Samuel Clayton
Irish artist

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".
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.
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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.
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.
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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.