Preceded by John Kerr Preceded by Isaac Coles Succeeded by John Kerr Succeeded by Abram Trigg | Preceded by Samuel Jordan Cabell Name Matthew Clay Succeeded by William A. Burwell Role Swimmer | |
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Matthew Clay (March 25, 1754 – May 27, 1815) was a United States Representative from Virginia.
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Biography
Born in Halifax County (near Danville), during the American Revolutionary War he entered the Ninth Virginia Regiment on October 1, 1776. He transferred to the First Virginia Regiment in 1778 and to the Fifth Virginia Regiment in 1781, being successively promoted to first lieutenant, captain, and quartermaster. He was mustered out 1783.
Clay was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1790 to 1794, and was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Fifth and to the seven succeeding Congresses, serving from March 4, 1797 to March 3, 1813. While in the House he was chairman of the Committee on Militia (Tenth Congress). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1813 to the Thirteenth Congress but was elected to the Fourteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1815 until his death at Halifax Court House in 1815. Interment was in the old family burying ground in Pittsylvania County.
Matthew Clay was a brother of early Kentucky politician Green Clay. His daughter Mary was a victim of the Richmond Theatre fire of 1811.