Sir Robert Clayton (1629–1707) was a British merchant banker, politician and

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

Life

Robert Clayton was born in

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, England. He became an apprentice to his uncle, a London

scrivener A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and admini ...

, where he met a fellow apprentice,

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

John Morris. They became successful businessmen and established the bank, Clayton & Morris Co. Clayton entered politics, representing

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and Bletchingley alternately as a Whig between 1679 and his death in 1707. He was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed in 1671. Clayton made a considerable fortune. In 1697 he lent the king £30,000 to pay for the army. In the mid-1650s Clayton purchased Brownsea Island and its castle. He was president of the

St Thomas' Hospital St Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS teaching hospital in Central London, England. It is one of the institutions that compose the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. Administratively part of the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foun ...

in London which was then located in the Borough. He employed Thomas Cartwright to rebuild the hospital and St Thomas Church nearby. Robert Clayton was a member of the

Scriveners A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and admini ...

and

Drapers Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period, ...

Company, an

of Cheap Ward in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

(1670–1683), a

Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

in 1671, Lord Mayor of London (1679–1680), a member of parliament for the

or Bletchingley for most of the years 1679 to 1707,

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

of the

Orange Regiment, London Trained Bands Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower * Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum ...

(various times, 1680–1702), President of the

Honourable Artillery Company The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the w ...

(1690–1703),

Commissioner of the Customs HM Customs and Excise (properly known as Her Majesty's Customs and Excise at the time of its dissolution) was a department of the British Government formed in 1909 by the merger of HM Customs and HM Excise; its primary responsibility was th ...

(1689–1697), an Assistant to the

Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trade, trading) company set up in 1660 by the royal House of Stuart, Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the West Africa, west coast of Africa. It was led by the J ...

(1672–1681) and a director of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

(1702–1707). In the 1690s, Clayton was the head of the earliest known

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

lodge entirely made-up of non-working masons in London.

Links to slavery

As a member of the Court of Assistants to the

, Clayton was essentially on the board of directors. The Royal African Company shipped more African slaves to the Americas than any other institution in the history of the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

. Clayton married Martha Trott, who was the daughter of a Bermuda merchant, and also acted as Factor in Bermuda.

Legacy

The tomb of Sir Robert and Lady Clayton is in St Mary's church, Bletchingley. A statue of Clayton stood at the North Entrance to Ward Block of North Wing at St Thomas' Hospital and is Grade I listed. On 11 June 2020, a joint statement from the Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust announced that Clayton's statue, together with that of

Thomas Guy Thomas Guy (1644 – 27 December 1724) was a British bookseller, investor in the South Sea Company, member of Parliament, and the founder of Guy's Hospital, London. Early life Thomas Guy was born in Horselydown in Southwark, in south London, th ...

, would be removed from public view.

References

Sources

*
Robert Clayton
information fro
AIM25

Catalogue record for the papers of Clayton and Morris Co.
at th

of the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

. * Melton, F. C., ''Sir Robert Clayton and the Origins of English Deposit Banking, 1658–1685'', Cambridge, 1986. Dr. J.P. Dickson. MA.,MB.,BChir.(Cantab). St. Thomas's staff 1955. Personal reminiscence. *

External links

* * Clayton Papers. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Robert 1629 births 1707 deaths People from Northamptonshire Bankers from London Knights Bachelor Members of the Parliament of England for the City of London Merchants from London Sheriffs of the City of London 17th-century lord mayors of London London Trained Bands officers Date of death unknown Place of death unknown 17th-century English merchants Date of birth unknown English MPs 1679 English MPs 1680–1681 English slave traders