Samuel Clay OH's MFMFMF

[ElizabethHerts]

Name
Samuel Clay


Date and place of birth

Names of parents
Henry and Prudence Clay

Date and place of baptism
13th October 1755
St Michael & All Saints, Edenham, Lincolnshire

Details of each of his or her marriages
14th June 1787
St Michael & All Saints, Edenham, Lincolnshire

Children
Isabella/Arabella
Elizabeth
Sarah
Robert Mitchelson
Ann
Joseph
John
Jane
Mitchelson
baptised at Edenham

Occupation(s)
Labourer

Addresses

Date, place and cause of death

Date and place of burial
6th June 1809
St Michael & All Saints, Edenham, Lincolnshire

Details of will / administration of their estate

Memorial inscription

[ElizabethHerts]

It turns out that Samuel Clay was something of an astrologer:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...ger%22&f=false

A very interesting read. I must see if I can discover any more about him.

[ElizabethHerts]

At Scottlethorpe, Mr. Samuel Clay, an eminent astrologer. The remains of this extraordinary man happened to be buried on a very tempestuous day; and that circumstance has much strengthened a notion which had been long prevalent in a district round his dwelling, that the deceased was in his life time a very potent MAGICIAN ! –
Fools are the produce of every province, or perhaps a regard for the fame of our native county, might prevent our relating what a surprising influence the habits of this man had acquired over a number of people within some miles of him. He was verily believed of many to be a Conjuror, and he practised as such for the space of thirty years with considerable success! – If any thing could be an excuse for the credulity of those whom this “Sam Clay,” as he was called, deceived, his superior cunning, and the very extraordinary and impressive fiuge of the man, might perhaps be pleaded. He was born at Scottlethorpe, and was for a short time apprenticed to a baker there; but having had a little education, he disdained the unleavened pursuit of his master, and led an idle half-studious life in his father’s cottage, on the Grimsthorpe domain; to which cottage, on the death of his father, he succeeded. By that time the recluse life of the man had occasioned some conversation, and he was regarded with a degree of terror by the children of the neighbouring villages. He stood six feet in height, was remarkably erect and thin, with “eyes severe and coat of formal cut, full of wise saws he was and modern instances;” and his loins were usually girt with a belt, his waistcoat was of goat or dog-skin, and ever at the “witching time o’night” he prowled abroad! In a little while his fame became very general, and silly people from considerable distances resorted to his habitation, to have their difficulties dispelled, and take the benefit of his occult studies: almost innumerable are the instances adduced in which this cunning man hit upon expedients to relieve and satisfy his ignorant votaries. Being consulted by a man who had lost some traps for catching vermin in the purlieus of Grimsthorpe Park, the astrologer told him he would, by the second sunrise, discover the person who had stolen them! He employed the interval in making reasonable enquiries; and having suspicion of the offender, he went to a field in which the man was at work, and, accosting him with all the confidence and severity necessary for his purpose, “ You stole –‘s traps” said he. The appalled offender, smitten with his guilt, and with the impossibility of deceiving his accuser, confessed the fact, and told where he had secreted the stolen articles. “I charge you,” concluded the conjuror, “move them not from the spot in which they lie, nor speak of the confession you have made to me, on pain of the most terrible torments my skill is able to inflict.” The man who had sustained the loss, called again at the time appointed, and, by the direction of Sam Clay to a particular part of the offender’s cottage, recovered his property. Of course the amazing skill of the conjuror was trumpeted in all quarters.
A few years ago, this Sam Clay, having, we suppose, misplaced on of his spells, was reduced to the dire necessity of declaring, by advertisement in a newspaper, that he was no conjuror! and of begging pardon of an innocent person whom he had charged with theft! This circumstance had but a slight and temporary effect upon his reputation, and he died in full feather as a magician, in the 50th year of his age.


The Universal magazine
Volume XII 1809

also Stamford Mercury



The age is slightly out, but I'm pretty sure it's him.
All his children state they were born at Scottlethorpe, which is just outside Edenham.