John Clay

John Clay (1796–1858) was an English cleric and prison chaplain. His reporting on inmates of the prison at Preston, Lancashire made him a national figure. Early life John Clay was born in Liverpool on 10 May 1796, the fifth son of Thomas Clay, a ship and anchor smith who died in 1821, and his wife Mary, daughter of Ralph Lowe of Williamson Square, Liverpool, tanner. His father was in the electoral list of 1806 as an ironmonger, resident in Moor Street. His sister Mary married Anthony Swainson, brother of Charles Swainson of Preston, in 1811, and her sister Jane then married Charles Inman in 1817. Clay received a commercial education and his son's memoir states that he attended just one school, with Mr Wylie. This was the Roscoe Street "commercial and classical academy" run by the minister David Stewart Wylie on the corner of Leece Street, where his "rudiments of Latin" mentioned in the memoir could have been obtained. He had training on bookkeeping. Clay then entered a merchant's office. The failure of his master left him at the age of 21 without employment. Ordination in the Church of England At age 21 and out of work, Clay came on a visit to Cooper Hill, Charles Swainson's home in Walton-le-Dale near Preston, around 1817. He stayed on as a long-term guest. Swainson persuaded Clay to study for the priesthood, and he was tutored by Robert Harris of Preston Grammar School, in the Greek Testament.