(Excerpt from Flora Virginica, Exhibens Plantas Fredericù...)
Excerpt from Flora Virginica, Exhibens Plantas Fredericùe Hall'elquil't de viribus Plantarum: in uit. Academ. Vol. 1. Diq Batavus Pauli Hérmanxii. Lugd. Batav. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Clayton John was born about 1685 in Fulham, England. He was the son of John Clayton, appointed attorney-general for Virginia by the Crown. His uncle was General Jasper Clayton, governor of Gibraltar, and his grandfather, Sir John Clayton, a barrister of London belonging to a Yorkshire family.
John Clayton came to Virginia in 1705 and was appointed assistant to the clerk of Gloucester County, though he lived in what is now Mathews County, on the Piankatank River, at an estate called “Windsor. ” Later, he became first clerk of the county, a position he held until his death. It is said that he planted a fine botanical garden, he was in correspondence with Gronovius, Linnaeus, Alexander Garden, and, probably, with Peter Kalm and Peter Collinson, and sent seeds and plants to John Bartram and others, and was constantly collecting Virginia plants. After many delays the results of his work were embodied in the Flora Virginica by John Frederick Gronovius.
Because Clayton’s herbarium specimens formed the basis of this work it is often asserted that it should be called Clayton’s Flora Virginica, but the final identification of the specimens, the science and system of the book, and the Latinity, were largely the work of Gronovius. Nevertheless Gronovius’s Flora Virginica may be said to be also Clayton’s masterpiece. It was printed by C. Flaak at Leyden, the first part appearing in 1739; the second not until 1743. In that same year there was a second imprint issued, which explains why some copies of the first part bear the date 1743. A second revised edition, edited by the elder Gronovius and put through the press by Laurans Theodore Gronovius, appeared in 1762, and represented Clayton’s more mature work. This edition is important as appearing after the 1753 edition of Linnaeus’s Species Plantarum, which is taken as the dividing line between medieval and modern botany.
According to the rules of modern botanical nomenclature the first edition of the Flora Virginica is of merely historical interest, but the second edition takes rank as true, modern systematic work. It contains a map of Clayton’s travels which shows that he was seldom north of the Rappahannock or south of the James, and that his knowledge of the mountains did not extend beyond the Blue Ridge. He was thorough, however, in his exploration of the middle Tidewater districts, and recent botanical work shows that as a field botanist he was more astute than has been realized.
In the last year of his life, though of advanced age, he made his most extended trip, as far as Orange County. Two volumes by Clayton’s own hand, with many drawings and a fine supporting herbarium, were left by him at his death, but were destroyed during the British raids in Virginia in the last part of the Revolution. His letter-book, containing his copies of letters to scientists, was known to be in the possession of his descendants until about thirty years ago. All efforts by Virginia antiquarians to trace it since have failed. Most of the herbarium specimens which formed the basis of the Flora Virginica and which were of great importance to Linnaeus are now in the National Herbarium in England. Concerning Clayton’s personal life not much has been established. His public duties were discharged faithfully and Governor John Page of Virginia in a letter to B. S. Barton said Clayton was “a strict but not ostentatious observor of the practices of the church of England. ” Though parsimonious, he would pay money for a new species of plant brought to him. He was personally known to Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, and highly esteemed by them.
(Excerpt from Flora Virginica, Exhibens Plantas Fredericù...)
Clayton was elected to the American Philosophical Society (1743), the Swedish Royal Academy of Science (1747), and the Virginian Society for the Promotion of Usefull Knowledge (1773), of which he was the first president.
Clayton married Elizabeth Whiting, granddaughter of Peter Beverley. They had three daughters and five sons.
