Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Clayton, Richard (d.1828)
CLAYTON, Sir RICHARD (d. 1828), translator, was the son of John Clayton of Northall, Lancashire, by Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Goodwin, rector of Tankersley, near Barnsley, Yorkshire, and nephew of Richard Clayton, serjeant-at-law and lord chief justice of the common pleas in Ireland, who by his will, dated 16 March 1770, left him his manors of Adlington and Worthington. He was created a baronet on 3 May 1774, was recorder of Wigan (1815-28), constable of Lancaster Castle, and British consul at Nantes, where he died on 29 April 1828. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a member of the Inner Temple, where he was admitted in 1762, called in 1771, and reader in 1811. He married in 1780 Ann, daughter of Dr. Charles White, an eminent surgeon of Manchester, and left an only daughter, who married Lieutenant-general Robert Browne. Lady Clayton died at Cheltenham on 23 Nov. 1837.
Clayton published the following translations and other works: 1. 'On the Cretins of the Vallais,' a paper in the 'Memoirs' of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1790. 2. 'Connubia Florum Latino carmine demonstrata auctore D. De la Croix, notas et observationes adjecit,' Bath, 1791, 8vo. 3. 'A Critical Inquiry into the Life of Alexander the Great by the Ancient Historians, translated from the French of the Baron de St. Croix,' Bath, 1793, 4to, which he rendered by his additions more valuable than the original. 4. 'Memoirs of the House of Medici, from the French of M. Tenhove, with notes and observations,' Bath, 1797, 4to, 2 vols. 5. 'The Science of Legislation, from the Italian of Filangieri,' 1806, 8vo. 6. 'A Treatise on Greyhounds,' in the 'Pamphleteer,' vol. ix. 1817.
[Baines's Lancashire, 1870, ii. 165; Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (by Rivers), 1798, i.101; Biog. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, p. 66; Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies, 1844, Addenda, p. 600; De Quincey's Autob. Sketches, 1854, ii. 67, where he writes of Sir R. Clayton having honourably distinguished himself in literature by translating and improving the work of Tenhove.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.69
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 17 | i | 32 | Clayton, Sir Richard: for where he died read from 1825 till his death there |
| 22 f.e. | for an only daughter read a son, who became second baronet, and a daughter |