Biography

He was born in 1836 in Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and emigrated to the United States around 1850. His first job was at an import business, working as a junior clerk. In 1859 he co-founded Livermore, Clews, and Company, what was then the second largest marketer of federal bonds during the United States Civil War. He split away and started Clews and Company in 1877. He organized the "Committee of 70," which deposed the corrupt ring associated with William M. Tweed in New York City, and he served as an economic consultant to President Ulysses Grant.
He married the American woman Lucy Madison Worthington; they had two children: Elsie Worthington Clews and Henry Clews (1876–1937), that was an artist.

He died in 1923.