Robert Clayton

Clayton, Robert, Bishop of Clogher, was born in Dublin in 1695. His father was incumbent of a parish. He was educated in England, and afterwards became a Fellow of Trinity College. He was appointed to the Bishopric of Killala in 1729; was transferred to Cork in 1735, and to Clogher in 1745. He was recommended for the vacant Archbishopric of Tuam in 1752; but he was passed over as being the author of several works on ecclesiastical history and chronology exhibiting Arian tendencies. In 1756 he moved in the Irish House of Lords that the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds should be omitted from the Liturgy of the Church of Ireland. In 1757 he published the third part of his Vindication of the History of the Old and New Testaments, containing opinions so contrary to the doctrines of the Thirty-nine Articles, that by direction of the King measures were taken for a prosecution that would probably have resulted in deprivation, had he not died of nervous fever, 26th February 1758, aged about 63. He was member of many learned societies, and corresponded with men of eminence in literature and the arts. He is described as a "munificent, learned, high-spirited man."

Sources

16. Authors, Dictionary of British and American: S. Austin Allibone. 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1859-'71.

40. Biographical Division of English Cyclopaedia, with Supplement: Charles Knight, 7 vols. London, 1856-'72.

118. Ecclesiae Hiberniae Fasti: Rev. Henry Cotton: Indices by John R. Garstin, M.A. 5 vols. Dublin, 1851-'60.