Lawyers and Lawmakers of Kentucky, by H. Levin, editor, 1897. Published
by Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago.  Reprinted by Southern Historical
Press.  p. 587.  Fayette County.

HENRY CLAY was born in Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 1777, and died
at Washington, D. C., June 29, 1852.  His life is familiar to almost every
American, for his public acts form an important part of the history of the
nation.  It is therefore needless to give more than a brief account of the
great commoner.  No words of praise or eulogy which we could write could
add to his great fame, for his name is found among the highest on the roll
of the nations' eminent sons, and his memory is cherished by all lovers of
the country.
     At the age of fourteen he was placed in a drug store at Richmond,
Virginia, but after a few months' service entered the office of the clerk
of the high court of chancery, and was employed also by Chancellor Wythe,
whose conversation and advice turned his attention to the law.  In 1796
he became an inmate of the household of Robert Brooke, attorney-general
of Virginia, and improved the opportunity afforded him for study.  The
year 1797 he devoted exclusively to study.  Upon obtaining his license
to practice, he removed to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1798.  He was elected
to the legislature from Fayette county in 1803, and re-elected to every
assembly until 1806.  In that year he was elected to the United States
senate to fill an unexpired term.  In 1807 he was again elected to the
legislature and made speaker of the house; was re-elected to the
legislature, serving until 1809, when he was again elected United States
senator to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of John Buckner
Thruston, and served until 1811.
     In 1811, on his retirement from the senate, he took his seat in the
lower house of congress in Washington as the representative from the
Fayette district, and was re-elected to the congress of 1813-15, but in
1814 resigned on being appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate a
treaty of peace with England.  He was again elected and served in congress
from 1815 to 1820, and 1823 to 1825.  He was elected speaker of the house
during each term of his service, and has the distinction of being made
speaker upon his first entrance as a member, and of having occupied the
speaker's chair throughout his entire service in he house.  In 1825 he
entered the cabinet of President John Quincy Adams as secretary of state.
He retired from office in 1829, and engaged in the practice of his
profession.  In 1830 he was elected United States senator for a full term
by the legislature of Kentucky and re-elected for a new term in 1836,
retiring in 1842, when he declined a re-election.
     In 1849, however, he was again elected to the senate, and died while
serving in congress.  He was three times the nominee of his party for the
presidency and three times a candidate for the nomination.  His life work
in the legislative halls of the nation forms an important part of the
history of the country for nearly fifty years.  His public utterances are
written indelibly upon it pages.
     In 1799 he was married to Lucretia, a daughter of Colonel Thomas
Hart, of Lexington, Kentucky.

Clay Hart Brooke Thruston Wythe
=
Hanover-VA Washington-DC

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/fayette/clay.h.txt