John Clayton (clergyman)

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John Clayton (* 1657 in Dublin , Kingdom of Ireland ; † September 23, 1725 ibid) was a British clergyman , geographer and naturalist .

Life

Publication cover with Clayton's Letters from Virginia

John Clayton (usually referred to as "Reverend John Clayton" to distinguish himself from other people of that name) was the son of Richard Clayton from Preston, Lancaster County, England. He was prepared for his theological career from 1674 to about 1678 at St. Alban's Hall and Merton College , Oxford . From April 1684 to May 1686 he made a trip to Virginia , North America, on behalf of the Anglican Church , during which he collected geographical and ethnological observations. He reported about it in several letters to Robert Boyle , who like himself was a member of the Royal Society . From today's perspective, Clayton's descriptions are important sources on North American colonial history.

In 1687 he was rector (councilor) of Crofton near Wakefield , West Yorkshire. In 1689 he was canon of St. Michan's in Dublin and from 1708 until his death in 1725 he was dean of the Cathedral Church of Kildare , Ireland. His son, Robert Clayton, was Bishop of Cork and Clogher .

Reverend Clayton is considered one of the discoverers of natural gas . Miners had previously noticed gases escaping near coal pits. In 1684 near Wigan , Lancashire , Clayton investigated a trench from which flammable gases rose with the formation of bubbles. In the laboratory he managed to extract the combustible gas from the bituminous coal underneath it by heating it and collecting it in a pig's bladder. If he then pricked it with a needle, the gas could be burned off in a controlled manner. However, his discovery went unnoticed. It was not rediscovered until decades later in his written records (in the archives of the Royal Society) and published in the Philosophical Transactions in 1739 .

literature

  • Walter T. Layton: The Discoverer of Gas Lighting: Notes on the Life and Work of the Rev. John Clayton, DD, 1657-1725 . London, 1926.
  • Edmund Berkeley & Dorothy Smith Berkeley: The Reverend John Clayton: A Parson with a Scientific Mind: His Scientific Writings and Other Related Papers . The Virginia Historical Society. Charlottesville, 1965.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Clayton, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British clergyman, geographer and naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1657
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH September 23, 1725
Place of death Dublin