Thomas Clayton (July 1777 – August 21, 1854) was an American lawyer and politician from Dover in Kent County, Delaware.

It is said he was born while his mother was fleeing invading British troops on the way from their Elk River landing to the Battle of Brandywine.

While the Clayton's were natives of Kent County, Rachael McCleary was the niece and adopted daughter of Richard Bassett, the aristocratic heir to the expansive Bohemia Manor estates.

The family lived at Bohemia Manor, and through this connection, Joshua Clayton later acquired his homestead from these estates, in Pencader Hundred, New Castle County.

While pursuing his practice of the law, Clayton began his public career as the clerk of the Delaware House of Representatives in 1800.

This was the time when the First Party System of Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans was giving way to the Jacksonian Democrats, and those opposed to Jackson.

Clayton, his family, and much of the old Federalist following in Delaware aligned themselves with John Quincy Adams and the National Republicans who would later become Whigs.

After his term in the U.S. Senate ended, Clayton was appointed Chief Justice of the Delaware Court of Common Pleas in 1828.

Clayton died of pneumonia at his retirement home at New Castle and is buried in the Old Presbyterian Cemetery, which is at Dover, on the grounds of the Delaware State Museum.

He had a marvelous skill in perceiving the vital points of a case, largely due to his almost intuitive grasp of fundamental principles.

In this case, he was initially completing the existing term, the vacancy caused by the resignation of Caesar Augustus Rodney.