Butts county Georgia
Butts County, Georgia was established in 1826 and James, Rev. James as he will be called, was soon there. According to Lois McMichael, writer of the History of Butts County, he was one of four ministers in Butts County in 1827. He was also on the grand jury there in 1827. He purchased 100a of land in the county and served as a founding trustee for the Methodist Episcopal Church in the acquisition of a plot of land.
Churchill Delamar is associated with James Clayton in Butts County--and in the Methodist church there. Churchill Delamar of Craven County, N.C. had married Polly Clayton in 1811. Polly was the daughter of Rev. James. She and Churchill Delamar are both buried in Richmond Co. GA according to cousin Bill Sparrow.
Butts County deed book B on pp 100-103 in 1828 describes a deed of a portion of Lot 256 in the first district of Henry Co., now Butts Co. from Thomas Key and Sarah Key his wife to James Clayton, together with Thomas Cook, Henry Vanvibber, Joseph C. Adkins, and Richard Shepperd, who were trustees for the acquisition of property for a building for a place of worship for the Methodist Episcopal Church. (12 years before James Clayton had served in the same capacity for the acquisition of a Methodist church in Person Co. NC.)
This Thomas and Sarah Key are perhaps the parents of the Joseph Lawrence Key who in 1831 was to marry James Clayton's granddaughter, Elizabeth Delamar.
In 1830 Rev James went to the courthouse and settled upon his ward, James Clayton, Jr. $216 on Jr's 21st birthday. He is referred to in court records as Jr's guardian. (This led to some uncertainty as Jr's relationship with Rev. James for a number of years, until the family of Rev. James Clayton was found listed in a document in an old trunk. I later ran across a letter from Craven Co. written in 1823 in which Elizabeth Delamar mentions just being appointed guardian of her two sons. Apparently it was customary to appoint a parent as guardian when property was inherited by minor children.)
On Jan 13, 1828, at the age of 18 or 19, James, Jr. married Mary McBride, the daughter of John McBride, a member of the Butts County court. Their oldest son, John McBride Clayton, was to marry Lucinda Gahagan. In 1829 Lawrence Gahagan married Elcy Mobley, the daughter of Jethro and Esther Lovejoy Mobley: they became the parents of John M. Clayton's wife.
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| John McBride Clayton |
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| Lucinda Gehagan Clayton |
The 1830 Butts Co. census (presented alphabetically) included males, females and slaves
James Clayton 4 4 1
James Clayton 1 2 1
Churchill Delamar 2 8 2
Larence Gahagan 1 2 3
John McBride 7 6 6
Jethro Mobley 5 1 12
In 1830 Rev James went to the courthouse and settled upon his ward, James Clayton, Jr. $216 on Jr's 21st birthday. He is referred to in court records as Jr's guardian. (This led to some uncertainty as Jr's relationship with Rev. James for a number of years, until the family of Rev. James Clayton was found listed in a document in an old trunk. I later ran across a letter from Craven Co. written in 1823 in which Elizabeth Delamar mentions just being appointed guardian of her two sons. Apparently it was customary to appoint a parent as guardian when property was inherited by minor children.)
In 1831 Rev. J.W(arren?) Clayton officated at the marriage of his granddaughter, Elizabeth Dawson "Betsey" DELAMAR, born 8 March, 1812 in Craven County, North Carolina; she married Joseph Lawrence "Joe" KEY on 1 December, 1831 in Butts County, Georgia; she died 22 March, 1903 in Holly Springs,
Rev. James' brother, Dempsey, settled in Newton County, just across the river from Butts in the 1820's. Later Rev. Dempsey and Rev. James both moved to Carroll Co, a bit further west.
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Later Years of Rev. James Clayton (of N.C., Ga, and Ala.)
The 1840 census finds James Clayton (as well as Dempsey W. Clayton) in Carroll County Ga. In 1830 Dempsey W Clayton had been in Newton County (across the river from James), but in the 1827 Georgia Land Lottery he had drawn lot no. 102 9 in Carroll County. Apparently between 1830 and 1840 James and Dempsey both moved to Carroll County.
The census for James Clayton listed 2 males aged (15-20), who Margaret supposed to be John Elliott Clayton (who was later found to be not John, but Joshua) and William (who died soon after 1840).
In 1792 James Clayton married Sarah Carraway , daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Whitehurst Carraway. The issue of this union was:
1. Mary (Polly) Clayton (b. 1793) married Churchwell Delamar in 1810.
2. Betsey Clayton (b. 1797 - d. 1831)
3. Fanny Clayton (b. 1800 - d. 1801)
4. Rhoda Ann Clayton (b. 1803 - d. 1803)
5. Dempsey Clayton (b. 1806 - d. 1807)
6. James Clayton (b. 1809) married Mary McBride in 1827.
7. Rhoda Ann (II) Clayton (b. 1812 - d. 1813)
Sarah died in 1816, and the same year James Clayton married Sarah Mixon and had a second family:
8.Harriet Asbury Clayton (1818-1900); buried in Duck River Cemetery, Cullman Co. AL); married William M.Harper (1803- 1865 in Civil War) in 1835 in Butts Co, AL
9. Joshua Elliott CLAYTON (b. 12 February 1820, North Carolina - d. 2 July 1889, Helena, MT) married Naomi B. (b. circa 1830 in Georgia). Sometime in the 1870s or 1880s Joshua Elliott CLAYTON married a Mrs. HAMPTON of Portland, Oregon. His stepson's name was William Huntley HAMPTON.
10. Elijah Mixon Clayton (b. 1822); Methodist minister. JP in Coosa County AL in 1855.
11. William McKendree Clayton (b. 1824 - d. 1841, Carroll Co., GA) (The 1841 Southern Christian Advocate Issue of April 30 announced the death of William Clayton (aged 16), youngest son of Rev. James and Sarah Clayton, a member of the M.E.Church. This was in Carrol Co.)
12. Johanna Bruce "Jo" CLAYTON (b. 1826 - d. 1905, Oakland, California) married William Cogan
Buckelew 20 Dec 1820 - d. 12 Aug 1869, Clayton Ranch [near Brownsville], Yuba Co., California)
The Clayton extended family was in Carroll Co. GA as late as 1842 when they appeared on the tax list:
Carroll County Georgia Tax Digest 1842
James Clayton 714 10
J. E. Clayton 714 10 (James' son)
Dempsey W.Clayton 713 11 (James' brother)
William M. Harper 714 10 (James' son-in-law)
The Tallapoosa County Ala marriage book shows James Clayton, M.G. solemnizing two weddings in 1844. The same year two Clayton girls were married: Johanna Clayton married William C. Buckelew and Milly A Clayton married Samuel Eley. (Note that
Lawrence Gahagan was in this county for the 1840 census.) (The identity of Milly Clayton is presently undetermined.)
Margaret Clayton Russell stated that "Old Cousin James" and his wife Sarah came from Coosa County Ala and spent their last years (beginning in 1855) under the wing of her great great grandfather, Nelson Clayton in Chambers County Ala. "Old Cousin James was a Methodist minister." Two of Rev. James' children, Joshua Elliott Clayton and Johanna Bruce Clayton Buckalew went to California. Rev. Elijah M Clayton (b 1823) was a J.P. in Coosa County in 1855 and Minister of the Methodist Church South in 1864. (This researcher has found no appearance of Rev. James and Sally Clayton in the 1850 census, and it seems possible they may have been in the home of their son Rev. Elijah M Clayton.)
The 1860 census shows Rev. James, aged 84 and wife, Sallie, aged 65, living in Chambers Co. Margaret Clayton Russell does not know the date of "Old Cousin James Clayton's" death. Sally Clayton, wife of "Old Cousin James" ("Rev James), died Feb 20, 1866, aged 81 years, 5 months and 20 days.
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