James Clay (author)
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James Clay (20 December 1804, London – 26 September 1873, Brighton)[1] was an English politician and a leading whist authority.[2]
Early life and education
Clay was born in Bloomsbury, London, son of merchant James Clay (1764–1828) and Mary (1766/7–1840). He was educated at Winchester College, then went up to Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a "gentleman's third" in classics.[3][4]
Career
Clay was MP for Kingston upon Hull from July 1847 until 1853, when he was unseated after a bribery inquiry. He regained the seat at an 1857 by-election and held it until his death.[1]
According to an obituary in the Westminster papers: a monthly journal of chess, whist, games of skill and the drama Clay had been "the acknowledged head of the Whist world" for the last thirty years before his death, spending much of his time and attention on whist and piquet. In 1863 he became chairman of a committee for settling the laws of whist.[5]
Personal life
Clay married Eliza Camilla, daughter of General Josiah Allen Woolrych (1784-1849), of Weobley, Herefordshire, descendant of an ancient Shropshire family, at one time baronets.[6][7][8][9] They had six children, including the musical composer Frederic Clay and Henry Clay (later Clay-Ker-Seymer), grandfather of the photographer Barbara Ker-Seymer.[10]
References
- ^ a b M. C. Curthoys, ‘Clay, James (1804–1873)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2006
- ^ Culbertson, Ely, ed. (1935). The Encyclopedia of Bridge. New York: The Bridge World, Inc. p. 467.
- ^ https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-5560?rskey=1bTZ6R&result=1
- ^ The Shaping of Turkey in the British Imagination 1776-1923, David S. Katz, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, p. 130
- ^ "James Clay", The Westminster Papers, 6: 117f.
- ^ Disraeli's Fellow Traveller: James Clay- M.P. for Hull, John Markham, Highgate, 1997, p. 17
- ^ https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-5560?rskey=1bTZ6R&result=1
- ^ Debrett Goes to Hollywood, Charles Kidd, St. Martin's Press, 1986, p. 22
- ^ A History of the Mansions and Manors of Herefordshire, With illustrations, Charles John Robinson, 1873, pp. 99-100
- ^ A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, (5th ed.), Sir Bernard Burke, 1871, p. 1248
External links
- English non-fiction writers
- Card game book writers
- 1804 births
- 1873 deaths
- UK MPs 1847–1852
- UK MPs 1852–1857
- UK MPs 1857–1859
- UK MPs 1859–1865
- UK MPs 1868–1874
- English male non-fiction writers
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- UK MP for England stubs
- British non-fiction writer stubs
- Card game stubs