General Notes

[TheClayFamily1899Pub.FTW]

Married at about fifteen, widowed by thirty-two and remarried by thirty-five. She bore nine children, one of them the statesman and presidential candidate Henry Clay.

29 September 1784, Elizabeth appeared in court as the wife of Henry Watkins.

Her death notice appeared in "The Western Citizen," in Paris, Kentucky, December 1829:

"Died in Woodford County, on the 4th instant, Mrs. Elizabeth Watkins, widow of Henry Watkins, her second husband, in the eightieth year of her age. He preceded her in the termination of this mortal career only ten days. Few women have fulfilled better the duties incident to all the relations here below in which she stood. Few have performed more devotedly, or for a longer period, those higher duties which, it is to be hoped, have now obtained their reward above. She was the mother of Henry Clay." Among the incidents of her life to which her obituary must have referred was theencounter with Tarletons and his troops during the Revolution, just days after Rev. John's death. One soldier thrust his sword into the fresh grave and virtually everything of any worth, including food, was taken.