Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Clayton, Samuel R. April 21, 1840 - 
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Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net February 17, 2026, 3:57 pm

Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

SAMUEL R. CLAYTON, proprietor of the Eagle Hotel, Edgehill, 
is a native of Moreland township, in Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, where he was born April 21, 1840. He is the 
son of William and Ann (Roads) Clayton. Mrs. William Clayton 
was a daughter of Samuel and Abigail (Jenkins) Roads. 
William Clayton was the son of Abraham and Margaret (Lukens) 
Clayton. Abraham Clayton (grandfather) resided on a farm in 
Moreland township, located on Byberry road, and was engaged 
most of his life in agricultural pursuits. He died in that 
vicinity, about 1849.

William Clayton was born on the homestead farm in June, 
1801, and acquired an education in the ordinary schools of 
the neighborhood. On reaching manhood he engaged in teaching 
in the winter months, as was the custom of keeping schools 
open at that time in the rural districts, and farming in 
summer. He held the office of justice of the peace for some 
years. He was a highly educated man, and was much esteemed 
in the community in which he lived. He succeeded Ills uncle 
Ezekiel on his father's farm, on which he died in June, 
1848. He married Ann Roads, of an old lower Montgomery 
family. Their children: Edwin, resides in Philadelphia; 
Samuel R., subject of this sketch; Dr. A. H., residing in 
Richboro, Bucks county; Levi R., Margaret (deceased), wife 
of Harman Lauer.

Samuel R. Clayton attended his father's school, which course 
was supplemented by some time spent at the Eight Square 
school on the county line. After leaving school as a boy, he 
was engaged on a farm for six years. On September 20, 1862, 
he enlisted in the One Hundred and Nineteenth Regiment 
Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served in defense of his 
country until the close of the war. During that time he 
participated in many important engagements and was wounded 
at the battle of Fredericksburg. He was mustered out at 
Washington at the close of the war in 1865. He then engaged 
in farming, and cultivated the farm of widow Dyer and the 
Willard farm for about two years. He then removed to 
Abington township, and purchased a farm near where is now 
Willow Grove Park, which he farmed for ten years.

On March 11, 1878, he removed to Edgehill, and rented the 
Eagle Hotel, which he soon after purchased, and has 
successfully conducted for a period of more than twenty 
years. He is a Republican in politics, and has served as 
assessor and mercantile appraiser. He has never sought 
public position, preferring to attend strictly to business. 
His religious affiliations are with the Society of Friends, 
although he is not a member.
 
Mr. Clayton married, at Philadelphia, September 20, 1866, 
Hannah E., daughter of John Shay, a native of Horsham 
township, in Montgomery county. The children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Samuel R. Clayton: Annie; John Shay; Mary died in childhood; 
J. J. Morrison; Samuel Luther, Margaret, deceased; A. Harry, 
deceased.

John Shay, father of Mrs. Clayton, was a son of John and Ann 
(Hagerman) Shay. His grandfather and great-grandfather were 
also John Shay. The Shays were early settlers in Horsham and 
adjacent townships in Montgomery county. John Shay, father 
of Mrs. Clayton, was born on the old homestead in Horsham 
township, in October, 1805. He had a brother Edward, who 
married Hannah Roberts. He engaged in farming in early life, 
and subsequently became a miller, and followed that 
occupation until his death in 1884, in his seventy-ninth 
year. He had two children, Mrs. Clayton and Mary Ann, wife 
of Harrison C. Green, residing in Horsham township. Mrs. Ann 
Hagerman died in 1865 in her fifty-ninth year.

The following is a copy of a marriage certificate in the 
possession of Mrs. Samuel R. Clayton, Edgehill.

WHEREAS, Ezekiel Shoemaker, son of Richard Shoemaker of 
Horsham, county of Philadelphia and province of 
Pennsylvania, and Ann Williams, daughter of John Williams, 
of the same place, having declared their intention of 
marriage with each other before several monthly meetings of 
the people called Quakers held at Gwynedd according to the 
good order used amongst Friends, and having consent of 
parents and of parties concerned in their intentions of 
marriage, was allowed of by the said meeting.

Now THESE MAY CERTIFIE all whom it may concern that for the 
full accomplishment of their said intentions this tenth day 
of the Eleventh month in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and sixty-one, they the said Ezekiel Shoemaker 
and Ann Williams appeared in a public meeting of the said 
people at their meeting house at Gwynedd aforesaid and the 
said Ezekiel Shoemaker, taking the said Ann Williams by the 
hand, did in solemn manner openly declare that he took her 
the said Ann Williams to be his wife promising with God's 
assistance to be unto her a faithful and loving husband 
until death should separate them.

And moreover they the said Ezekiel Shoemaker and Ann 
Williams, she according to the custom of marriage assuming 
the name of her husband, as a further confirmation thereof, 
did then and there to these presents set their hands. And we 
whose names are underwritten, being present at the 
solemnization of the said marriage and subscription, have as 
witnesses thereunto, set our hands the day and year above 
written. Daniel Morgan, Joseph Amber, Joseph Kenderdine, 
Isaac Jones, Elizabeth Jones, Humphrey Williams, David 
Davis, Evan Roberts, Jacob Jones, John Hickman, Margaret 
Hickman, Rachel Kenderdine, Henry Stiffield, Margaret 
Stiffield, Evan Jones, Elizabeth Gerret, Mary Gerret, Hannah 
Shoemaker, Joseph Naul, Harry Williams, Mary Williams, 
Ernmor Williams, Hannah Roberts, John Roberts, Joseph 
Shoemaker, Jonathan Shoemaker, Ellin Evans, Eliza Morgan, 
Richard Shoemaker, John Williams, Jane Williams, William 
Williams, George Shoemaker, Theophilus Williams, Agnes 
Shoemaker, Grace Shoemaker, Peter Cleaver, Thomas 
Kenderdine, Nathan Cleaver, Joseph Philips, Edward Ambler 
and others.

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