CLAYTON, Kenrick (c.1713-69), of Marden Park, Surr.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1734 - 10 Mar. 1769

Family and Education

b. c.1713, 1st surv. s. of Sir William Clayton, 1st Bt., and bro. of William Clayton of Harleyford. educ. Corpus Christi, Camb. 1732. m. 13 Feb. 1736, Henrietta Maria, da. of Henry Herring, director of Bank of England, 1s. 2da. suc. fa. as 2nd Bt. 28 Dec. 1744.

Offices Held

Biography

Clayton was returned with his father in 1734, voting consistently with the Administration. The 2nd Lord Egmont wrote of him and his brother, William, in his electoral survey, c.1749-50:

They are strange people and not to be depended upon - but they have not application to attend much, nor resolution to be steady in an opposition, so that if against us they would do no great harm,

with which the Prince of Wales agreed, observing that they ‘must be kept by flattery, and by little places for their least constituents’. On 5 May 1753 Pelham reported to Newcastle that Clayton had applied strongly for one of the present church vacancies for his brother-in-law, Dr. Thomas, later bishop of Rochester.

He has a borough absolutely of his own, and is of great use in choosing two Members at Marlow, besides his interest in other places ... The man is exceedingly well disposed at present and has ever been so. How far a disappointment may carry him I will not say.1

Next year Thomas was made a prebendary of Westminster.

Clayton died 10 Mar. 1769.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. Add. 32731, f. 422.