John Clayton, Sr.

John Clayton, Sr. (1754-1843), served as the Independent minister at the King’s Weigh House, London, 1779-1828. Robert Hall’s Christianity Consistent with a Love of Freedom (1791) was a response to a sermon by John Clayton (1754-1843), Benjamin Flower’s brother-in-law and pastor of the Independent congregation meeting at the Weigh-House in London.  In The Duty of Christians to Magistrates (24 July 1791), Clayton chastised his fellow Dissenting ministers, such as Joseph Priestley and Robert Hall, for being disloyal both to the King and their vocation by engaging in political disputes with the government. He married Mary Flower (1746-1836), Benjamin Flower’s older sister, in 1779.