22 Facts About Matthew Clay

Matthew Clay was a Virginia lawyer, planter, Continental Army officer and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives and the Virginia House of Delegates representing Pittsylvania County.

One historian believes Matthew Clay was born in the part of then vast Goochland County that became Cumberland County in 1749 and that in 1777 became Powhatan County.

Nothing is known about his schooling, other than that his brothers Rev Charles Matthew Clay and General Green Matthew Clay, who were born in that area were well educated.

Matthew Clay's father had patented much land in what became eastern Pittsylvania County, which Matthew Clay would ultimately inherit from a sibling.

However, Matthew Clay was not with the regiment when it was sent south, then captured when Charlestown surrendered in 1780.

Matthew Clay's daughter Mary was a victim of the Richmond Theatre fire of 1811.

Matthew Clay remarried, to Ann Saunders of Buckingham County, who bore one daughter before dying on July 10,1806.

Immediately after the Revolutionary War, Matthew Clay worked in Richmond, as a clerk for the state solicitor general.

In 1790, in addition to service on the Committee of Propositions and Grievances, Matthew Clay became a member of a commission to improve the upper Roanoke River to permit commercial navigation.

The next year, Matthew Clay headed a commission to determine whether to remove dams on the Bannister River to permit upstream fish migration.

Also as a member of the Committee on Religion in 1791, Matthew Clay voted for a compromise which would have allowed the Episcopal Church to retain glebe lands.

Matthew Clay supported expanding suffrage to all white men who either owned property or could be forced to bear arms for the community, basing his argument on fairness.

Matthew Clay had a combative debating style, and in one legislative argument in the 1791 session, accused Pittsylvania's other delegate of improprieties.

Matthew Clay won the post as a Democratic-Republican and was re-elected to the Fifth and to the seven succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4,1797, to March 3,1813, despite redistricting, and some difficulties in arriving early enough to secure appointment to the most influential committees.

Matthew Clay became known for his devotion to states' rights and strict interpretation of the Constitution, which sometimes allied him with Jefferson's opponents such as John Randolph of Roanoke and John Taylor of Caroline.

Matthew Clay was one of six Democratic-Republican representatives to vote against the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Matthew Clay lost his reelection campaign in a primary in 1813, so Matthew Clay did not attend the Thirteenth Congress.

Matthew Clay won back his seat in the April 1815, but died suddenly at Halifax Court House, while returning home from Richmond.

Matthew Clay was one of the original trustees of the then unincorporated town of Danville.

Matthew Clay died at Halifax Court House on May 27,1815, while returning home from Richmond.

When he died, Matthew Clay owned more than 3,000 acres in Kentucky, more than 1800 acres and at least thirteen slaves in Pittsylvania County.

Matthew Clay's will directed his two sons to give a fourteen-year-old boy named William Penn a horse, bridle, saddle, clothes and $1000 when he reached 21 years old.