Matthew Clay

Matthew Clay (May 25, 1754 – May 27, 1815) was a United States Representative from Virginia.

Biography

Son of Rev. Charles Clay, Matthew Clay was born in Halifax County, Virginia. 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. His refusal to vote in favor of the Declaration of War against Great Britain in June 1812 (Clay abstained on the vote, one of only two Virginia Republicans who declined to vote for the Declaration) was unpopular with his constituents and contributed to his defeat. Clay won back his seat in the next election. He served in the Fourteenth Congress 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 was one of the original trustees (in 1793) of the then unincorporated town of Danville. The others were Thomas Tunstall, William Harrison, John Wilson, Thomas Fearne, George Adams, and Thomas Smith

Matthew Clay was a brother of early Kentucky politician Green Clay and first cousin of the statesman Henry Clay. Matthew's daughter Mary was a victim of the Richmond Theatre fire of 1811.

Elections

• 1797; Clay was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives unopposed.
• 1799; Clay was re-elected defeating Federalist Isaac Coles.
• 1801; Clay was re-elected unopposed.