Lt. Col. Courthorpe Clayton ( – 22 March 1762) was an Anglo-Irish soldier, courtier and Member of Parliament for Mallow.

Family

He was the son of Laurence Clayton of Mallow and his second wife Anne, daughter of Sir Peter Courthorpe of Little Island. On 6 August 1745, he married Theodosia, daughter of Edward Buckworth; they had one daughter. Courthorpe lived at Annabella near Mallow in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

and at

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, i ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

Soldier

Commissioned as an Ensign in the

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

in 1725, he transferred to the

Royal Horse Guards The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) (RHG) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. Raised in August 1650 at Newcastle upon Tyne and County Durham by Sir Arthur Haselrigge on the orders of Oliver Cr ...

as a Cornet in 1727 and became a Lieutenant in the 1st Troop of

Horse Grenadier Guards The Horse Grenadier Guards, usually referred to ''Horse Grenadiers'' were a series of cavalry troops in the British Household Cavalry between 1687 and 1788, who used grenades and other explosives in battle. Originally attached to the Horse Guar ...

in 1731. In 1751 he was promoted to Major and in 1756 to Lieutenant-Colonel.

Courtier

In 1726 Courthorpe was appointed an

equerry An equerry (; from French ' stable', and related to 'squire') is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually up ...

to the Prince of Wales, and served in the same capacity through the whole of the Prince's reign as King

George II George II or 2 may refer to: People * George II of Antioch (seventh century AD) * George II of Armenia (late ninth century) * George II of Abkhazia (916–960) * Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051) * George II of Georgia (1072–1089) * ...

from 1727 to 1760. He was

avener A stable master or head groom is the manager in charge of a stable. At large horse establishments there may be several grooms under the management of the stable master. In a professional establishment the head groom usually has complete responsibil ...

and

clerk marshal The Clerk Marshal (also spelled Clerk Martial) was an official of the British Royal Household in the department of the Master of the Horse. From the Restoration the office was held with that of Avenor until the latter post was abolished in 1793. Th ...

from 1732 to 1734 and 1757 to 1760. In January 1761 he was granted a pension of £500 a year.

Member of Parliament

He was elected to the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fra ...

for Mallow in 1727 and (through the influence of

Lord Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

) to the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

for

Eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...

on 5 May 1749, sitting until the dissolution of both Parliaments on the King's death in 1760. He was described by Lord Dupplin as a supporter of

the Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

in 1754 but is not known to have ever spoken or voted.

References

* The ''

History of Parliament The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in w ...

,'' ''The House of Commons, 1754-1790: Members A-J'', p. 218
online version
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Courthorpe 1700s births Date of birth unknown 1762 deaths Royal Horse Guards officers 18th-century British Army personnel Grenadier Guards officers Irish MPs 1727–1760 British MPs 1747–1754 British MPs 1754–1761 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Cork constituencies