Jones Clayton family

• Willard Clayton
• Rev. Clayton
• Jean Jones
• Annie Jean Clayton
• A.J. Clayton

The Jones and Clayton families, both prominent in the African Nova Scotian United Baptist Church community, were united by marriage when Rev. Dr. Willard Parker Clayton (1921-2007) married Annie Jean Jones (1932- ) on June 24, 1954 in Halifax Nova Scotia Canada. Willard was born in 1921 in Liverpool NS to Licentiate Samuel James Clayton (1886-1967) and Idella Mae (Croxen) Clayton (1888-1978) and raised in Upper Hammonds Plains NS. He left school to work with his father in the family cooperage business (making wooden barrels to transport foodstuffs), then joined the Canadian Army in 1942. Willard P. Clayton served overseas during the Second World War (1939-1945) in the Royal Highland Regiment, Black Watch of Canada, Canadian Army European Theatre (Infantry). He saw Front Line action in France, Holland, Germany, and Belgium before being honorably discharged in 1946. He was ordained as a Christian minister in The African United Baptist Association on September 25, 1952. Clayton earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952, a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1955 and a Bachelor of Education degree in 1963, all from Acadia University. He went on to earn a Doctor of Religion degree in 1980 in the United States. In addition to ministering, Rev. Dr. Willard P. Clayton was employed full time, first with the Federal Public Service (1952-1962) then the Digby County and Halifax County Bedford District School Boards as classroom teacher (1963-1974) and Vice-Principal (1974-1986). Within the Church, Willard served as Executive Member of The African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia from 1954 to 1996. Together with his wife Jean they worked in church ministry to the Black community in Nova Scotia for 50 years. Clayton was also a writer, with 4 books published between 1982 and 2005. Rev. Dr. Clayton died on April 17, 2007 in Halifax NS.
Annie Jean (Jones) Clayton was born in 1932 in Tracadie NS to Deacon Sydney Morgan Jones (1899-1993) and Amelia Jean (Desmond) Jones (1900-1952). Sydney M. Jones was one of 16 Blacks to enlist in the 106th Battalion, Nova Scotia Rifles, Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was wounded at Passchendaele, Belgium during the Third Battle of Ypres while serving as a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment during the First World War (1914-1918). After the war, he served as Deacon for the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church and lived in north end Halifax, where his daughter Jean grew up. She graduated from Queen Elizabeth High School in 1951 with Grade 12. After her marriage to Willard Clayton in 1954, she worked as a pastor’s wife within the Church and raised their three daughters: Joyce, Shelley, and Heather. In 1975 Jean earned a diploma as a Social Service Worker from Nova Scotia Institute of Technology and started working outside the home and church. From 1975 to 1994 Jean was employed with the Black United Front, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Halifax Metro United Way, and finally Human Rights Resources Development Canada. Jean Clayton was also a writer, especially of poetry. As of 2023, she lives in Halifax NS.

Created 2023-04-13 Karen White

• English

Contents of the fonds.
Information from the donor.