The Clays were very early Virginia settlers, and much research has been done on them. I have done NO original research - why reinvent the wheel? - but this means that I can't personally vouch for the accuracy of anything here.
Although the Clay family had many distinguished members - congressmen, state legislators,
even a governor - they also included slave owners. As John McPhee says: One associates
with one's ancestors at one's risk.(1)
They, of course, might feel the same way about me.
The way we connect with the Clays is through Richard Belcher, who married Mary
Obedience Clay.
Their daughter Elizabeth Ann married Richard Bailey.
Their daughter Sarah married Samuel Lusk.
Their son Andrew married Charlotte Hull.
Their son Jonathan married Nancy Conner.
Their daughter Emily Rebecca was GreatGreatGrandma Becky.
Phew.
There are a couple of sticky spots in this line-up.
1. The connection between Andrew and Samuel Lusk is pretty good, but totally
circumstantial.
2. Richard Bailey's wife is called Elizabeth on legal documents, but Annie by David
Johnston. (A History of the Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory).
Richard Belcher and wife already had a daughter named Ann, who married someone else
entirely. It is possible that Elizabeth was the daughter of a different Belcher.
3. No one is entirely sure who Mary Obedience Clay's parents were. (But the two possible
fathers were brothers, so her Clay grandfather would be the same in any case.)
Ain't genealogy grand.
Some good sites:
The Virginians - The Family History of John W Pritchett
I can't tell who did this page, sorry
http://www.angelfire.com/la2/gen/clayfamily.html
This is the Blankenstein Family - Henry and Dianne
http://pages.prodigy.net/blankenstein/index.htm
And, of course, the Bailey-Coulter Archives by Walter Bailey
Early Clays - John Thomas (1587) and Charles (1635/8)
Henry Clay
his children
Mary Obedience Clay
Richard Belcher
Back to Lee's Genes Home Page
contact me at: lee@leesgenes.com
page last updated 19 Aug 2004
1. John McPhee, The Crofter and the Laird, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969), p.159.
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