John Clayton (Newcastle)

John Clayton (10 June 1792 – 14 July 1890) was an antiquarian and town clerk of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, during the nineteenth century. He worked with the builder Richard Grainger and architect John Dobson to redevelop the centre of the city in a neoclassical style, and Clayton Street in Newcastle is named after him. He did much to preserve the remains of Hadrian's Wall.

Son of Nathaniel Clayton (Town Clerk of Newcastle upon Tyne from 1785 to 1822), he was educated at Kirkoswald School in Northumberland and received classical education at Uppingham. He began work in the firm of solicitors that had been established by his father Nathaniel in the Bigg Market in 1778, and which became Clayton and Dunn, and qualified as an attorney in 1815. John become Under-Sheriff in 1816 before succeeding his father as Town Clerk in 1822, remaining in post until 1867. He never married, but shared the family's townhouse in Fenkle Street, Newcastle, with his unmarried brother and legal partner, Matthew.

As well as his work in the city, Clayton was an antiquarian. Four years after his birth in 1792, his father purchased the Chesters Estate, through which Hadrian's Wall runs, and which contained the site of Chesters fort. Landscaping a parkland setting for his home, The Chesters, Nathaniel Clayton levelled out and grassed over much of the Roman fort. While doing so he collected antiquities. From an early age John Clayton took a serious interest not only in the fort of Chesters and its immediate surroundings, but also in Roman remains in the nearby countryside.

From 1834 Clayton began buying land to preserve the Wall, now a World Heritage Site, which was subject to the removal of stones for reuse. He had some restoration work carried out on parts of the Wall. He helped preserve that central stretch of Hadrian's Wall that includes Chesters (Cilurnum). Housesteads and Vindolanda, and carried out some of the first archaeological excavations on the Wall. His first published work, in 1843, was his excavation of the commanding officer's bath-house at Chesters. He was involved in excavations most years for the next half-century, both at Chesters and elsewhere along Hadrian's Wall, namely Cawfields (Milecastle 42), Castle Nick (mc 39) and Housesteads Crags (mc 37), Housesteads and Carvoran. His archaeological work continued into his later years, and he was in his early nineties when he uncovered the spectacular sculptures of the temple to Mars Thincsus at Housesteads.

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