John Clayton (botanist)

John Clayton (1694/5–1773) was an Anglican minister in and for decades clerk for Gloucester County in the Colony of Virginia who is today best known as a plant collector and botanist.

John Clayton who served as minister at Jamestown (1682–1684) and conducted various scientific experiments, before returning to England (although his papers and specimens were lost at sea during that voyage).

[1] This man's daughter Mary married Patrick Henry and his son Jasper Clayton (d. 1779) died in the American Revolutionary War.

Clayton bought 450 acres in Ware Parish and built a plantation home which he called "Windsor", about a mile from the Piankatank River and bordered the east side of Wadinger Creek.

[7] Clayton explored the Gloucester County region botanically and in 1734 sent many specimens and manuscript descriptions to the English naturalist Mark Catesby, who then sent them on to the Dutch botanist Jan Frederik Gronovius.

Shortly before his death, the Virginia Gazette published a notice that Clayton was named president of the Society for the Advancement of Useful Knowledge, a considerable honor.

[7] Unfortunately, many of his papers were stored by his son William in a building near the New Kent County Courthouse, and burned during an arson fire in 1787.