Clerk Information:
- Full Name: Charles Hay
- Served: 1789 - 1795
- Bio Information: Born in Williamsburg, Va., 1764. Died in Augusta County, Va., July 20, 1795, Charles Hay of Richmond was the son of Anthony and Elizabeth (Davenport) Hay. His father was the proprietor of the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg until his death, December 4, 1770. He was a brother of George Hay, celebrated lawyer in the trial of Aaron Burr for treason. Charles Hay resigned as assistant clerk of Council of State and served as committee cleric, 1783, until elected Clerk of the House of Delegates. In 1786, he qualified in the Hustings Court for the city of Richmond to practice as an attorney in the inferior courts of the Commonwealth. Edmund Randolph in his letter to Governor Beverley Randolph, dated March 23, 1789, from Williamsburg, referred to his employment of Charles Hay, attorney in Richmond. He was elected Clerk of the House of Delegates, October 19, 1789. He is mentioned in Moore’s Richmond Royal Arch Chapter No. 3, A. F, & A. M., in a list of members in 1790, and in another list covering 1792 to 1822. He was a member of the Amicable Society, a benevolent organization to relieve strangers and wayfarers in distress, for whom the law made no provision. At the time of his death, the Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser, Richmond, is quoted as follows: “He was a man of unblemished reputation, and integrity, and equally respected in every walk of life. He possessed a clear and solid understanding, and followed the profession of the law, to which he was an honor. In the year 1790, he was appointed Clerk of the House of Delegates, and by unremitting attention to business, acquired a handsome property, out of which he brought up and genteelly educated the younger branches of his family, the care of whom at a very early period indeed, devolved upon him. --These he has left to lament their loss; but when the keen sensibility of the passions shall subside, they will have for consolation, that their relation lived respected and died regretted by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.” He never married. There is no known portrait of him. While he was Clerk of the House, the Speakers were THOMAS MATHEWS and JOHN WISE.
*The information within this interactive and searchable application has been researched extensively by the House Clerk’s Office. As with any historical records of this age and breadth, there may be discrepancies and/or inconsistencies within records obtained from a variety of credible sources. Any feedback is encouraged at history@house.virginia.gov.