the deposed royal family. It is related that when the young chevalier was passing along the streets of Salford, he was met by Clayton, who fell upon his knees and invoked a divine blessing upon the prince. For his temerity the Jacobite chaplain had afterwards to suffer. He was obliged to conceal himself, and was suspended from his office for violating his ordination vow, and for acting as one disaffected towards the protestant succession. He was reinstated when a general amnesty towards the misguided adherents of the prince was proclaimed, and he recovered his allegiance to the church and gained the respect of his townsmen as a sincere and conscientious man.
For many years he conducted an academy at Salford, and so attached himself to his pupils, that after his death they formed themselves into a society called the Cyprianites, and at their first meeting decided to erect a monument to their master's memory, 'as a grateful token of their affectionate regard.' This monument is still remaining in the Manchester Cathedral. For their use he published in 1754 'Anacreontis et Sapphonis Carmina, cum virorum doctorum notis et emendationibus.' An excellent library of six thousand volumes, collected by himself, was attached to this school. It was dispersed in 1773. In Chetham's Hospital and Library at Manchester he naturally took considerable interest, and in 1764 was elected a feoffee of that foundation. In 1755 he published a little volume entitled 'Friendly Advice to the Poor; written and published at the request of the late and present Officers of the Town of Manchester,' in which he presented an interesting account of the manners and state of society of the poorer inhabitants of the town, and suggested various wise sanitary and provident remedies for the evils which he exposed. It was replied to in the following year in a jocular and sarcastic manner in 'A Sequel to the Friendly Advice to the Poor of Manchester. By Joseph Stot, Cobbler.' The real author was Robert Whitworth, printer and bookseller.
Clayton died on 25 Sept. 1773, aged 64, and was interred in the Derby chapel of the Manchester Collegiate Church (now cathedral). His wife was Mary, daughter of William Dawson of Manchester. She appears to have died young.
[Hibbert Ware's Foundations in Manchester, ii. 94, 100, 159, 336; Everett's Methodism in Manchester, 1827; Wesley's Works. 1831, vide index; Byrom's Remains (Chetham Soc.), i. 236, 515, 534, ii. 63, 218, 301, 394; Tyerman's Oxford Methodists. 1873, pp. 24-56; Rawlinson MSS. fol. 16, 311, 384; Raines's Lancashire MSS. vol. xl., in Chetham Library; Evans's Memorials of St. John's, Manchester (still in manuscript). Portraits of Clayton and his wife and sister are in the possession of Colonel Mawson of Manchester; and a picture of Clayton in his school was formerly at Kersall Cell, Manchester, the property of the late Miss Atherton.]
CLAYTON, JOHN (1728–1800), painter, belonged to a family residing at Bush Hill, Edmonton, and was brother to Samuel Clayton of Old Park, Enfield, and uncle to Nicholas Clayton [q. v.] He was brought up for the medical profession, and served his time with Samuel Sharpe, a well-known surgeon, but as he did not see his way to advancement in this profession, he took to painting. The form of art he adopted was still life, especially fruit and flower pieces, painting both in oil and water-colours; he occasionally painted landscapes. We first find Clayton exhibiting in 1761 and the following years at the Free Society of Artists in the Strand, but in 1767 he appears as a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and was one of those who signed the roll declaration of that society on its incorporation by charter in 1765; in these years and in the following he exhibited with that society. He resided in the Piazza, Covent Garden. In March 1769 a disastrous and extensive fire broke out which destroyed one side of the Piazza, and most of Clayton's best pictures perished in the flames. After this event he seems to have relinquished art, and retired, having married, to his brother's house at Enfield, where he devoted himself to gardening and music. We find his name again as an exhibitor in 1778. Clayton died on 23 June 1800 at Enfield, in his seventy-third year, leaving two sons and one daughter.
[Redgrave's Dict. of English Artists; Gent. Mag. 1800, lxx. 596; Pye's Patronage of British Art; Catalogues of the Free Society of Artists and of the Incorporated Society of Artists.]
CLAYTON, JOHN (1754–1843), independent minister, was born at Wood End Farm, Clayton, near Chorley, Lancashire, 5 Oct. 1764. He was the only son of George Clayton, a bleacher, and had nine elder sisters. He was educated at Leyland grammar school, where strong party feeling led to frequent fights between 'protestant' and 'catholic' sets of schoolboys. In these encounters Clayton's tall figure and natural courage made him conspicuous. He was apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Boultbee, an apothecary in Manchester; but at the end of four years he ran off, and made his way to the house of a married sister in London. He was taken to
