her death gave shelter to his mother-in-law, Oliver's widow. In June 1678 he was arrested on suspicion and imprisoned in the Tower, but speedily released. He died on 26 June 1688 (Noble, ii. 380).
His children by his first wife all predeceased him. He married a second time, in June 1670, Blanche, widow of Lancelot Stavely, by whom he had one daughter, Bridget, but falling under the influence of a certain Anne Ottee disinherited his daughter for her benefit. Mrs. Claypoole brought an action in chancery and recovered some portion of his property, most of which, however, he had been obliged to part with during his lifetime.
[Noble's House of Cromwell, ii. 370-87; Ludlow's Memoirs, ed. 1751; Carlyle's Cromwell's Letters and Speeches; Burton's Cromwellian Diary; Domestic State Papers; Mercurius Politicus.]
CLAYTON, JOHN (1693–1773), botanist, was born at Fulham in 1693. His father was the attorney-general of Virginia, and the son left England and joined him in 1705. He appears to have studied medicine, botany, and, to some extent, chemistry. He sent to the Royal Society in 1739 a statement of 'Experiments concerning the Spirit of Coals,' which paper was published in the 'Philosophical Transactions.' Through the influence of his father Clayton was appointed secretary of Gloucester county, which office he held for many years. His position allowed him the leisure for studying the soil and atmospheric phenomena affecting the vegetation of the state, and for collecting specimens of its flora. Eventually he sent to the Royal Society the results of his observations, which were published in volumes xvii. xviii. and xli. of the 'Philosophical Transactions.' These papers secured him the friendship of many of the European naturalists; especially he corresponded with the celebrated Dutch naturalists, the brothers Gronoy or Gronovius. To these Clayton forwarded dried plants, and in connection with the celebrated Swedish naturalist, John Frederick Gronovius, they published 'Flora Virginica exhibens Plantas quas in Virginia Clayton collegit,' Leyden, 1739 and 1745. These parts were reissued after Clayton's death in 1782. This work was the first flora of Virginia published, and it contained many new genera. Gronovius (Laurence, as his brother John Frederick died in 1760) affixed the name of Clayton to a genus of plants. The Claytonias are perennial, rare in cultivation; but the C. virginica is sometimes met with. These plants are popularly known in America by the name of 'spring beauty', from the early season at which they flower. Clayton died in 1773.
[Barton's Medical and Physical Journal; Allibone's Biographical Dictionary; The Flora of Virginia, 1762; Philosophical Transactions; Lindley and Moore's Treasury of Botany; Rose's Biographical Dictionary.]
CLAYTON, JOHN (1709–1773), divine, son of William Clayton, bookseller, of Manchester, was born 9 Oct. 1709. He was educated at the Manchester grammar school, and gained the school exhibition to Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1825. In 1829 the Hulmean scholarship was awarded to him, and a little later he became a college tutor. He proceeded B.A. on 16 April 1729, and M.A. on 8 June 1732. One of his early friends was John Byrom [q. v.], his fellow-townsman, and at Oxford he knew John and Charles Wesley, James Hervey, Benjamin Ingham, and a few other pious young collegians, who formed the little society of 'Oxford Methodists,' the germ of the great Wesleyan methodist body. Fasting, almsgiving, and the visitation of the sick were among the main ] objects of the friends, and the influence of Clayton's devotional spirit and earnest churchmanship was soon felt in the little community. He left Oxford in 1732, and was ordained deacon at Chester on 29 Dec. of that year. His first cure was that of Sacred Trinity Chapel in Salford. His house became the resort of Wesley and others of the Oxford society whenever they came to Manchester, and Wesley on several occasions preached from his pulpit. George Whitefield also delivered one of his stirring addresses in Clayton's chapel. When Wesley was contemplating his mission to Georgia, he visited Manchester to take the opinions of Clayton and Byrom, and was, it is thought, influenced by their advice in carrying out that important project. Clayton acted as chaplain to Darcy Lever, LL.D., high sheriff of Lancashire in 1736, and published the assize sermon which he preached at Lancaster in that year. On 6 March 1739-40 he was elected one of the chaplains of the Manchester Collegiate Church, and twenty years later (28 June 1760) was appointed a fellow of the same. His high-church practices and strongly pronounced Jacobite views proved very obnoxious to the whig party of the neighbourhood. He was attacked in a pamphlet by Thomas Percival of Royton, and subsequently by the Rev. Josiah Owen, presbyterian minister of Rochdale, and John Collier [q. v.], otherwise 'Tim Bobbin.' When the Young Pretender visited Manchester in 1745, Clayton publicly advocated his claims, and offered up prayer in the collegiate church for
