I53304: Daniel BIESECKER (ABT 1850

Notes

also, married John Turville Bef Jun 1271.

Notes

John Clayton is known as the "great botanist of America." For 53 years, he served as clerk of Gloucester County, and he was also an author ...

"(son of Judge John Clayton and Ann Page ) occupation Botanist, County clerk, died 15 Dec 1773, "Windsor", Gloucester, VA,(2) came to VA 1705. Elizabeth of Gloucester co., VA, Md. 2 Jan 1723/4, Md. John Clayton.
Wurts Magna Charta chapter 245 "Boyle/Barrow" p. 2095 Dr.: resided in "Windsor", Ware parish, on the Piankatank River, Gloucester, VA; he was clerk of Gloucester county, VA for 50 years; Our Kin by Ackerly; Cyclopedia of VA Biography Vol. I p 212-213."

"John Clayton

CLAYTON, John, botanist, born in Fulham, England, in 1686; died in Virginia, 15 December, 1773. In 1705 he immigrated to Virginia with his father, who was afterward attorney general of Virginia, and resided twenty miles from the City of Williamsburg. When quite young he entered the office of Peter Beverly, who was clerk for Gloucester County, and, succeeding him in office, filled it for fifty-one years. He was educated as a physician, but became an enthusiastic botanist, and passed a long life in exploring and describing the plants of the country. His letters to the Royal society, giving an account of several new species of plants observed in Virginia, was embodied in Force's "Tracts" (vol. iii.). His essays on the natural history of Virginia were published in the " Philosophical Transactions" of the Royal society of London.

He also sent dried specimens of the flora of Virginia to Gronovius, who with Linnaeus published an account of a portion of them (2 parts, Leyden, 1739-'43). After the death of Gronovius the remainder were described in a third part by his son (1762), who named a genus of herbaceous plant-Claytonia in his honor. He was a member of several learned societies in Europe. He left two volumes of manuscript almost ready for the press and a hortus siccus of folio size, with marginal notes and directions for the engraver in preparing the plates for the proposed work.

At the beginning of the revolutionary war this work, which had been placed in the hands of William Clayton, clerk of New Kent, was burned along with the records of 646 CLAYTON CLEAVELAND the county. Several of his communications, treating of the culture and different species of tobacco, and also one containing an account of medicinal plants which he had discovered in Virginia, were published in the "Philosophical Transactions."
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM

"About John Clayton (1694-1773)

Unfortunately, comparatively little documentary evidence about John Clayton survives largely because those personal effects that might have provided such information were lost when the British burnt down the Gloucester County Court House in Virginia where he had worked for so many years. The contents of his house were also lost to fire, so that only the specimens that he sent abroad remain. There is also no known picture of Clayton to date. The threads of his life have therefore been pieced together from fragments of knowledge based on his will, letters and only a few other documents. This brief account is drawn from published sources and further information can be found in the works listed in the accompanying Bibliography.

John Clayton was born in 1694 in Fulham, Middlesex, and brought up in comparative wealth until 1715 when he emigrated to Virginia joining his father, John Clayton senior, who became Attorney General for the colony between 1713 and 1737. Disputes over the Clayton estate in England had apparently led John Clayton senior to take a post overseas, initially as secretary to Lieutenant-Governor Edward Nott of Virginia. John Clayton junior was educated in law and, in 1720, took up a post as Clerk to the County Court of Gloucester County that he was to hold until he was seventy-nine. Soon after taking up the post he married Elizabeth Whiting and they moved into their new residence, believed to have been called Windsor, close to the Pianketank River. Records show they also owned a sizeable garden and plantation, though the precise whereabouts of these and the Clayton home remain uncertain. John and Elizabeth had eight children: five boys, the eldest called John, and three girls.

Clayton's interest in natural history probably stemmed from his friendship with Mark Catesby (1682-1749), the artist and naturalist, who first arrived in Virginia in 1712. Clayton probably joined Catesby on the Spotswood expedition to the Blue Ridge Mountains and later, in about 1734, started collecting material to send to Catesby who by this time was back in England. Catesby in turn passed these specimens on to J.F. Gronovius (1690-1762), and encouraged Clayton to continue sending specimens to Europe. These eventually formed the basis for Gronovius's Flora Virginica (published 1739-1743).

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), one of the most revered names in biology, also studied many of Clayton's specimens, and was in close contact with Gronovius.

Clayton was also sending seeds as well as dried specimens and some of these found their way to George Clifford's estate, Hartekamp (near Haarlem, Holland), where Linnaeus was working between 1735 and 1737, classifying and describing Clifford's plants.

These did not go unacknowledged as Clifford gave a copy of Hortus Cliffortianus to Gronovius with instructions that it should be sent to Clayton. When he received it in 1739, Clayton found that many of his plants had been named and described in it.

Two other notable botanists of the time, and long-distance friends of Clayton, were Peter Collinson (1694-1768), a London mercer with business interests in North America, and his protégé in Philadelphia, John Bartram (1699-1777). Collinson encouraged Clayton to collect mosses and other non-flowering plants, and also introduced him to Bartram who was later (in 1765) to be appointed the King's botanist.

Clayton, disappointed at the lack of recognition that his collecting efforts should have justified, had determined, around 1760, to prepare a new Flora of Virginia. However, the publication of a second edition of Gronovius's flora in 1762 led Collinson to advise Clayton to search for a publisher in America, but none was found and any hope of its publication died with Clayton in 1773."
S. [email protected]
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/botany/clayton/aboutclayton.html.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/botany/projects_research/project4/.

1739 John Clayton, who had accompanied Mark Catesby on his journeys, sent his collection of plants to J. F. Gronovius who published Flora Virginica, the first systematic compendium of American botany
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/nature/environ1.html

^[S3129]

Notes

Children:
Ezekiel HAM b: Bef 1 JUL 1807
Nancy HAM b: Bef 1 JUL 1807 ^[S828]

Notes

4. Claiborne - d. probably before April 1785. Not named in father's will. Appearing on the Granville County Tax List of 1755 as "Richard Harris & Son Claiborne & Negroe Bob 2-1-3," and on the 1767 Tax List as "Claborn."

Notes

2 John MERIWETHER b: 1750 d: 1820 + Esther MCGEHEE b: Abt. 1750 d: Bef. 1809 + Ann TINSLEY d: Jun 1831
Children:
2 Doritha MERIWETHER
2 Esther MERIWETHER
2 John Herndon MERIWETHER b: 4 Nov 1772 d: 26 Feb 1847 + Mary Lewis MERIWETHER b: 19 Oct 1781 d: 13 Mar 1844
2 Zachary MERIWETHER b: 6 Nov 1775 d: 5 Nov 1860 + Elizabeth "Betsy" HEARD b: 1787
2 Joseph MERIWETHER b: 17 May 1777 d: 17 Aug 1836 + Martha MITCHIE b: 17 Sep 1781 d: 11 Dec 1822
2 Francis MERIWETHER b: 1779 d: 1819
2 Elizabeth MERIWETHER b: 27 Nov 1788 d: 2 Jun 1853
2 Robert MERIWETHER b: Bef. 1790 d: Abt. 1809 + Barbara DOUGLASS d: Abt. 1810

Children by Ann Tinsley:
2 Mary MERIWETHER b: Abt. 1809
2 William T. MERIWETHER b: 1813
2 Frances MERIWETHER b: 1815
2 Virginia MERIWETHER b: 1817

Notes

He inherited the Buckingham Road Property (Trabue Tavern) from his cousin, Thomas Macon Trabue in 1863. He was prob. unmarried as no wife or children are listed in his will, dated 6 Jul 1886, prv 10 Feb 1890 Chesterfield Co. VA Will Bk 28, p. 228. He left his entire estate to his nephew, Stafford Phillips.

Notes

Madison Co. Va. Will Bk 3 p 212 dated 28 Mar 1816. Inv of Edward Gaines estates decd Mrs Nancy Gaines. Marriage recorded.

Will F.D. Yowell, Sr. "also to my daughter ANN YOWELL one Cow and Calf or Cow with Calf & one Bed & Furniture which she now uses the said Cow & furniture it being the same he now uses & one cow with calf at the time of his Marriage."

^[S2550]

My Southern Family

Daniel BIESECKER

ABT 1850 - ____

ID Number: I53304

Sources

Ann CALVERT

2 Nov 1650 - 17 Aug 1697

ID Number: I68278

Sources

AGNES CANTILUPE (CAUNTELO)

ABT 1200 - ____

ID Number: I55674

Notes

Sources

Dr. John CLAYTON "the Immigrant"

1686 or 1694 - 15 Sep 1773

ID Number: I84199

Notes

Sources

Ambrose HAM

ABT 1766 - ____

ID Number: I32899

Notes

Sources

Claiborne HARRIS

____ - BEF Apr 1785

ID Number: I103469

Notes

Sources

Sir WILLIAM de HELSBY

ABT 1268 - ____

ID Number: I80878

Sources

Bradley Mark HENDRIX

Capt. John MERIWETHER

ABT 1750 - ABT 1820

ID Number: I40700

Notes

Sources

George Augustus MILLER

ABT 1890 - ____

ID Number: I9684

Sources

Emily McFarland MORRISON

2 Feb 1837 - 12 Feb 1926

ID Number: I94370

Sources

Sarah "Sallie" NEWNAM

1816 - BEF 3 Feb 1870

ID Number: I16978

Sources

Elizabeth PACE

7 Nov 1761 - BEF 1840

ID Number: I99737

Sources

CONSTANCE PLANTAGENET of York

ABT 1374 - 28 Nov 1416

ID Number: I28100

Sources

Alexander Macon TRABUE

BET 1830 AND 0000 - BET 1886 AND 0000

ID Number: I30529

Notes

Sources

Ann Nancy YOWELL

1768 - AFT 1816

ID Number: I14608

Notes

Sources