Record Summary
Evidence Category:
Published Source
Record Type:
Newsletter
Date:
May 2022
Individuals Mentioned:
Mary B. Akers, Flora Luette Alexander, Margaret Alexander, Dr. Lindsey Apple, Celia Averilla, Mary Batson, Galiena Boyajian, Ned Boyajian, Casie (Clay) Branson, Eric Brooks, John Davidson Brown, Polly Callahan, Atreus McCreery Clay, Bradley Clay, Charles Clay, Rev. Charles Clay, Chasity L. Clay, Chip Clay, Cynthia Green Clay, Edward Franklin Clay, Finney M. Clay, Henry Clay, Henry Clay Jr., Sen. Henry Clay, James Clay, James Ashton Clay, James Carrington Clay, Jarrod Clay, Captain John Clay, John A. Clay, John S. Clay, John T. Clay, John Wesley Clay, Jonas Clay, F. Kennerly Clay, Laura Clay, Leia Clay, Mary Barr Clay, Mary Jane Clay, Mitchell Clay, Nestor Clay, Peter Clay, Phoebe (Belcher) Clay, Pleasant G. Clay, Richard Clay, Tacitus Matthew Clay, Tacitus Thomas Clay, Thomas Clay, Thomas Alexander Clay, Thomas C. Clay, Tommy Clay, Vitula Clay, Mary Clay Berry, Carrie Clay-Segeberg, Greg Clemmer, Kathleen (Crane) Coombs, Louise (Cheeks) Copenhaver, Carla Crider, Angela Daniel-Upchurch, Martha (Draper) Davidson, Donna Donald, John Draper, Pat Dunford, Virginia Lee Faires, Rachel Findlay, Robert Fitzgerald, Dolores Mercedes Franklin, Martha Green, Linda Gunnoe, Mary Jane (Clay) Gunnoe, Lynette Hartmann, Carla Herkner, Marcia Hovenden, Dr. Gayle Howard, Mary (Draper) Ingles, Cleopatra Johnson, Debra Johnson, Nancy Wilson Johnson, James J. Kegley, Mary B. Kegley, Mary Kline, Charles Von Dietrich Knighton, Sallie (Clay) Lanham, Tara Lenihan, Vibbella McCreery, Ann Nichols, Rebecca (Clay) Pearis, Leontyne (Clay) Peck, Philip Peters, Betty Cantrell Plummer, Charline Rambaud, Mary Richardson, Rachel Riggs, Celia Said, Susan Clay Sawitzky, Susan Smith, Bill G. Sorrells, James Alexander Thom, Nancy C. Wadell, Jane M. Walker, Stanley White, Jason Lee Wilson, Nancy M. Wilson, Keith Winstead
Repository:
Clay Family Society Digital Archives
Archive Reference:
Folder: 01_Pieces_of_Clay/2007-2025
Summary
Focused on Brenham, TX and 2022 Gathering, Tracking Captain Thomas Clay and Kin, Free in Chains, President, Zoom Meeting, List of enslaved people at Henry Clay Ashland estate – Casie Branson, President
Clay Line: Board
Asset
Source Citation
Pieces of Clay, Clay Family Society, (Spring 2022): 11 pages; CFS Archive ID POC-2022-02.
Historical Context
Founding Ancestor: Captain John Clay arrived in Virginia in 1613 aboard *The Treasurer*. His wife Ann and three sons (Charles, Thomas, and John) joined him three years later.
Revolutionary War Service: Charles Clay’s descendant, Thomas Clay (born 1750), served as a captain in the American Revolution. He received a 4,000-acre land grant in Kentucky, where he later served in the state legislature.
Texas Migration: In the early 1820s, Captain Thomas Clay’s sons, Tacitus Matthew and Nestor Clay, migrated from Kentucky to Texas. They provided land surveying services for Stephen F. Austin’s “Old Three Hundred” colony and were compensated with land.
Texas Settlements: Nestor Clay established a farm in Washington County in 1824. Following Nestor’s death in 1835, Tacitus M. Clay completed construction on “Clay Castle” (also known as Ingleside) around 1840 on the Labahia Trail. By 1834, Nestor held title to 25,000 acres in the county.
Native American Enslavement: In the early 1700s, Henry Clay illegally enslaved two Native American children, Chance and James. Generations later, Chance’s granddaughter, Rachel Findlay, was kept illegally enslaved by Mitchell Clay and John Draper for nearly 50 years before finally securing freedom for herself and her descendants through a lawsuit resolved in Powhatan County, Virginia.
DNA and Lineage Revelations: DNA testing by family researchers has disrupted traditional family myths, revealing mixed-race ancestry, African-American branches (such as descendants of an enslaved woman named Celia Averilla), and connections to Clay cousins of color.
