John Clayton

Another member of the Holy Club was John Clayton (1709–1773) who became a Church of England clergyman. Born Manchester 9 October 1709, eldest of four, his father William Clayton (1679-1725) was a bookseller–stationer, whose wife was Martha Mosson (1678/9–1730). He was educated at Manchester grammar school and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he matriculated with a school exhibition 17 July 1725, proceeding BA 16 April 1729, MA 8 June 1732. In 1732 he became associated with Wesley's Holy Club. He had a significant influence on the Oxford Methodists, extending their social work and deepening their devotional life under the influence of primitive Christian beliefs and practices. He had a taste for mystical writings, acquired under the guidance of non jurors in Manchester and elsewhere (Thomas Deacon, John Byrom, William Law).

He was ordained 29 December 1732 and made perpetual curate of Sacred Trinity, Salford, 1733. Wesley continued to seek advice from him and his circle and preached for him in Manchester and Salford, as did Whitefield. Wesley, however, became less strict in his devotion to ‘primitive’ precedents, and his increasing irregularities after his evangelical conversion made Clayton alarmed and critical. A letter from Wesley, probably to Clayton (28 March 1739) rejected Anglican restraints famously proclaiming ‘I look upon all the world as my parish’. This probably marked the end of their friendship and in later years Clayton cold-shouldered the Wesleys on their Manchester visits.

In 1736 he acted as chaplain to Darcy Lever, high sheriff of Lancashire, and published an assize sermon preached at Lancaster entitled The necessity of duly exercising the laws against immorality and profaneness. He was elected chaplain, 6 March 1740, and fellow, 28 June 1760, of Manchester collegiate church. His high-church Tory sympathies were shown in his support for the agitation to stop the erection of a poorhouse in Manchester, dominated by whigs and dissenters, 1729–31. During the Jacobite invasion 1745 he said grace for Bonny Prince Charlie and allegedly knelt and prayed for him in the street. This is said to have led to his ecclesiastical suspension, though he was later reinstated. He did not, as was once thought, go into hiding only to be reinstated at the general amnesty for rebels; rather he was indicted for treason at Lancaster, though not convicted. For a time after 1745 he was subjected to attacks for his Jacobitism by Thomas Percival of Royton, Presbyterian Josiah Owen of Rochdale and ‘Tim Bobbin’ (John Collier). In later years he modulated his loyalties towards the Hanoverian dynasty, for which he was denounced as two-faced.

From at least 1738 he conducted an academy in Salford which was naturally patronised by local Tory and Jacobite families and produced a number of university entrants. For their use he published Anacreontis et Sapphonis carmina (1754) and created a 6000 volume library. He was elected a feoffee of Chetham's Hospital and Library 1764. His Friendly Advice to the Poor (1755) reacted to economic changes in Manchester by blaming the poor for idleness, extravagance and bad management, though he left money 1772 to aid poor tradesmen and farmers. (This was reported lost by 1826). ‘Joseph Stot’ (Robert Whitworth) replied satirically in his A Sequel to the Friendly Advice to the Poor (1756). Apart from his early influence on Wesley's religious development Clayton is perhaps chiefly significant as an example of the overlapping religious and political culture of high-churchmen, Tories and Jacobites in Manchester and elsewhere.

Clayton was described as standing about 5' 8", somewhat portly, dignified in gait, with an enormous wig: he was a disciplinarian to his pupils and a meticulous observer of clerical duty. It has been claimed that he was married, but evidence is indecisive. His sister Jennet kept house for him.

He died (probably of the stone) 25 September 1773 at Back Salford and was buried 28 September in the Derby chapel of the collegiate church, Manchester. After his death his former pupils founded a society of Cyprianites and erected a monument in his memory. His library was also dispersed in this year.