage he was 38 and living at The Mount, Chepstow; this was on 25 August 1863, when

he was married in Brailsford by his uncle, Rev Canon Hastings Robinson DD3, to Mary (Louisa) Boden, then

aged 19. An account of the occasion will be found in Error! Reference source not found.. Henry and Mary

had two sons and a daughter :-

(Henry) Hastings born on 30 May 1864, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Charles Leigh born on 24 February 1867, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Edith Louisa born in 1869 at The Mount, Chepstow, she died unmarried on 1 September

1954 in Chepstow at the age of 85 and was buried at St Arvan. She is only

remembered for having destroyed the diaries of her grandmother, Elizabeth

Leigh (see page 26).

Henry was a J.P., and Deputy Lieutenant of Monmouthshire. He had his own Livery - Drab, with a yellow

waistcoat. He was a Director of Bass & Co., and of the Burton Old Bank.

Henry died at Piercefield on 3 March 1921 at the age of 95, regarded as the Grand Old Man of

Monmouthshire, where he had lived for 60 years, 47 of them at Piercefield, following his father's death there

in 1874.

Mary née Boden

Mary was the second dau of Henry Boden of Ednaston, Derbyshire, and was born in 1844. She died 25

January 1872 at The Mount, Chepstow at the age of 28.

1 Where ? 2 He was the first to go to a school other than Repton. Rugby was a hard place, even 100 years before

"Tom Brown's Schooldays" appeared in ??, for he sent his son to Eton. 3 See page 19.


Joseph Spender Clay (the Spender Clays)

Joseph Spender Clay, the second son of Joseph Clay (see page 21) and Sarah née Spender, was baptised on

20 November 1826 at Burton. He went to school at Repton in 1842, and at the age of 18 was admitted as a

pensioner to Trinity College, Cambridge, on 10 May 1845. He matriculated at Michaelmas 1845, received

his B.A. in 1849 and his M.A. in 1853. He entered the Inner Temple on 23 April 1849, but was not called to

the Bar. He lived at Branstone Hall, Burton-on-Trent, and was a J.P. for Derbyshire.

On 2 June 1874 he was married by Rev. W. Garrett, uncle of the Bride, assisted by Rev. W B-Mynors,

brother-in-law of the groom, in All Saints, Upper Norwood to (Elizabeth) Sydney (Jane) Garrett.

She was given away by her cousin the Earl of Annesley, and her bride'smaids were Harriette & Silvia Garrett,

her younger sisters, and Miss Clay1 & Miss Mynors2, nieces of the Groom3. Best man was Mr H Bass, and

Mr & Mrs Gerard Leigh4 were among the guests.

Joseph and Sydney had two children :-

Herbert Henry Spender born 4 June 1875, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Violet (Sybil Blanche) born 1877 in Dormansland, Sybil or Sylvia ? O.B.E. married Lord

Bingham 5th Earl of Lucan, 30 November 1896 and died 20 April 1949.

They had four children, two sons and two daughters.

Joseph Spender Clay moved from Burton, to Ford Manor, Lingfield, Sussex, and died on 3 November 1885

at Dormansland at the age of 59.

(Elizabeth) Sydney (Jane) née Garrett

Sydney was the third daughter of Rev. James Perkins Garrett of Kilgarrow (Gilgarron?), co. Carlow. She

married secondly, Beresford V. Melville, and died on 5 December 1912, aged probably around 60.

1 Her brother Henry's only daughter Edith Louisa, then aged 5. 2 His sister Caroline's only daughter Evelyn, then aged 14. 3 It is curious that his other sister Emily had married nine years before, and had a daughter Alice, who

was not a bride'smaid. His other brother Charles John was not to marry for another nine years. 4 He may have been the groom's mother's brother Thomas Gerard Leigh ?


Charles John Clay, of Burton

Charles John Clay, the third and youngest son of Joseph Clay (see page 21) and Sarah née Spender, was born

on 21 August 1828 in Burton-on-Trent, and baptised there on 23 August 1828. The husband of his Aunt

Caroline (see page 23), Rev. Charles Fynes-Clinton (related to the Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme) was his

godfather and after whom he was named, hence the name Charles came into the Clay family. He was

educated at Repton1 and matriculated on 20 May 1847 aged 18, when he went up to University College,

Oxford, where he obtained his B.A. in 1851. He then became a barrister of the Inner Temple on 30 April

1855, see Foster's "Men at the Bar". He was described at marriage as of Silverhill House, but later moved to

Stapenhill House. He was made a Director of Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton, brewers, and was also a Banker. He

described himself in 1871 Census as "Brewer (Merchant)".

Charles John shared Branston Hall with his brother Joseph before he married, which took place when he was

nearly 41, on 6 July 1869 in Tatenhill, Burton-on-Trent. The ceremony was performed by Rev Philip Arden

Cooper, uncle of the bride, (Agnes Lucy) "Aggie" Arden, then aged nearly 31; he was ten years less 2 days

older than she was. She gave her place of residence at the time as Rangemore, Tatenhill.

Witness to the marriage were :-

Henry Clay groom's father, then aged nearly 73;

William Arden bride's uncle;

Edward T. Arden bride's brother, then aged just 32;

Caroline E. Mynors groom's sister, then aged 38;

Arthur Bass family friend2, later the first Lord Burton;

Charles John and Aggie had four sons :-

Arthur (Joseph) born in April 1870, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Gerard (Arden) born in March 1871, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Ernest (Charles) born in December 1872, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Wilfred (Henry) born in February 1874, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Three days after her last confinement, on 17 February 1874, Aggie was dead. Family tradition has it that her

husband came home from work to find her bleeding to death, and the midwife in a drunken stupor on the

floor, although a contemporary note records that she died "suddenly."

Charles John bought Stapenhill House from his brother Joseph for £3500 in 1877. Later he moved to Holly

Bush, Newborough, which he bought. He was a J.P. for both Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

Her still unmarried sister, Margaret Isabella Arden, two and a half years her senior, came to take care of the

four little boys, then all under five; they called her "Aunt Mardit". But tragedy struck again only four years

later, when she died after a fall from a horse in 1878.

Five years after that, when he was 55, Charles John Clay was married again, on 6 September 1883 in Church

Broughton, Derby, by his sister's husband Rev. Walter Baskerville-Mynors, to Elizabeth Teasdale Smith, then

aged 29. By her, Charles John had two daughters :-

1 Rugby School Register claims he went THERE 3.8.42 aged 14 2 Later the second son of the marriage, Gerard, was to marry the daughter of Arthur Bass's wife's 3rd

cousin.


Elizabeth Mildred born 1886, died on 2 October 1899 in Newborough, Burton-on-Trent at the

age of 13

(Adelaide) Hilda born on 12 August 1887 in Whitby, Yorks,1 married on 12 November 1913

in St Peter's Eaton Sq., Henry (Francis) Clifford, the heir to Frampton Court

and its estates, at Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, which has been in

the Clifford family for nearly a thousand years. Henry Clifford was born on

19 August 1885?, and at the age of 31, while serving with the

Gloucestershire Yeomanry at Rafa, in Palestine, was killed in action on 9

January 1917 and was buried in Kantara Military Cemetery in Palestine.

Henry Clifford and Hilda had a daughter, (Henrietta Hilda Elizabeth)

“Henriette” Clifford, born after her father's death on 8 April 1917. Hilda

married again, on 22 June 1932, Col. (John Alfred Tennant) "Jack" Miller

of the 14/20th Hussars, born 13 November 1887, and went out to India with

him in the 1930's. They had no children.

On 5 September 1939 Hilda’s daughter Henriette married Peter (Frazer

Sinclair) Clifford né Haggie (born on 5 October 1913, Gateshead district,

Durham / Tyne and Wear, the son of Oswald Sinclair Haggie)) on 5

September 1939.

Peter served in the same Regiment as his step-father-in-law in India, and

served in tanks in N Africa in WWII.

By deed poll of 06.01.1943, Henriette and Peter changed their surname

from Haggie to Clifford, her maiden name.

Peter passed out from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst

01.02.1934 commissioned, 14th/20th King's Hussars- Royal Armoured

Corps (Lucknow [19371 & Secunderabad 119391. India)

Cadet ?

2nd Lt. 01.02.1934 [62564]

Lt. 01.02.1937

A/C apt. 22.06.1940-21.09.1940

T/C apt. 22.09.1940-22.01.1942

Squadron Commander, Western Desert, N Africa in WWII:

WS/Capt. 23.01.1942

Capt. 01.02.1942

A/Maj. 23.10.1941-22.01.1942

T/Maj. 23.01.1942-31.01.1947

Maj. 01.02.1947 (retd 06.05.1947)

06.05.1947 - 05.10.1963 Regular Army Reserve of Officers [age limit]

Maj. TA 23.06.1948, seniority 05.10.1947

23.06.1948 - 01.04.1950 Royal Gloucestershire Hussars- Territorial Army

12.04.1951 - 14.08.1953 Royal Gloucestershire Hussars - Territorial Army

MID 22.03.1945 NW Europe

Sheriff, Gloucestershire, 1962-1965.

After retiring from the Army, Peter ran the Frampton estate; he died in

Gloucestershire on 3 June 1984 at the age of 70. Peter and Henriette had

1 Why Whitby ???


three sons, David, Rollo and Robin, the last two are married and have

children.

Jack Miller died 29 October 1972 in Frampton-on-Severn at the age of 84.

Hilda had died two weeks earlier, also at Frampton-on-Severn at the age of

85; they had been married for 40 years. One of the last "public" family

functions that Hilda and Jack attended was the wedding on 2 October 1971

of her "great half nephew" Robin Clay, who, with his sister Gill had stayed

with them at Frampton during school holidays in the 1950's. Henriette died

in 2003; Betty, Gill and Robin Clay attended the memorial service.

Charles John Clay died on 14 April 1910 at Holly Bush, Newborough, Burton-o-T at the age of 81, and was

buried five days later at Newborough. See Error! Reference source not found..

(Agnes Lucy) "Aggie" née Arden.

Aggie was born on 19 August 1838 at Longcroft Hall, Yoxall

Sponsors at her baptism were :-

Edwin Fell a Walter William Fell was the husband of her father's sister Emma, but Edwin is

unknown.

Mrs Henry Cooper, wife of her mother's brother, Rev. Henry Cooper.

Mr & Mrs Bott her father's much older brother, John, married Susannah Bott, but it is not known

who these were.

Aggie was the daughter of Rev. Thomas Arden, whose family has been traced back to before the Conquest,

and Isabella Mary Cooper, the daughter of Rev. Edward Cooper the younger and Caroline Isabella Powys.

The Rev. Edward Cooper was the son of Rev. Edward Cooper the elder and his wife Jane Leigh, whose sister

Cassandra Leigh was the mother of Jane Austen. Caroline Isabella Powys was the daughter of Phillip Lybbe

Powys and Caroline Girle, who became known as "The Oxfordshire Diarist" - her diaries were published in

1899 by Longmans.

We have a “pocket” book entitled “Church Services” inscribed:

Agnes L. Clay

From Mrs. Bass

Aug: 19, 1869

…which is a month after her wedding, so presumably given to her on their return from honeymoon.

Aggie was very short - less than 5 ft. - witty and amusing. As recorded above, she died suddenly, three days

after her last confinement, on 17 February 1874 at Stapenhill, Burton-on-Trent at the age of 35, and was

buried four days later at Stapenhill Church. In October that year her widower placed a white marble stone in

Stapenhill Churchyard to her memory, inscribed "Living with Jesus".

Elizabeth Teasdale née Smith

Charles John's second wife, Elizabeth, was born on 12 August 1854? in Durham, the third daughter of Mark

Smith, Junior, of Alnwick, Northumberland. She became governess to the children of Arthur and Lilian Bott

- Arthur's mother was Emily Clay, Charles John's younger sister, see page 26. When she was 29, Elizabeth

married the 55-year-old Charles John, and brought up their two daughters with her four stepsons, who were

12 and 13 years younger than the youngest boy. Her husband died in 1910, when she was 56. By this time,


the elder three of her stepsons were married, and her elder daughter had died, so she and the two remaining

children, Wilfrid and Hilda, left Holly Bush, which had been bequeathed to Arthur, the eldest son, and they

moved to Manceter in Leicestershire. Later, she and her daughter moved to Bournemouth, and lived with her

younger sister. After her daughter married in 1913, or perhaps after the death of her daughter's husband in

1917, she moved to Frampton Court with her. She died on 21 November 1941 at the age of 87, at Frampton

Court, her daughter Hilda's home in Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire.

Elizabeth was known to her Bott charges as "Mitty", and this nickname was carried over into her married life,

but not to her face. She had a sense of humour and a twinkle in her eye, but was very prim, and her step-

grandchildren rather laughed at her behind her back. She was also sometimes referred to by them as

"Greenmama".


PART ONE - CHAPTER SIX – The sons of the Revd. Joseph Clay, the Bonham Clays

(Joseph) Bonham Clay

(Joseph) Bonham Clay, was born on 10 February 1839 in Gt Warley Essex, the only son of the Rev. Joseph

Clay (see page 30) and Agnes nee Bonham. He was baptised 24 March 1839 at Great Warley. He joined the

13th Hussars, and rose to the rank Captain, before leaving the army and emigrating to Canada. On 16 June

18691, when he was 30, he was married in Trinity Church, Montreal to Florence (Anna) Buchanan. They had

two sons and six daughters :-

Bertha (Florence) was born on 20 April 1870 in Upper Norwood, and on 6 June 1899 (aged

29) was married in St George's Montreal to Grant Macintosh, aged 31, who

was born on 9 February 1868 and died on 17 May 1902 in Montreal at the

age of 34. She died on 23 May 1960 in Bournemouth at the age of 90.

They had no children.

Cecil Buchanan was born on 12 May 1871, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Ethel (Agnes) was born on 13 October 1872 in Montreal, and was married aged 30 on 30

April 1902 in St George's Montreal to William Forbes of Montreal. She

died on 25 December 1958 in Montreal at the age of 86. They had a

daughter Margaret.

Mabel (Elizabeth) was born on 14 September 1874 in Upper Norwood, was married aged 48

on 7 July 1922 in St Paul's Chester to Edmund Cuthbert Stuart, aged 42,

who was born on October 1880, and who died on 2 August 1976 in Bacton,

Stowmarket at the age of 95. She died on 13 December 1966 in

Stowmarket at the age of 92. They had no children.

Eveline (Ellen) was born on 23 September 1876, was married aged 35 on 11 May 1911 to

Fred Frothingham Archibald, who died on 17 October 1916 from wounds.

She later married Richard Stancliffe, who was born in Macclesfield, and

died on 30 November 1937. She died on 1 January 1965 in Bournemouth

at the age of 88. They had no children.

Constance (Josephine) was born on 30 June 1880, was married aged 37 on 1 August 1917 in St

James' Montreal to (John Reginald) "Jack" Mills-Walker of Ottawa, aged

33, who was born in 1884, and died in 1950 at the age of 66. They had a

son Basil and a daughter Rosalind. She died on 26 March 1969 at the age

of 88

Harold (Bonham) was born on 3 March 1883, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Gladys (Margaret) was born on 30 August 1888 in Montreal, was married aged 25 on 19 April

1913 in St James' Montreal to (James) Reg(inald) Starnes, died on 1972.

They had a son Charles. She died on 7 February 1963 in Montreal at the

age of 74.

Bonham died on 27 June 1916 in Montreal Canada at the age of 77.

Florence (Anna) née Buchanan

Florence was born on 29 July 1848 in Montreal, Canada, the daughter of W.O. Buchanan of Montreal, and

died on 27 November 1918 in Cedar Avenue, Montreal at the age of 70.

1 Or was it 16th July ?


PART ONE - CHAPTER SEVEN – The son of the Revd. John Clay, the Harden Clays

John Harden Clay

Rev. John Harden Clay was born on 20 September 1848 in Stapenhill, Burton-on-Trent, the only son of Rev

John Clay (see page 31) and Jessie née Harden, and was educated at Repton before going up to Trinity

College, Cambridge on 20 October 1866. He matriculated at Michaelmas 1867; was a Scholar in 1870 and a

Prizeman; and obtained his B.A. in 1871. He went on to obtain a First Class Theological Tripos in 1872, and

was given his M.A. in 1874.

He became Godfather to Gerard A Clay in 1871, when he was 23 and just getting his B.A. He was said,

perhaps unkindly, to have a slightly Chinese appearance, and was sometimes referred to as "Chang", probably

not to his face.

He was ordained deacon at Canterbury in 1872 and Priest in 1873. He was Curate at All Saints, Maidstone

from 1872 to 1875; Vicar of All Saints, Childs Hill in North West London, from 1875 to 1893; Rector of St

Michael's, Bristol from 1893 until he retired in 1918 at the age of 70 and moved to Miller Bridge, Ambleside,

whence his mother's family came, and whither his clergyman father had also moved upon retirement.

He married aged 25, on 17 April 1873 in St Mark's, Hambledon Terrace, London, Alice Spencer Bagnold,

aged 22. They had three sons and nine daughters, all but one of whom outlived childhood, but few of whom

married:-

Alice (Jessie) was born on 2 February 1874, and was married aged 21 in 1895 to Rev.

Herbert Coombes, Vicar of Houghton, Carlisle, aged 28, who was born in

1867, and died in 1934 at the age of 67. They had nine children. She died

on 16 March 1899 at the age of 25 and was buried at Brathay Ambleside.

Frederic Harden ("Hardie") was born on 29 October 1875, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Helen (Rachel) was born on 12 June 1877, died unmarried on 26 January 1963 at the age of

85.

Rotha Mary was born on 17 August 1878, died unmarried on 1 March 1961 in

Shirehampton at the age of 82; Hon M.A. Bristol.

Muriel (Agnes) was born on 6 February 1881, died unmarried on 26 February 1927 at the

age of 46.

Dorothy was born on 16 September 1882, died unmarried on 30 July 1900 in Coates

at the age of 17.

(John) Owen was born on 16 April 1884, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Juliet was born on 10 July 1886, was married aged 28 on 9 July 1914 in Brathay

Ambleside to Rev. Maxwell Young, aged 31, who was born in 1883, and

died in 1950 at the age of 67. They had three sons and a daughter. She

died in 1947 in Osmaston, Derbys at the age of 60.

Winifred was born on 27 April 1888, died unmarried on 4 December 1947 at the age

of 59.

Beryl (Margaret) was born on 16 July 1889, died unmarried on 28 April 1963 at the age of

73.

Arundel was born on 2 February 1891, see page Error! Bookmark not defined..

Noel Irene was born on 24 December 1892, died unmarried on 2 February 1966 at the

age of 73.

He was Honorary Canon of Bristol from 1913 until his death, on 31 October 1923 in Miller Bridge,

Ambleside at the age of 75; see Error! Reference source not found..


Alice Spencer née Bagnold.

Alice was born on 22 July 1851 in London, the daughter of Maj. Gen. M.E. Bagnold, of the HEICS and she

died on 20 March 1925 in Miller Bridge, Ambleside at the age of 73.


Abbey.................................................................16

Adams

Elizabeth................................................6

Adams, Elizabeth ...............................9, 10, 14, 15

Alsop..................................................................24

Ambleside ..........................................................31

Arlestone......................................................10, 12

Arlestone House.................................................12

Baltic............................................................16, 23

Bancroft .............................................................27

Bank, The Old....................................................24

Banking..............................................................16

Barbados............................................................30

Barley ................................................................16

Barnstaple ..........................................................18

Barouche............................................................24

Barrow ...............................................................12

Barrow-on-Trent ..................................................6

Barrow-upon-Trent ..............................................6

Barton-under-Needwood ...................................27

Baskerville-Mynors, Evelyn ..............................27

Baskerville-Mynors, Harry ................................27

Baskerville-Mynors, Walter

m..........................................................27

Bass....................................................................24

Bass History.......................................................16

Bass, William.....................................................16

Benedictine ........................................................16

Berry ..................................................................30

Birmingham .......................................................16

Blurton, Webb, Peel & Co.................................27

Bodley Head ......................................................18

Bonham, Agnes............................................30, 39

Bonham, Gen. Pinson ........................................30

Breadsall ............................................................15

Breadsall, Derbyshire ..........................................6

Brewing .......................................................15, 16

Brighton.............................................................27

Bristol ................................................................16

British Directory ................................................17

Bulmer's Directory.............................................12

Buonaparte.........................................................22

Burdett ...............................................................27

Burton ................................................................15

Burton Chronicle ...............................................27

Burton Volunteers..............................................22

Burton, Uttoxeter & Ashbourne Union

Bank ......................................27

Canal..................................................................16

Canals ................................................................ 23

Cheese ............................................................... 15

Chepstow........................................................... 27

Cheswardine, Salop ........................................... 25

Clay

Agnes Margaret, 1836......................... 30

Ann, 1744.............................................. 9

Ann, 1766............................................ 17

Caroline Elizabeth "Carrie",

1831 ...................................... 26

Caroline, 1798..................................... 23

Caroline, 1831..................................... 28

Charles John, 1828.................. 26, 27, 28

Charles John, 1828.............................. 24

Diana, 1757 ......................................... 17

Eleanor, 1745 ........................................ 9

Eliza, 1762 .......................................... 17

Elizabeth, 1729 ..................................... 9

Elizabeth, 1758 ................................... 17

Elizabeth, 1837 ................................... 30

Emily Jane, 1833................................. 26

Emily, 1833......................................... 28

George Francis Hastings ..................... 14

George, the Black Sheep ..................... 10

Gerard Arden....................................... 18

girl, 1768 ............................................. 17

Henry I of Piercefield.......................... 23

Henry I of Piercefield.......................... 26

Henry II of Piercefield, 1825 .............. 26

John, 1805 ..................................... 23, 31

Joseph Bonham, 1839 ......................... 30

Joseph I of Burton ..... 6, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17

Joseph II of Burton............ 17, 22, 30, 31

Joseph of Merrybower........................... 8

Joseph Spender, 1826.................... 26, 28

Joseph, 1688.......................................... 8

Joseph, 1800.................................. 23, 30

Lucy, 1751 .......................................... 10

Margaret (Ann), 1793.................... 19, 22

Martha, 1747 ....................................... 10

Mary, 1685............................................ 8

Mary, 1761.......................................... 17

Miriam, 1683......................................... 8

Prudence, 1731...................................... 9

Richard, 1752...................................... 17

Richard, 1764...................................... 17

Roger of Sinfin...................................... 6

Samuel, 1724......................................... 9

Sarah, 1764 ......................................... 17

Sarah, 1795 ......................................... 23

Thomas of Merrybower................. 6, 8, 9

Thomas of Sinfin................................... 6


Thomas, 1760 ......................................17

Thomas, 1768 ......................................17

Thomas, Jnr, of Barrow...................9, 10

William, 1753................................17, 21

Clay & Son, Bankers..........................................24

Clay's Bank ..................................................22, 27

Clinton, Rev. Charles John Fynes ......................23

Cooper, Eleanor .......................................9, 11, 20

Cooperage..........................................................17

Cottrell ...............................................................27

Cox, Dr. .............................................................12

Crewe, Sir J.H....................................................12

Crich ....................................................................6

Dalrymple, Daniel........................................17, 18

Dawson

Elizabeth................................................6

Dawson, Elizabeth .............................................10

Dawson, James.....................................................9

Dawson, Martha...................................................9

De Falbe.............................................................28

Derby ...........................................................15, 16

Derby Mercury.............................................15, 18

Derbyshire..........................................................28

Derbyshire, Little Guide to ................................12

Des Voeux .........................................................17

Disney, Martha...................................................19

Dove, River........................................................27

Dutch .................................................................30

Edgmond............................................................25

Essex Pedigrees .................................................30

Europe................................................................16

Export ................................................................16

Fair Books............................................................6

Fellow ................................................................31

Foremark........................................................9, 27

Fynes Clinton, Rev. Charles John ......................23

Gainsborough.....................................................16

Garnons..............................................................27

Gerard, Elizabeth ...............................................28

Gerard, Richard .................................................28

Gibraltar.........................................................6, 18

Gibson, Elizabeth.................................................8

Gloucestershire ..................................................28

Grazier ...............................................................15

Graziers..............................................................12

Great Warley Place ............................................30

Groom................................................................27

Gurney Bank Crash............................................27

Gybson, Elizabeth................................................8

Harden, Jessie ....................................................31

Hastings, Elizabeth ............................................14

Hayne, John ....................................................... 16

Hereford ............................................................ 27

Holy Trinity, Burton.......................................... 27

Hops .................................................................. 16

Horninglow.................................................. 16, 27

Hoskins, Abraham ............................................. 16

Hoskins, W.G. ................................................... 12

Hull.................................................................... 16

Hutchinson, Mary .............................................. 20

Iron .................................................................... 15

Kent ................................................................... 16

Kinder, William................................................. 17

Knights Hospitalers ........................................... 12

Lamb and Flag Inn................................... 6, 15, 16

Lamb Inn ........................................................... 16

Leeson Brewery................................................. 22

Leigh, Elizabeth........................................... 26, 28

Leigh, John ........................................................ 28

Lichfield ............................................................ 31

Lichfield Cathedral .............................................. 9

Lichfield, Vicar of ............................................... 6

Liverpool ..................................................... 16, 23

Lloyds Bank....................................................... 27

London ........................................................ 16, 23

Luton Hoo.......................................................... 28

Machins Yard .................................................... 22

Magdalene Hall, Oxford .................................... 25

Manchester .................................................. 16, 23

Melbourne ........................................................... 8

Merrybower ................................................... 6, 12

Mersey............................................................... 28

Miriam................................................................. 8

Monmouthshire............................................ 27, 28

Mrs. Stanton's Company of Players ................... 17

Needwood Forest............................................... 26

Needwood Forest Association ........................... 26

Newcastle, Duke of............................................ 23

Newhall, Vicar of .............................................. 30

Nottingham........................................................ 16

Owen, C.C. ........................................................ 16

Paget, Lord ........................................................ 16

Paget, Thomas ..................................................... 8

Paraphernalia ..................................................... 24

Parsons & Bradshaw Directory ......................... 24

Pavement House ................................................ 22

Photograph ........................................................ 28

Piercefield.................................................... 27, 28

Pillion ............................................................ 6, 15

Porter, John........................................................ 10

Repton ............................................................... 15

Repton School ............................. 9, 23, 26, 27, 30

River Dove ........................................................ 27

Robarts, Curtis & Co. ........................................ 24

Robinson


Antony...................................................6

Elizabeth................................................6

Robinson, Disney...............................................19

Robinson, Elizabeth.........................14, 15, 17, 18

Robinson, Hastings ............................................19

Robinson, Mary .................................................19

Robinson, Rev. Richard George ..................18, 19

Robinson, Richard .............................................19

Robinson, William.............................................19

Rugby School.....................................................31

Russia...........................................................15, 16

Salt, Thomas ................................................16, 24

Sandhill ..............................................................28

Servants .............................................................27

Shaw, Elizabeth .................................................28

Shaw, Thomas....................................................28

Shirebrook, Joseph...............................................8

Sinfield.................................................................6

Sinfin .............................................................6, 12

Sinfin House ......................................................12

Skeete, Agnes ....................................................30

Skeete, John Braithwaite....................................30

Sketchley's House ..............................................16

Slaves.................................................................18

Soudley, Salop ...................................................25

Southey, Col. Edmund .......................................30

Spencer, John ....................................................26

Spender family...................................................23

Spender, James ..................................................25

Spender, John.....................................................24

Spender, John jnr ...............................................25

Spender, Margaret .............................................25

Spender, Rev. Arthur .........................................25

Spender, Sarah .................................22, 24, 30, 31

St. Arvans ..........................................................27

St. John's College, Cambridge .....................30, 31

St. Modwen's, Burton.......................18, 22, 25, 26

St. Peter's, Nottingham.........................................8

St. Werburgh, Derby..........................................15

Staffordshire ......................................................28

Stapenhill .....................................................26, 30

Stapenhill House..........................................23, 27

Stapenhill, Vicar of............................................31

Stone, Robert .....................................................26

Stone, Staffs.......................................................25

Sudbury Hall ......................................................27

Surinam..............................................................30

Sweden...............................................................15

Thorpe Satchville Hall .......................................28

Thorpe, Mary.....................................................19

Thorpe, R. ..........................................................19

Three Queens Inn...............................................22

Timber merchants ..............................................17

Tollgate ............................................................. 16

Townmaster of Burton....................................... 17

Trent, River ........................................... 12, 15, 26

Tunnicliffe's Survey........................................... 17

Turnpike ............................................................ 16

Twyford ......................................................... 8, 12

Underhill, C.H. .................................................. 15

Underhill, C.W. ........................................... 22, 26

Upton................................................................. 28

Vernon, Lord ..................................................... 27

Walton-on-the-Hill, Liverpool........................... 26

Waterloo, Battle of ............................................ 23

White's Directory............................................... 20

Wilden Ferry...................................................... 16

Wilders, John..................................................... 16

Wilson, John Walker ......................................... 17

Worcestershire................................................... 16

Worthington, William and Thomas ................... 17

Wright, Ellen ..................................................... 24

Wright, John ...................................................... 24

Wyatt ................................................................. 16


Documents

Clay Book Chapter 1