Captain John Clay came to Jamestown, Virginia aboard the "Treasurer," in 1613. A soldier in the British army, John gained the rank of Captain by the age of 21 and was sent to Virginia to control problems developing in the area. Clay, known as, "The English Grenadier" was put in charge of the fifty Musketeers aboard Captain Samuel Argal's ship, the Treasurer which was sent to protect the settlers in Jamestown. Captain Clay eventually became sympathetic to the cause of the settlers and resigned his military post.

John Clay was born about 1587 in Manmouthshire, Wales, England. In Hotten's, In "List of Emigrants To America 1600 -1700", a "muster of inhabitants to Virginia, includes, "a muster of inhabitants of Jordan's Journey, Charles City, the 21st of January 1624". The section contains the muster of John Clay, noting Clay arrived in Jamestown, Virginia aboard the "Treasurer" February 1613 and his wife Ann arrived on the ship, "Ann", August 1623. John's servant, William Nicholas arrived on the "Dutie" in May 1619.

Patent 210 granted John Clay twelve hundred acres in Charles Citie County, Virginia. The lands were granted by order of the Court of Francis Hooke. Up to the head of Ward's creek and bounded on the north by James River. one hundred acres to him as an old planter before the government of Sir Thomas Dale and the other eleven hundred for the transportation of twenty two persons by the West July 13, 1635, Ledger 1 page 230. These lands were near the present day City Point, a few miles from what is now Chesterfield County, Virgina. (Notable Southern Families, the Clay Family, by Frances Powell Otken, The Lookout).

John married first Ann(e) (Nichols) about 1612 in England and had four children: William, Thomas, Francis and Charles, born 1638 in Charles City, Virginia and died 1 June 1686 in Henrico, Virginia. Ann died before 1645. John then married Elizabeth, born 1615 and died 1686 in Charles City, Virginia.. John Clay died about 1654 in Charles City, Virginia.

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Virginia Colonies / Jamestown / "The Ancient Planter of Virginia" "'Ancient planter'" is a term applied to colonists who migrated to the Plantation of Virginia "before the coming away of Sir Thomas Dale" in 1616, and continued there for at least three years. These colonists received the first land grants in Virginia. Those who paid their own passage to Virginia received a "first dividend" of 100 acres (0.40 km2), free of quit-rent. Those who were brought at the Company's expense also received 100 acres, subject to an annual rent of one shilling per 50 acres. Planters who arrived later than 1616 were entitled to a lesser grant of 50 acres.

According to a letter from John Rolfe dated January 1619/20 "All the Ancient Planters being sett free have chosen places for their dividends according to the Comyssion. Which giveth all greate content, for now knowing their owne landes, they strive and are prepared to build houses & to clear their groundes ready to plant, which giveth great encouragement and the greatest hope to make the Colony florrish that ever yet happened to them.

Jan 21, 1624/1625: he appears in this muster as a resident of Jordans Journey, south of James River in Charles City County, VA.

Interesting note taken from address given by Robert Clay to the Jamestowne Society circa 2000: The "Treasurer" arrived in Old Point Comfort, VA in 1612 (9.17.1612). The most intriguing records that have bearing on John's life concern the boat on which he traveled when he came to Virginia and in these records there may well be room for further study. The Treasurer appears to have been owned by Samuel Argall and Sir Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick. Argall was later to become deputy governor of Virginia under Lord De La Ware and still later to have become Sir Samuel. He was from East Sutton, Kent and was brother to Elizabeth Argall Filmer wife of Sir Edward Filmer and mother of Major Henry Filmer immigrant to Virginia. Elizabeth Argall Filmer was the great-great grandmother of William,

Lucy and Martha Green who were later to marry into the Clay family with such astounding genetic results. The Treasurer was not an ordinary immigrant boat. It was an armored man-of-war and sailed from England 23 July 1612 under command of Samuel Argall who held a royal warrant to remove French settlers from those areas claimed by Virginia. It carried sixty or sixty-two soldiers and a few settlers. Likely, with the strong but improvable military tradition attached to John Clay, he was one of those soldiers. After a crossing of about seven weeks fifty leagues north of the Azores, they fell with the Coast of Virginia, in the Latitude of forty degrees on September 12. The City of Philadelphia lies at 40E latitude. Virginia please remember was a bit larger then than now! On the 17th of September the Treasurer arrived at Point Comfort and proceeded to Jamestown Island where it stayed for a short time while the men repaired a damaged boat or boats found there and in pursuing the ftline Indians with Sir Thomas Dale in an attempt to obtain corn.

About the beginning of November, 1612, the Treasurer took Sir Thomas Gates to Smith's Island to investigate the possibility of establishing settlers there. They returned to Point Comfort and on the 1st of December again left in search of corn. They returned after a successful voyage, arriving at Jamestown on the 1st of January and then going to Point Comfort where they arrived the 1st of February, 1613. Please remember that John Clay said he arrived in Virginia in February, 1613.

• Did he actually arrive in September, 1612, and remain

with the ship until February 1613?

• Was that the end of his enlistment and did he provide the 1613 date because he then became a settler? The answer will likely never be known.

Interestingly, it was this same boat, The Treasurer, that in 1613, captured Pocahontas and brought her a prisoner to Jamestown and in the Spring of 1616 took her and several other Indians to London. It was also the ship that escorted the Dutch vessel that was long thought to have brought the first Negroes to Virginia and even later the Treasurer was accused of various acts of piratacy against the Spanish. John Clay may well have been a very dull character but the boat on which he arrived in Virginia had a very colorful career.