Clayton family

Dorothea Brack was born circa 1770 and raised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. She was probably the daughter of James Brack of Durham County, who married Dorothy Clayton of Newcastle in 1769.* Apparently orphaned at a young age, she grew up in the family of her maternal uncle, Alderman William Clayton. He was an attorney who also briefly served as sheriff and mayor of Newcastle. Dorothea never married. After reaching adulthood, she stayed for some time with her adoptive brother's in-laws, the Feilden family. They lived in a large manor house named Mollington Hall near Cheshire. Later, she would maintain her own household in London.

Dorothea took her mother's family name in 1814, becoming Dorothea Clayton. By the 1830s, she owned property in Durham County, a house and stable in London, and had many thousands of pounds invested in stocks. She received her income from rents and dividends from these investments. By the time of her death, she possessed more than £65,000 in assets.

Dorothea's London house was located in Paddington Parish just north of Hyde Park, at 6 Hyde Park Street .** Her stable was two short blocks away, at 12 Albion Mews North . The land on which the properties stood belonged to the Bishop of London's Paddington estate. She paid ground rent, though she owned the structures. Most of the houses in the neighborhood dated from after 1800, when speculators had begun to build on leased lots. 6 Hyde Park Street was probably built in the late 1820s or 1830s, and Dorothea may have been its first owner. One of her heirs described it many years later: "The house purchased by my relatives in an unfinished state & was completed without regard to expense & is I believe one of the best houses in the street. It is completed furnished almost entirely from Gillows [i.e. Gillows & Co., a London furniture firm]." The house was three stories high, not including the attic and basement. It had two attic rooms, a maid's room, four bedrooms, two dressing rooms, two drawing rooms, a library, a dining room, a butler's pantry, a housekeeper's room, a scullery and a coal cellar. She lived with several servants, including a housekeeper named Lydia Payne.

When she died on September 15, 1849, Dorothea left the London house to her nephew, William Clayton Walters. William was the second son of Dorothea's adoptive sister, Isabella, and Robert Walters, a Newcastle attorney. William was a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge, where he excelled in religious history, taking the Hulsean Prize for his essay, "A dissertation on the nature and advantages of the influence of the Holy Spirit." He earned his BA in 1822 and an MA in1825. Following in his father's and maternal grandfather's footsteps, he entered the field of law, studying at Lincoln's Inn. Though he soon became a practicing barrister, he gained more fame as a writer. His published works include several books on the legal rights of the Church of England, a book of sayings and proverbs, and an essay on the sacrament of baptism. Strongly opposed to teetotalism, he also wrote two articles on the consumption of alcohol in the Scriptures.

Dorothea named William the executor of her estate. He inherited her house, and claimed a further £40,000 as a repayment of a sum that he said he had lent her seven months before her death. However, it is unclear whether there had truly been a loan, or if William simply wanted to avoid paying duties on that portion of her estate.*** Dorothea also left legacies to two of his siblings, Ralph and Dorothea June. Ralph received almost £4900, while Dorothea June received £1000. Dorothea Clayton probably left such a substantial sum to Ralph because his older brother William had already inherited property from other relatives. William owned significant tracts of land in Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire, including the Elizabethan manor house of Stella Hall. Perhaps because he had gained most of his fortune through the Clayton family, Dorothea asked William to take her mother's family name after she died. He complied, changing his name from William Clayton Walters to William Clayton Clayton in 1849.

William never lived in the London house. He leased it to a series of tenants beginning just one month after Dorothea died. In later years, he would try unsuccessfully to sell it with all of its furnishings intact. It stayed in his hands until 1871, when he (or perhaps his son of the same name) mortgaged it to a relative, John Clayton.

* Definite evidence of Dorothea Brack's parentage could not be found.

** 6 Hyde Park Street was renumbered 12 Hyde Park Street around 1870. It may have been renumbered again at a later date.

*** William Clayton Clayton paid Lydia Payne, Dorothea's housekeeper, to furnish an affidavit stating that the loan was genuine. This would have allowed him to recoup some of the duties paid on the estate. However, the probate court eventually "declined to accede to the claim" regarding the loan.

From the guide to the Clayton family papers, 1814-1871, (Yale Center for British Art)