- Virginia Clay-Clopton
Virginia Clay-Clopton (1825-1915), was an American memoirist and political hostess. She was also known as "Virginia Tunstall", "Virginia Clay", and "Mrs. Clement Claiborne Clay".
Born Virginia Tunstall in
Nash County, North Carolina , she grew up in Tuscaloosa,Alabama and was schooled inNashville ,Tennessee . She marriedClement Claiborne Clay in 1843 and moved with him to Huntsville, Alabama. When her husband was elected aU.S. Senator in 1853, Virginia Clay began a period living in the elite circles ofWashington, DC socialites.In 1861, Alabama seceded from the Union. Clement Claiborne Clay represented his state in the Confederate legislature and Virginia Clay continued to move in high society, but now in Varina Davis’
Richmond, Virginia .In 1865, at the end of the war, Virginia Clay and her husband were suspected of partaking in a plot to
assassinate Abraham Lincoln . They were arrested and imprisoned atFort Monroe, Virginia . PresidentAndrew Johnson ordered their release in April, 1866. The Clays then returned to Huntsville. Clement Clay died there in 1882.In 1887 Virginia Clay married Judge David Clopton, and became known as Mrs. Clay-Clopton. Judge Clopton died in 1892. Virginia Clay-Clopton became active in the
women’s suffrage movement and theUnited Daughters of the Confederacy .In 1904 she published a memoir entitled, "A Belle in the Fifties" covering her life from girlhood through her confinement at Fort Monroe.
She is interred in
Maple Hill Cemetery (Huntsville, Alabama) .ources and External links
* [http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/clay/summary.html Summary of A Belle of the Fifties: Memoirs of Mrs. Clay, of Alabama, Covering Social and Political Life in Washington and the South, 1853-66 ] at docsouth.unc.edu
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