Barclay Martin was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee's 6th congressional district. He was born in Edgefield District, South Carolina on December 17, 1802. He moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky with his parents in 1804 and to Bedford County, Tennessee in 1806. He pursued an academic course and moved to Columbia, Tennessee in Maury County. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced.
In 1839 and 1840, he was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, and he served in the Tennessee Senate from 1841 to 1843. He was elected as a member of the Democratic Party to the Twenty-ninth Congress, serving from March 4, 1845 to March 3, 1847. He resumed the practice of his profession and again served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849 and from 1851 to 1853. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Columbia Athenaeum, which served as the rectory for the Columbia Female Institute, from 1852 until his death. He died in Columbia, Tennessee on November 8, 1890 and was interred in Zion Cemetery.