Clay Family Is One of the Oldest in This County" Article Was Published 26 Aug
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Clay Family Article Clay Family Article, 1950 "Clay Family Is One Of The Oldest In This County" Article was published 26 Aug. 1950 in the 1950 Centennial Edition of the Beckley Post-Herald. Reprinted by permission. The Clay family is one of the oldest in America. Members of this family resided in what is now Raleigh County even before it's foundation 100 years ago and have figured prominently through the years of the county's existence. John Clay, an ancient planter, came to Virginia in 1613, and his wife, Ann, in 1623. It is claimed by some that he came from Wales, but the best authority is that he was English. It is known that he had three sons, whose names, according to some, were Henry, William, and Charles, while others state that he had four sons, Francis, William, Thomas, and Charles. At any rate from the sons of John Clay descended most of the Virginia Clays. There was a Clay family also in Surrey County at an early date, and it is probable that the names of this family in the early records has caused the confusion as to the names of John Clay's children. --Large Land Owner Clay was a large land proprietor in Charles City County. The early colonial records show that he was granted a patent for 1,200 acres on Ward's Creek, fronting on James River, in that part of that county which later became Prince George County - 100 acres to him as an old planter before the government of Sir Thomas Dale, and the other 1,100 acres for the transportation of twenty-two persons. Charles Clay, the son of John Clay, was in arms under Nathaniel Bacon in his celebrated rebellion against Sir William Berkeley, the royal governor of Virginia, in 1676. He was a man of great wealth and scholarly tastes, and possessed the finest library in the colony. Henry Clay, of Henrico and Chesterfield counties, had four sons, William Mitchell, John, Henry, and Charles. Of these, Henry was the ancestor of Clement Comer Clay and Clement Clairborne Clay, of Alabama, both of whom - father and son - were United States senators from that state in antebellum days. John was the father of Rev. John Clay, an eloquent Baptist preacher who went to live in Hanover County, and who was the father of Henry Clay, the great Kentucky orator and statesman. Charles was the father of Matthew Clay, who was long a member of Congress from Virginia and of General Greene Clay, of Kentucky. --Born In 1710 William Mitchell Clay, the son of Henry Clay, and Mary Mitchell, his wife, Page 1 Clay Family Article was born about 1710. Their son Mitchell Clay, in April 1774, obtained a Crown grant from Lord Dunmore, then Royal governor of Virginia, for 803 acres of land described as being situated on both sides of Bluestone Creek, a branch of New River, and called Clover Bottom. With his family he moved to his new estate in the spring of 1775. In August of 1785 there occurred the famous Shawnee massacre, in which two of his children, Bartley and Tabitha, were killed outright, and a third, Ezekiel, carried captive to Chillicothe, and there burned at the stake. Following the massacre at Clover Bottom, settlers from the New River country pursued the savages and overtook a portion of them - the main body having in the meantime divided - on Pond Fork, Boone County. In the fight that followed two sons of Mitchell Clay, David and Mitchell, the younger, were participants. Ezekiel Clay was not recovered, he being with the other band of Indians, and it was in retaliation for losses inflicted upon their comrades on Pond Fork that the savages burned him at the stake upon their arrival at their village on the Pickaway Plains. After this disaster came upon his family Mitchell Clay moved to the New River country near Pearisburg where he acquired, on the opposite side of the river from where the town now stands, a tract of land which later was known as the Johnston farm. He resided there until his death in 1811. --At Point Pleasant Mitchell Clay was a soldier in the army of General Andrew Lewis, at the battle of Point Pleasant, Oct. 10, 1774. He was also a member of Captain Daniel Smith's Company of Fincastle militia during the Revolutionary War. The sons of Mitchell Clay were very active in the early history of Montgomery and Giles counties. They were men of splendid proportions, and men of exceptional attainments for their day and opportunities. Their calibre is amply attested by a Montgomery county court order enter June 4, 1799, in which three of them were recommended to the governor of Virginia for commissions as officers in the same battalion. David, the oldest son, and who was a Revolutionary soldier, died in 1792. His widow and children went to Georgia, and their descendants are numerous and prominent in that state. One of the sons, Henry, married Rhoda Shrewsbury. He is the ancestor of the Wyoming County Clays. He lived there for several years, before moving to Mercer County, on Bluestone, at Spanishburg. Mitchell Clay, the younger, ancestor of the late William Sanford Clay, was born about 1769 and died at the home of his son, Charles L. Clay, near Bolt, Raleigh County, in 1851. Page 2 Clay Family Article Among his sons are John T. Clay, who served as first sheriff of Raleigh County after its formation in 1850, and Charles L. Clay, grandfather of W. S. Clay. Submitted by Melissa Bailey Duggins <[email protected]> **************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. 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