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Samuel Clayton

Irish artist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ110245420
Source-derived summary

Samuel Clayton (circa 1783 - 26 June 1853) was an Irish wood engraver, miniature painter, silversmith, and portrait painter.

Life in Dublin

Samuel Clayton was born in Dublin around 1783. His father was wood engraver, Benjamin Clayton I. He had two younger brothers, Benjamin and Robert, who were both engravers. Clayton was married twice in Ireland, first to Jane Maguire in 1800, and then to Emma Johnson in 1807. He was trained by his father, along with his brothers. Prints by Clayton appeared in Anthologica Hibernica in 1794 and 1795. He painted miniatures as well.

Life in Australia

Clayton was found guilty of forgery, and was sentenced to transportation to New South Wales from Dublin for 7 years. He arrived on the Surrey in 1816. From 1817, he advertised his services as a portrait painter, and took up a position as an instructor in engraving, miniature painting, and "in ornamental painting and drawing".

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Samuel Clayton” as irish artist. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1783, 1853, 1800, 1807—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Samuel, Clayton and Irish can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as irish artist. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q110245420. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1783, 1853, 1800 and 1807.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Samuel Clayton”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Samuel Clayton primary sources, Samuel Clayton archive and Samuel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Samuel Clayton”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Samuel Clayton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.