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By his eldest son (1906)
I thought it might be interesting to have an account of a farmer on the site and thus this book. The first chapter contains an interesting wee note about Robert Burns...
John Clay was born at Dykegatehead, a farm in the Parish of Whitsome, in the county of Berwick, on November 5, 1824. His father, John Clay, farmed the above place at that date, and his grandfather, (old) John Clay, ["Eyemouth, 19th May, 1787. "At a general encampment held this day, the following brethren were made Royal Arch Masons, viz. Robert Burns, from the Lodge of St. James's, Tarbolton, Ayrshire, and Robert Ainslie, from the Lodge of St. Luke's, Edinburgh, by James Carmichael, Wm. Grieve, Daniel Dow, John Clay, Robert Grieve, Sec. Sic. Robert Ainslie paid one guinea admission dues; but on account of R. Burns's remarkable poetical genius the encampment unanimously agreed to admit him gratis, and considered themselves honoured by having a man of such shining abilities for one of their companions."—Extracted from the Minute Book of the Lodge by Thos. Bowhill.— Allan Cunningham's Life of Burns.] was a very prosperous grain merchant in the good old town of Berwick-on-Tweed. The family of Clay had been around the Border town for several generations, but it is sufficient for this story to go back to the grand old man whose name is historic on the Borders for probity, push and perseverance. We have seen many men who knew him—notably the late Adam Darling of Governor's Yard, Berwick-on-Tweed, and he loved to depict in warm colors the man who for years had been a leading factor in the agricultural life of the Borders. His portrait in oil used to hang in his daughter Sarah's house, Castle Terrace, Berwick-on-Tweed, and it also appears in the picture now at Magdala Crescent (Edinburgh), entitled "Four John Clays," and reproduced in this work. His strong face, deep-lined, with a crest of gray hair, looks down from the frame on his successors, who in their time have lived and worked out their destiny. If you take this picture and put it beside that of Henry Clay, the great American statesman, you would say they were brothers. In fact, the subject of this memoir, when first in the United States, in 1876, was so struck by the likeness that he purchased an engraving of the above gentleman, and it now hangs in the house at 8 Magdala Crescent. Although ancestral rolls were explored, no connection could be traced, but if family likeness counts for anything, they are from the same parents in the years gone by.
And so you can now read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/clay/index.htm
Alastair
I thought it might be interesting to have an account of a farmer on the site and thus this book. The first chapter contains an interesting wee note about Robert Burns...
John Clay was born at Dykegatehead, a farm in the Parish of Whitsome, in the county of Berwick, on November 5, 1824. His father, John Clay, farmed the above place at that date, and his grandfather, (old) John Clay, ["Eyemouth, 19th May, 1787. "At a general encampment held this day, the following brethren were made Royal Arch Masons, viz. Robert Burns, from the Lodge of St. James's, Tarbolton, Ayrshire, and Robert Ainslie, from the Lodge of St. Luke's, Edinburgh, by James Carmichael, Wm. Grieve, Daniel Dow, John Clay, Robert Grieve, Sec. Sic. Robert Ainslie paid one guinea admission dues; but on account of R. Burns's remarkable poetical genius the encampment unanimously agreed to admit him gratis, and considered themselves honoured by having a man of such shining abilities for one of their companions."—Extracted from the Minute Book of the Lodge by Thos. Bowhill.— Allan Cunningham's Life of Burns.] was a very prosperous grain merchant in the good old town of Berwick-on-Tweed. The family of Clay had been around the Border town for several generations, but it is sufficient for this story to go back to the grand old man whose name is historic on the Borders for probity, push and perseverance. We have seen many men who knew him—notably the late Adam Darling of Governor's Yard, Berwick-on-Tweed, and he loved to depict in warm colors the man who for years had been a leading factor in the agricultural life of the Borders. His portrait in oil used to hang in his daughter Sarah's house, Castle Terrace, Berwick-on-Tweed, and it also appears in the picture now at Magdala Crescent (Edinburgh), entitled "Four John Clays," and reproduced in this work. His strong face, deep-lined, with a crest of gray hair, looks down from the frame on his successors, who in their time have lived and worked out their destiny. If you take this picture and put it beside that of Henry Clay, the great American statesman, you would say they were brothers. In fact, the subject of this memoir, when first in the United States, in 1876, was so struck by the likeness that he purchased an engraving of the above gentleman, and it now hangs in the house at 8 Magdala Crescent. Although ancestral rolls were explored, no connection could be traced, but if family likeness counts for anything, they are from the same parents in the years gone by.
And so you can now read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/history/clay/index.htm
Alastair