JOHN
MIDDLETON CLAYTON
BIOGRAPHY
John
Midddleton Clayton was a great, great grandson of Joshua Clayton who
came to America with William Penn, He was a son of James and Sarah
Middleton Clayton, being born in Dagsboro, Sussex County, Delaware ,
July 24 1796.
He
graduated from Yale College in 1815 and after the study of Law in
the office of a cousin, Thomas Clayton, and the famous Law School
at Litchfield in Connecticut, he was admitted to the Delaware State
Bar in 1819, going in practice at Dover.
He
married in 1822 to Sally Ann Fisher, daughter of Dr. James Fisher,
Camden, Kent county, Delaware, but lost her through death in 1825.
Although he was left with two infant sons, he never remarried.
Clayton
soon rose to prominence in his chosen profession and became a leader
in the Delaware Bar, serving the State as Secretary of State, a
member of the House of Representatives and Auditor of Accounts.
He
became associated with the Whig Party in Delaware and in 1829 was
elected to the United States Senate. During his term in the Senate
he was elected in 1831 as a Kent County Representative to the
Delaware State Constitutional Convention, where he had his plan for
the reorganization of the State Judiciary adopted. He resigned the
Senate in 1836, after his reelection, to accept the Chief Justice of
Delaware position in 1837. In 1836 Yale College conferred upon him
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
1845
– 1849 he was again a Senator from Delaware and in 1850 was
President Taylor's Secretary of State and negotiated with Sir Henry
Lytton Bulwer, the Clayton – Bulwer treaty in an attempt to build a
canal in Nicaragua to connect the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. He
served as United States Senator from Delaware until 1856 when he died
on the 9th of November in Dover.
John
M. Clayton is buried at Dover, in the Old Presbyterian Cemetery.
His
two sons were James Fisher Clayton and Charles McClyment Clayton who
both died before they reached the age of 30 .
Publication
of State of Delaware. 'Acceptance of John M. Clayton' Statue,
Thursday, January 3, 1935
No comments:
Post a Comment