Name Sir Clayton, | Role Politician | |
 | ||
Sir William Clayton, 1st Baronet (died 1744) was an English politician.
Clayton was the oldest surviving son of William Clayton of Hambledon, in Buckinghamshire. He married Martha Kenrick, the daughter of John Kenrick, a London merchant. They had five sons and five daughters.
He was the nephew and heir of Sir Robert Clayton, a wealthy banker and former Lord Mayor of London who had bought the manor of Bletchingley in 1677, and with it control of both seats in the parliamentary borough of Bletchingley. William returned himself as a Member of Parliament (MP) for this rotten borough from 1715 until his death.
In 1735 he also bought the manor of Harleyford, near Great Marlow, which gave him control of one of the two parliamentary seats of the borough of Great Marlow.
He was made a baronet in 1732, of Marden Park in Surrey. On his death in 1744 he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Kenrick, who was in turn succeeded by his son Robert. Robert died childless, and the baronetcy passed to the 1st baronet's grandson William, who was the son of the first baronet's younger son William.