Early Clergy of Pennsylvania and Delaware, S. F. Hotchkin, 1890 - Chapter 9, Rev. Slaytor Clay. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja and Sally Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ________________________________________________ EARLY CLERGY OF PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. BY REV. S. F. HOTCHKIN, M.A. Author of The Mornings of the Bible, History of Germantown, &c. P. W. ZIEGLER & CO., PUBLISHERS, NO. 720 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1890 Copyright, 1890, by Rev. S. F. Hotchkin. NOTE: Use URL: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/hotchkin/early-clergy.htm to access other chapters. REV. SLAYTOR CLAY. 91 CHAPTER IX. REV. SLATOR CLAY. I would add to the notes already given that Rev. Dr. Sprague's Annals of the American Episcopal Pulpit (pp. 355-357) contain a most interesting account of Rev. Slator Clay (A.D., 1787 to A.D., 1821), by his son, Rev. Jehu C. Clay, D.D. He was the son of Slator and Ann Clay, having been born in Newcastle, Del., October 1st, 1754. His mother was the daughter of Jehu Curtis, Speaker of the Delaware Assembly, Judge of the Supreme Court and Treasurer of the Loan Office. The Judge is buried in the Newcastle churchyard. Benjamin Franklin wrote his epitaph. Slator Clay studied law and was admitted to the bar. In 1779 or 1780 he went to the West Indies with a friend who was a sea captain. This was during the Revolutionary war, and a British privateer captured the vessel and Mr. Clay was put on shore on the Island of Antigua with only one piece of money in his possession. However, he took passage for New York, then held by the British. A sailor proposed mutiny, and Mr. Clay informed the captain and the ringleader and perhaps others were confined. The vessel was seized by an American privateer. Mr. Clay afterward gained the confidence of the mutineer. The vessel was endangered by the sea off Hatteras and wrecked on Bermuda rocks. At Bermuda the young lawyer taught school for six REV. SLATOR CLAY. 92 years. His dangerous voyage turned his thoughts to religion. A Presbyterian clergyman, Dr. Muir, of Alexandria, to whom he confided his views, led him on in his new life. He determined to enter the ministry. His warm friends in Bermuda desired him to be ordained by the Bishop of London and serve "as their pastor." This was being arranged when Mr. Clay heard of the proposed consecration of Bishop White, and wishing to return to the land of his nativity, though he loved his island friends, sailed for Philadelphia, arriving there in 1786. That year Rev. Dr. Collin married him to Mrs. Hannah Hughes, a widow lady. They had "four children - a daughter and three sons." On December 23d, A.D., 1787, Bishop White ordained Slator Clay a deacon in Christ Church, Philadelphia. This was the year of the Bishop's consecration. On the 17th of the next February he was ordained priest in St. Peter's Church. He became rector of St. James's, Perkiomen, in Upper Merion. The church had been built in 1721. He was also rector of St. Peter's, Great Valley, Chester County, and St. David's, Radnor, which had been built in 1713. Mr. Clay was furthermore assistant minister of the Swedish parish of Christ Church, Upper Merion (Bridgeport), under Dr. Collin's rectorship. Episcopal clergy were scarce and their fields wide. In 1790 Mr. Clay moved from Upper Merion to Perkiomen, where a parsonage had been erected for him, and there was "a glebe of some thirty acres." He gave a part of his time to St. Thomas's, Whitemarsh, in addition to his work at the other churches named, though he went to Radnor more seldom, as it was so distant from his new home. He was called to Alexandria, Virginia, but preferred to remain in his quiet country home. Where he began his ministerial work he ended it, dying September REV. SLATOR CLAY. 93 25th, 1821. Like Goldsmith's parson, he changed not his place. He was highly honored for his sincere piety which shone in his life. In favorable weather his churches "were always crowded." The hearers felt that the preacher exemplified his doctrine. "Jesus Christ and Him crucified," was his great theme. He thought little of human merit, but much of Christ's sufficiency for man's salvation. He was a natural and earnest preacher, and his voice was agreeable. He died at sixty-seven, closing "a life of faith on earth in a sure hope of entering on a life of glory in eternity." Mr. Clay was about five feet and eight inches high, and his body was slender and delicate, his eyes were of a hazel color, and his countenance was "benign and interesting." He was affable to friends. His Christian character made him humble, gentle and childlike. Slator Clay's elder brother, Robert, was a church clergyman. His birth occurred on October 18th, 1749. He was in a mercantile establishment in Philadelphia in youth. Bishop White ordained him about 1787. He "was for thirty-six years rector of the church at Newcastle, and died December, 1831. He was a fine reader of the Church Service and sustained an unblemished reputation. He was never married."