William Clayton (Mormon)

William H. Clayton (July 17, 1814 – December 4, 1879) was an early leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and acted as a clerk and scribe to the Mormon religious leader Joseph Smith. Clayton, born in England, is recognized as an American pioneer journalist, scribe, inventor, lyricist and musician.

Clayton was born in Penwortham, Lancashire, England, the son of Thomas Clayton and Ann Critchley. He was the eldest of fourteen children. He married Ruth Moon on October 9, 1836.

Early church service

In 1836, Clayton investigated the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Taught by church apostles Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, Clayton was baptized October 21, 1837; ordained a priest in December; and a high priest on April 1, 1838. Clayton's parents and siblings also joined the church. Clayton put aside his employment as a factory clerk to devote his time to missionary service in England, and was successful in founding a branch of the church in Manchester. In 1838, he served as second counselor to the British mission president Joseph Fielding, with Willard Richards as first counselor.

William Clayton

William Clayton may refer to:

Sir William Clayton, 1st Baronet

Sir William Clayton, 1st Baronet (died 1744) was an English politician.

Clayton was the oldest surviving son of William Clayton of Hambledon, in Buckinghamshire. He married Martha Kenrick, the daughter of John Kenrick, a London merchant. They had five sons and five daughters.

He was the nephew and heir of Sir Robert Clayton, a wealthy banker and former Lord Mayor of London who had bought the manor of Bletchingley in 1677, and with it control of both seats in the parliamentary borough of Bletchingley. William returned himself as a Member of Parliament (MP) for this rotten borough from 1715 until his death.

In 1735 he also bought the manor of Harleyford, near Great Marlow, which gave him control of one of the two parliamentary seats of the borough of Great Marlow.

He was made a baronet in 1732, of Marden Park in Surrey. On his death in 1744 he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Kenrick, who was in turn succeeded by his son Robert. Robert died childless, and the baronetcy passed to the 1st baronet's grandson William, who was the son of the first baronet's younger son William.

William Clayton (architect)

William Henry Clayton (17 November 1823 – 23 August 1877) was a New Zealand colonial architect.

Early life

Born in Norfolk Plains, Australia, Clayton trained as an architect in England, and designed more than three hundred buildings in Tasmania, most notably Launceston's St Andrew's Kirk in 1849 before emigrating to New Zealand in 1863.

New Zealand career

He established the practice of Mason and Clayton with William Mason (later first mayor of Dunedin), and over six years designed many prominent buildings in the area, such as Dunedin's All Saints' Church and Edinburgh House.

In 1869 Clayton moved to Wellington to take up a post as the first (and only) Colonial Architect, in which position he became central to the public works projects of prime minister Julius Vogel (Clayton's daughter Mary had married Vogel in 1867). He designed many public buildings in Wellington, including the old Government House and Parliament buildings, but he is best known for designing the Old Government Buildings in Wellington, then part of the New Zealand Parliament Buildings and the second-largest wooden building in the world (behind Tōdai-ji in Nara, Japan). He also designed All Saints Church, Dunedin. An important design in Christchurch is the Chief Post Office in Cathedral Square, a Category I heritage building.