William Cecil Arthur Clayton, 7th Duke of Greystoke is discussed by Philip José Farmer in Tarzan Alive. Following the theory proposed by H.W. Starr in his article "A Case of Identity, or The Adventure of the Seven Claytons", the 7th Duke is a conflation of two literary characters:
- Arthur, Lord Saltire, the young son of the Duke of Holdernesse kidnapped by James Wilder in the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Priory School
- William Cecil Clayton, Lord Greystoke, a figure in Tarzan of the Apes and The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The original fiancé of Jane Porter, he was amongst the party that originally discovered Tarzan living in Africa amongst the Mangani. When he later realised that Tarzan was the rightful heir to the Greystoke titles, he kept quiet, only revealing the truth on his deathbed, long after Jane had transferred her affections to the jungle man.
Farmer identifies the 7th Duke's parents as the 6th Duke of Greystoke (or Holdernesse) and Edith Jansenius. On his father's side he is a member of the Wold Newton Family.
On the 7th Duke's death, Tarzan adopted the Greystoke titles, and Farmer refers to him as the 8th Duke in Tarzan Alive accordingly, with the related Exminster titles (created for the 6th Duke before he became Duke of Greystoke becoming extinct. Later, in his novel The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, Farmer revealed that this was a piece of misdirection, and that Tarzan actually took over his cousin's identity as 7th Duke to avoid the publicity that would result from the jungle man entering the House of Lords in his own right. Alternatively, Wold Newton scholar Matthew Baugh has identified a possible younger brother of the 7th Duke who would have inherited the Exminister titles.
External Links
- "For Those Who Came In Late: Doc Savage's Father and the Greystoke Lineage" by Win Scott Eckert
- "Sailor Steve and the Iron Men" by Matthew Baugh (see reference to Sir Cecil Clayton)