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b.1835-d.1908
A black sheep?
The information we have on John Clay from the Horton case notes is quite sparse. When he arrived there from Hammersmith infirmary in June 1908 he was aged around 78 and in a state of advanced dementia. We have his photo, we know he was an engineer by profession; and we have a detailed physical description. He claimed to have five sons, but we have found no record of them. His next of kin was stated to be a niece, a Miss O’Donnell, but we have not been able to trace her.
However from these snippets of information we have been able to piece together some of his chequered past, the occupation and the physical description being particularly helpful. Here was an educated man born, we believe, to a wealthy and influential family in the north east of England, who turned rogue and spent 12 years of his life in prison in the UK and the United States.
The significance of the occupation and the physical description
In UK census records there is only one man named John Clay who was born 1830-35 and whose occupation was recorded as “Engineer”: this man was born in South Shields and at the time of the 1871 census he was in Portland prison. Further research revealed that he was also in prison at the time of the 1891 census, at Borstal in Kent.
Casting the net wider, we discovered that he was also in prison in New York from 1893 to 1895. The detailed records from Sing Sing prison include a description of scars on his neck and right leg which match the 1908 description from Horton Asylum.
John’s origins
We think that John was the eldest of four sons born to banker and ship owner John Clay (1802-1887) and his wife Margaret. John Junior was baptised at South Shields in 1835. John Clay senior was the first Mayor of South Shields, and a street there bears his name.
However it appears that his fortune was lost in a banking crash, and he moved to London in the mid 1850s.
John Clay junior is with the family in the 1841 and 1851 censuses but then disappears from UK records until his name starts to appear in court reports in 1869.
Where was John between 1851 and 1869?
American immigration records list a John Clay, aged 24, an English engineer, arriving in New York in 1856 with a young wife Elizabeth aged 18. The 1860 New York census lists a John Clay 28 and wife Elizabeth 24, both from England, but John’s occupation is recorded as Tobacconist. We can’t be certain that either of these records are our man.
Criminal conviction in 1869
At the York Assizes in July 1869, John was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude for forgery, Prison records show that he was a widower with one child. He was released on licence in 1873
Marriage in Canada in 1875?
In January 1875 John Clay, an engineer from England, aged 40, married 25 year old Esther Truscott, also from England, in Belleville, Ontario. There are no other records to be found for this couple in Canada. Of significance, his parents as stated at the time of the marriage as John and Margaret, which tallies with the 1835 baptism in South Shields.
Pennsylvania 1880?
The 1880 census for Delaware county, Pennsylvania, lists John Clay (44) and wife Etta (30), both from England, with a daughter Lena M aged 7 months. John is recorded as working in a shipyard. We can find no further records for Lena other than her birth in 1879 and baptism in 1880.
Death of father in 1887
John Clay senior died in February 1887.
This confirms that all four sons were alive in 1887.
Criminal conviction in Birmingham in 1887
In April 1887 John was back in England and was arrested in Birmingham for forgery:
Criminal records confirm that this was the same John Clay who was convicted of forging a cheque in 1869. Once again he received a sentence of five years penal servitude.
Where was wife Esther/Etta?
New York records show that Etta Clay (nee Trescott) married William Holloway in 1889 so presumably she and John Clay had divorced by then (john being in prison in England until 1892).
Return to New York, and another prison sentence
In July 1893 John was arrested in New York for non payment of his hotel bill, and remanded subject to $500 bail:
He was back out again by September but was arrested again, this time for obtaining goods under false pretences. He was arrested at his home 109 W 105th Street:
He was sentenced to 2 years in Sing Sing prison. The Sing Sing records are very detailed and we can compare some key features of his physical description with the Horton case notes from 15 years later:
| Sing Sing 1893 | Horton 1908 | |
| Age | 62 | 78 |
| Height | 5’9” | 5’6” |
| Weight | 155lb | 10 st 6lb (146lb) |
| Scars | Right leg out side, above the knee; Two scars on back of neck | Outer side of right thigh, left forearm, back of neck |
| Nose | Small straight but good length | Long |
| Ears | Small | Small |
| Eyes | Gray | Grey |
| Teeth | False | Artificial |
By 1908 he’d shrunk in height but that can be ascribed to his age. Otherwise the details are a good match.
The Sing Sing admission register also records his wife as Etta Clay, 109 W 105th Street, and any earnings were to be sent to her, so it seems that they had reconciled.
John was discharged from Sing Sing in May 1895.
We have not been able to find any trace of him after that, until he was admitted to Horton Asylum from Hammersmith infirmary in June 1908.
There is a death registration for Etta Clay (nee Tricott) in New York in 1897.
Death
John died at Horton on 14th August 1908, of senile decay. His case notes record that he believed he had been sent there to take charge of the engineering plant.
