John Clayton was born in 1694 in Fulham, Middlesex, and brought up in comparative wealth until 1715 when he emigrated to Virginia joining his father, John Clayton senior, who became Attorney General for the colony between 1713 and 1737. John Clayton junior was educated in law and, in 1720, took up a post as Clerk to the County Court of Gloucester County which he was to hold until he was seventy-nine. Soon after taking up the post he married Elizabeth Whiting and they moved into their new residence, believed to have been called Windsor, close to the Pianketank River. Records show they also owned a sizeable garden and plantation, though the precise whereabouts of these and the Clayton home remain uncertain. John and Elizabeth had eight children; five boys, the eldest called John, and three girls. Claytonís interest in natural history probably stemmed from his friendship with Mark Catesby (1682-1749), the artist and naturalist, who first arrived in Virginia in 1712. Clayton probably joined Catesby on the Spotswood expedition to the Blue Ridge Mountains and later, in about 1734, started collecting material to send to Catesby who by this time was back in England. Catesby in turn passed these specimens on to J.F. Gronovius (1690-1762), and encouraged Clayton to continue sending specimens to Europe. Clayton, disappointed at the lack of recognition that his collecting efforts should have justified, had determined, around 1760, to prepare a new Flora of Virginia. However, the publication of a second edition of Gronoviusí flora in 1762 led Collinson to advise Clayton to search for a publisher in America, but none was found and any hope of its publication died with Clayton in 1773.