 Clayton also served as judge of the superior courts of the Western circuit of Georgia both preceding (1819–1825) and following (1828–1831) his state senate service.In 1831, Clayton won a special election to fill the remaining term of the resigning Wilson Lumpkin in the United States House of Representatives, and Clayton won reelection to a second term in the regular election in 1832.Clayton maintained business interests in the construction of a cotton mill in 1827 known as the Georgia Factory on the Ocoee River located south of Athens.