Foreword          by David Clay

After many, many decades of researching the Clay surname history, I am delighted that we can now launch the monthly, Clay of England Society,  newsletter. The aim of this newsletter is to back up the work that goes into and onto, the Clay of England Society website. The web site grows and grows and every month we put more information put on, I would urge you to keep looking at the website for new information.

My very best wishes

David Clay

Welcome to the first edition of the Clay of England Society Newsletter. It is our aim to produce a monthly newsletter for all the members of the society, we want to inform and share our histories, our new findings and generally spread the information we find about the Clays of England.

We hope that you enjoy the content and that you  will help us spread the content across the internet. We would love to have your ideas and contributions, so contact us on

clayofenglandsocietynewsletter@outlook.com 

New additions

New additions are Clay references, members have collected to add to the website. 

New additions for January 2025

Jan. 26th. Warwickshire. 1801. Married. 1821. Sale.

Jan. 26th. Sussex. 1618. Surveyor.

Jan. 26th. Wales. 1810. Absconded.

Jan. 26th. Suffolk. Assizes.

Jan. 26th. Shropshire. 1924. Obituary.

Jan. 26th. Derbyshire. 1578. Prior.

Jan. 26th. Nottinghamshire.  1642. King. 1720. Book. 1741. Accounts. 1745. Keeper. 1802. Captain. 1860. Patent.

Jan. 26th. Lincolnshire.  1802. Auction. 1842. Sergeant.

Jan. 26th. London. 1682. Lost. 1746. Transportation. 1779. Aldermen.

Jan. 26th. Essex.  1779. Aldermen.

Jan. 26th. Norfolk. 1528. Clerk.

Jan. 26th. Yorkshire. 1599. Charter. 1748. Inscription. 1854. Marriage. 1897. Mill.

Jan. 15th. Essex.  1627. Warning. 1632. Church. 1641. Overseers. 1642. Witness. 1671. Burial. 1678. Estate.

Jan.15th. Yorkshire. 1720. Probate. 1726. Probate.  1726. Burial. 1743. Court Case. 1743. Blacksmith. 1744. Gaol Delivery. 1805 Baptism. 1861. Census Warley.  1881. Census Warley.

Jan. 12th. Yorkshire. 1550. Marriage Halifax. 1573. Marriage Halifax. 1578. Burial Halifax. 1583. Marriage Halifax. 1586. Burial Halifax. 1587. Burial Halifax.

Jan. 11th. Lincolnshire. 1742. Will.

Jan. 7th. Clay Miscellaneous. Cumberland. 1759. Inquest. 1769. Sessions.  1777. Sessions. 1865. Photo. 1873. Photo.  1874. Inquest. 1908. Sermon. 

Jan. 6th. Derbyshire. 1683. Inhabitants. 1689. Testator. 1803. Militia. 1846. JP.  1863. JP.  1864. JP.  1887. JP. 

Jan. 6th. Lancashire. 1802. Insurance. 1805. Mayor. 1806. Election. 1854. Marriage. 1863. Ball. 1876. Funeral. 

Jan. 6th. Yorkshire.  1343. Grant. 1421. Grant. 1524. Tax. 1587 - 1592. Burials. 1614. Marriage. 1638. Oath. 1642. Sessions. 1776. Auction. 1794. Meeting. 1864. Summons. 1870. Inquest. 1941.Licence.

Jan. 5th. Wiltshire. 1457. Feet of Fines. 1516. Lease. 

Jan. 5th. Clay of Wales. 1776. Will. 1817. Marriage.1875. Court. 1878. Conviction. 1904. Letter. 

Jan. 5th. Nottinghamshire. 1722. To be Let. 1725. Accounts. 1757. Deed. 1650. Judgement.

Jan. 5th. London. 1848. Farm.

Jan. 5th. Devon. 1814. Act. 1880. Claims.

Jan. 5th. Essex. 1528. Lands. 1593. Bequest. 1618. Marriage. 1720. List. 1752. Messuage. 1777. House. 1790. Memorials. 1800s. New Church. 

Jan. 1st. Yorkshire. 1855. Estate. 1887. Notice.

Jan. 1st. Durham. 1582. Inventory.

Jan. 1st. Cambridgeshire.  1642. Horse Tax.

Jan. 1st. Surrey.  1669. Hearth Tax.

Jan. 1st. Middlesex. 1668. Will.

Jan. 1st. London. 1635. Baptism. 1637 Baptism. 1641. Baptism. 1648. Will. 1674. Will. 1690. Will. 

As you can see we had a busy start to the new year with many new additions to the site, if you have any information which you feel should be on the site, then email    dmclay@btinternet.com

Take a look at the home page of the the Clay of England Society and scroll down the menu to see your county. Your family may well be there!

Click the link below

Membership

Membership to join the Clay of England Society is free and it is easy to join.

There are no forms to fill in, no questionnaires,  all we need is your email address. Thereafter you will receive the monthly newsletter.

Email us at clayofenglandsocietynewsletter@outlook.com  

Are you on facebook? Are you in the research group? If not join up today, it's a members only group. Lots of interesting  posts on Clay history, photographs, artefacts, etc.

Walterus de Clais

The first Clay we have recorded in England is Walterus De Clais in 1086, in the document, The Cambridge Inquisition, it is also spelt Cleis. He is described as a Frank.

The Cambridge Inquisition was a satellite survey to the great Domesday Book, the survey went into much greater depth than Domeday.

In the survey Walterus is a juror of both Northstowe Hundred and the Chilford Hundred.

The position of juror is important to the local structure of law and establishment and the juror would be a sworn man, meaning he has taken an oath to provide justice. The juror is not like the modern day equivalent, he was a man of some position, likely holding a Lordship under the tenant in chief  and he would be called upon by his overlord to act in regard to civil and criminal disputes.

In her book, Domesday people. Prof Keats - Rohan surmises that Walterus may have come from the Normandy village of Clais, there is also just some 37 miles away, Le Clais and next to that we have Cleuville.  We will explore Walterus in a later edition.

But you can take a look at Walterus in the link below.

DNA

In 2024 the Clay Society of England had a breakthrough when it was discovered we had two members and indeed the only two Clays in England that had been connected to America via DNA. There will be a full editorial on this in a later newsletter but it goes to show, how important DNA is now to the genealogical world. Without DNA, this find would never have been accomplished.

So, if you are male Clay by male descent we need your DNA to build up a bigger picture of Clay DNA in the UK and America. The first Clay in America was John Clay c1613, is your DNA, the link to the first Clay in America? Get tested and find out.

We would like you to use

https://www.familytreedna.com/products/y-dna

and thats because there is already a data base built in there.

You could find yourself related to the great Senator, Henry Clay of Kentucky but more importantly Cassius Clay, we kid you not.....

The Clays of Wales

In January 2025 we introduced a section for Wales, we had investigated Hanmer, a small village in Flintshire, where we found a nucleus of Clays, then we found them in the surrounding villages. We investigated further and found that Hanmer and it's locality was populated by Clay strays from Shropshire, Hanmer and the surrounding villages are only a mile and quarter inside the Welsh border.

We investigated further to find the Clays had spread from Hanmer across Wales.

But we also found in Nottinghamshire and Southampton, Chief Constable,  Philip Stevens Clay, a Welshman born in Milford Haven, a remarkable man of sea going heritage.

We will do a full article on him later in the year.

Field trip, Derbyshire.

On a recent field trip led by David Clay, three previously unknown bits of Clay history were discovered, firstly whilst sitting in Bonsall church being refreshed by soup and sandwiches, a lady behind the counter informed the party that she had lived in the house that had been owned by Robert Clay, she then pointed to the Clay coat of arms in the window and informed the party that a monument had been uncovered just outside the church and that was also to do with the Clays.

 Earlier in the day the party had been to Crich, armed with a LIDAR map, searching for the remains of John Clays manor house. The LIDAR map and David's divining skills pointed of former walls but sadly the ground is very overgrown and a proper excavation needs to take place. Sadly it was not all good news, the roof on John Clays barn had collapsed, David has been in touch with the parish council but the barn is in private hands.               

From The Clays of Derbyshire

Margaret Lynam a Quaker gives her account about their persecution and that in 1661 forty one Quakers male and female were arrested at a meeting in Eyam and marched on foot to Derby gaol and on the way they stopped at Crich and were imprisoned overnight in Squire Claye's barn without food or water or provision for their comfort. (Ref.- Margaret Lynam's Story 1667).

We need to try and get this 16th century barn reroofed before the whole building collapses.

Should we start a campaign? Would you be behind it?

click the link below for more on John Clay

If any other members have been on field trips and want their account and photographs published in the news letter, send details to clayofenglandsociety@outlook.com

Edmund Del Clay of Finningley

As yet we have no birthdate or birth year for Edmund del Clay, we have a possible year of death c 1394/5 that we are currently investigating.

The del part of del Clay is Norman in origin but this may only mean that the writers of his name were just using the Norman style.

Edmund is very often described as " of Finningley " (1) and in this area of Nottinghamshire/South Yorkshire we find preceding him, what could possibly be his grandfather, Robert del Clay of Blida or Blythe, now spelt Blyth (2) and a possible father Hugh del Clay of Blyth.(3) Hugh del Clay is also mentioned as of Finningley. (4) An Adam del Clay was also the vicar of Clarborough and Walesby. (5)&(6) Hugh del Clay held an official position under the King and we are trying to determine what this was, he was also appointed a commissioner to collect taxes in 1350.(7) He was also charged by villagers in Blyth of commiting excesses, which ended with their imprisonment in Tickhill castle.(8) In 1354 Hugh was with others granted land,  by the King in Nottinghamshire.(9) However the first recorded Clay is at Hodsock in 1222 and Robert del Clay is recorded as the vicar of Selston in 1250. (See Clay of England Society in links)

Looking at all the dates we have with regard to the del Clays, we can make a reasonable assumption that Edmund was born around 1330/40 and as such he would have grown up amidst the turmoil of the Black Death which hit England in November 1348.  Due to the rural location of Finningley, if that's where he was born, it's possible Edmund and his family were spared the ravages of the plague. If so they were lucky by 1377, the population of England had halved to 2.5 million people.

Where Edmund trained as a lawyer we have yet to find out.

In 1368, Edmund granted the manor of Finningley, to Alice Perrers, Alice Perrers was the mistress of Edward III. How Edmund knew her, we don't  know, we don't know why he granted her the manor. He with another lawyer called Robert Brown  later represented Alice Perrers after her fall from grace and later banishment.(10)

In 1377 Edmund was given a permit with two other men to pass by sea with twelve servants and sixteen horses and carrying 5000 pounds in money and jewels and they travel with the Kings license.(11) We do not know what the purpose of this mission was but it may have had something to with Alice Perrers.

In 1377, Edmund was appointed as a commissioner for the peace for Nottinghamshire, this would be a recurring position.(12)

In 1382, Edmund was summoned by the king to be a Sergeant at law, this involved a huge amount of expense and Edmund along with two others who had been summoned did not comply. In november of 1382, Edmund was ordered by the King and Council, under threat of a large fine to prepare himself to become a Sergeant at law.(13)

Edmund was appointed to a commission of Oyer and Terminer in May 1384, concerning the abduction and ravishing of Phillipa, wife of Sir Ralph de Percy by a John Halsham. Later it would turn out that Phillipa had agreed to be abducted and she later married John Halsham.(14)

Having acted as attorney for many people who had been despatched to Ireland by the King, (15) in February of 1385 it was now time for Edmund to be despatched to Ireland as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas of Ireland.(16) From the Medieval Soldier Database, ( see link below) we have a list of soldiers who are going to Ireland under the Captaincy of Edmund del Clay.(17)

Phillip de Courtenay, the Lieutenant of Ireland was ordered to be arrested by Edmund Clay Robert de Crulle and the Bishop of Meath. Courtenay was to be kept under honourable arrest and not to depart Ireland, 26th of March 1386. Courtenay who had a somewhat dubious reputation before serving in Ireland, was accused of intolerable oppressions, excess and duress against the Kings Lieges in Ireland. (18) Later in 1388, Edmund himself was ordered to be arrested and to await the Kings Lieutenants on charges of wicked extortion.(19)

Prior to that in 1387 Edmund had been granted the Manors of  Heynestoneld and Martry by Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford and Marquis of Dublin.(20) The land of Ireland had been granted to De Vere by Richard II.

The arrest of Edmund was the last we hear of him in Ireland.

Edmund did not let  his  arrest and wicked extortions set him back too far, for when he returned to England he sat on three commission’s as well resuming his own law career. (20,21,22)

We believe Edmund died c1394/5, we have a record of an Edward Del Clay in Nottinghamshire records, we are trying to obtain a copy of these records. (23) Unfortunately we have not yet discovered the will of Edmund del Clay but we are aware of a George del Clay of Finningley, whom we believe to be his son.

We cannot get a working link to embed here, to see Clays on the Medieval Soldier Database and you can also look up Claye and Cley, type medievalsoldierdatabase into your search engine.

The Catalogue of Seals

   Edmund dictus Clay.

   8617. [14th cent.] page 646

 Sulph. cast from imperfect impression) injured by pressure. 14 in. [D.C., F. 357.] shield of arms, couché a chevron betw, three uncertain charges. Cf. a chevron betw, three trefoils slipped, for CLAY. Crest on a helmet, lambrequin, and chapeau, a ball betw. two buttresses (?) Within a carved gothic panel. Sigil: edmundi: del clay.

Edmund features heavily on the Clay of England website, mostly in Nottinghamshire but there is a whole website dedicated to Edmund Del Clay.

Click the link below.

This months artefact

Afterword

We hope you have enjoyed this news letter, do email us with any queries, comments or suggestions at clayofenglandsocietynewsletter@outlook.com

If you have family members or friends that are interested in Clay family history, then get them to email us at the above address so that they can receive their own copy of the newsletter.

Some members may be wondering why their email group has such a small number of other members in it, currently,  Outlook has limited us to a daily number of emails and recipients, so we have had to break the numbers down and stagger the emails.