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John Clayton (1842-1910) immigrated from England to Canada, ending up in British Columbia in the Cariboo goldfields, sometime before 1873. In 1873 he moved to Bella Coola, and began working at the Hudson's Bay Trading Post. According to a 2015 article about his grandson D'Arcy (in "The Stew", 2015), Clayton met a Nuxalk woman, Q'uit, during his travels to Victoria and brought her back to Bella Coola, where they lived together and had a son (Willie Mack). Clayton took over as HB Postmaster c. 1875. Around 1882 HBC planned to close their Bella Coola post, so Clayton decided to rent the premises and run his own store. In 1890 he is said to have travelled to England to find an English wife, Elizabeth Cross Orton, and brought her back to Bella Coola, where they continued living and had several children. John Clayton is said to have died in San Diego in 1910. His son John stayed in Bella Coola until the mid-1920s. His wife Elizabeth (b. 1861) died in Victoria in 1938.

Born: c. 1842
Died: 1910