Ann Critchley, on July 17, 1814. He was the eldest of 14 children. As a child, he learned to play the violin and piano, and was tutored by his father, a school teacher. He married Ruth Moon on October 9, 1836. In 1837, Clayton investigated The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Taught by church apostles Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde, Clayton was baptized October 21, 1837; ordained a priest in December; and a high priest on April 1, 1838. Clayton's parents, 10 surviving siblings, and some of his wife's family also joined the church. In 1838, he served as second counselor to the British mission president Joseph Fielding, with Willard Richards as first counselor. Clayton became a missionary in England, where he grew a branch of the church in Manchester to about 240 members. Move to Nauvoo In September 1840, Clayton led a group of British converts who emigrated to the United States on the ship North America. They arrived in New York on 11 October 1840. He and his family first tried to farm in Iowa Territory, then settled in the predominantly Latter Day Saint community of Nauvoo, Illinois. There he was a clerk and scribe to Joseph Smith from 1842-1844, where he recorded Smith's sermons and helped him write letters. He also wrote in the record book of the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge. Clayton was good friends with Smith and they sometimes referred to each other as David and Jonathan. In an 1840 letter, Clayton wrote to church members in Manchester about interacting with Smith, assuring them that Smith was "a man of sound judgment, and possessed of abundance of intelligence." He described listening to him as a spiritual experience "which expands your mind and causes your heart to rejoice." Clayton also played in the Nauvoo brass band and worked as the city treasurer. He was a recorder and clerk of the Nauvoo City Council, an officer in the Nauvoo Music Association, a member of the church's influential Council of Fifty, and a member of Joseph Smith's private prayer circle where the Latter Day Saint temple ceremonies were first introduced. He worked as a temple recorder and tracked donations and purchases during the temple's construction. Clayton frequently assessed and sold land and took business trips in his work for Joseph Smith. After Joseph Smith's death, Clayton recorded the endowments made by members in the Nauvoo temple