Thomas Clay

notes

Genealogy of VA Families VII 1981 Some Notes on the Clay Family p 77-80 Contributed by the late Reverend Stephen O. Southall

In her excellent book entitled The Clay Family (Filson Club. Publications No. 14. Louisville, Kentucky, 1899) Mrs. Mary Rogers Clay states (pages 65-66) that JOHN CLAY, the emigrant, had four (4) sons, naming as two (2) of them Francis Clay of Northumberland county and Thomas Clay, one of the fourteen persons "who did unlawfully assemble at ye p’ish church of Lawnes Creek [Surry County] with intent to declare they would not pay their publiq taxes…"

This is certainly an error and as I was partly the cause of the error, I wish to correct it, and give as far as I can, the true history, though the facts are meagre. When Mr. Clay asked me for the names of the Clays in Virginia, I gave her these names of Francis Clay and Thomas Clay; but failed to tell her that they were not descended from John Clay, the emigrant.