When Mary Clay was born in 1682, in Heanor, Derbyshire, England, her father, Randolph Clay, was 28 and her mother, Ruth Turton, was 28. She married Richard Barrowclough on 28 August 1702, in Heanor, Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom. They were the parents of at least 4 daughters. She died after 1723.
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The Glorious Revolution brought the downfall of Catholic King James II and the reign of his Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange.
The South Sea Bubble Bill was passed by the House of Lords in 1720. This allowed the South Sea company to monopolize trade with South America. The company underwrote the English National Debt which promised 5% interest from the government. As shares rose exponentially, many companies were created and many fortunes were made. The stocks crashed and many people lost their money which caused them to become destitute overnight and suicide was common. Robert Walpole took charge of the South Sea Bubble Financial Crisis by dividing the national debt between the Bank of England, the Treasury, and the Sinking Fund.
English (Midlands and Yorkshire): from Old English clǣg ‘clay’, applied as a topographic name for someone who lived in an area of clay soil, a habitational name for someone who lived in a district known as (the) Clay, such as the one in east Notinghamshire, or as a metonymic occupational name for a worker in a clay pit (see Clayman ).
Americanized form of German Klee .
History: The relatively common English name Clay had several American forebears in the 18th century. Henry Clay, born in Hanover, VA, in 1777, secretary of state for President John Quincy Adams, was descended from English ancestors who came to VA shortly after the founding of Jamestown. The revolutionary war officer Joseph Clay, also a member of the Continental Congress, was a native of Yorkshire, England, who emigrated to GA in 1760 and was a founder of the University of Georgia.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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