Born in
Campbell County, Virginia, to William Willis Clayton and Clarissa Mosby Clayton. He attended the local schools. After this he
read law with a Lynchburg attorney in 1822 to gain
admission to the bar in 1823. An editorial in the
Natchez Daily Courier condemned the appointment, asserting that Clayton had authored a secessionist address on behalf of a committee appointed by the legislature to respond to the
Compromise of 1850, with the editorial describing Clayton as "a leader of the secession forces". Clayton nevertheless received the appointment; he resigned the following year, and was succeeded by
Roger Barton in August 1854. Clayton became a wealthy
planter, holding 140 people as slaves by 1860. A fervent secessionist since 1850, Clayton was elected as a delegate to
Mississippi's secession convention which took the state out of the Union in January, 1861. He was then selected to represent Mississippi in the
Provisional Confederate States Congress from February to May, 1861. During his short time in Congress he served on the judiciary committee and was involved in the design of the Confederacy's judicial system. He resigned in May, 1861, and was appointed as a District Court Judge. After the war he again served as a state court judge from 1866 to 1869. He continued to practice law after leaving office and was a director of the Northern Bank of Mississippi and the
Mississippi Central Railroad. ==Death==