John Clevland (1734–1817)

Arms of Clevland of Tapeley: Azure, a hare salient or collared gules pendent therefrom a bugle horn stringed sable. Detail from memorial stained glass window to Archibald Clevland (1833-1854), Westleigh Church

John II Clevland (1734 – June 1817)^[1] of Tapeley in the parish of Westleigh, Devon, was seven times Member of Parliament for Barnstaple from 1766 to 1802.

Origins

He was the eldest son of John I Clevland (1706–1763), Secretary to the Admiralty from 1751 to 1763, and a Member of Parliament from 1741 to 1761. His mother was Elizabeth Child, daughter of Sir Caesar Child, 2nd Baronet (c. 1678–1725).^[2]

Career

For most his career, Clevland worked in the Admiralty.^[2] He was seven times elected a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple from 1766 to 1802.

Marriage

Mural monument to Elizabeth Stevens (1727-1792), wife of John II Clevland (1734–1817), Peters Marland Church

In 1782 he married Elizabeth Stevens (1727-1792), widow of Robert Awse of Horwood House, Frithelstock, and only surviving child of Richard Stevens (1702-1776) of Winscott in the parish of Peters Marland, Devon, Member of Parliament for Callington in Cornwall (1761-1768).^[3] The marriage was without progeny.

Succession

His heir to Tapeley and his other estates was his great nephew Col. Augustus II Saltren-Willett (1781-1849), JP and DL for Devon, who following his inheritance assumed in 1847 by royal licence the surname and arms of Clevland in lieu of Willett.^[4] He was the son of Augustus I Saltren-Willett (1760-1813) (who died at Tapeley in 1813 as his mural monument in Westleigh Church attests), builder of Port Hill House in Northam^[5] (visible across the River Torridge from Tapeley) the son of William Saltren (the second son of Thomas Saltren of Stone in the parish of Parkham) by his wife Hester Clevland, the eldest full-blood sister of John II Clevland (1734–1817).

Monument

A mural monument to his wife survives in Peters Marland Church inscribed as follows:

"To the memory of Mrs Elizabeth Clevland wife of John Clevland Esq., Member of Parliament for the Borough of Barnstaple (where he has been chosen six successive parliaments) and daughter of Richard Stevens of Winscott. She died 16 September 1792 aged 65 years"

Below is a white marble relief sculpted escutcheon showing the following arms: Quarterly 1st & 4th: Clevland; 2nd & 3rd: Vert, two bars engrailed between three leopard's faces or (Child baronets, of the City of London (1685) (Child of Surat, East Indies and Dervill, Essex, Baronet, created 1684, extinct 1753),^[6] the arms of William Clevland's mother Elizabeth Child). Overall is an inescutcheon of pretence of Stevens: Per chevron azure and gules, in chief two falcons rising belled or.

Sources

• Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, pp. 41–5, Christie of Tapeley Park
• Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, p. 408, pedigree of Clevland, appended to pedigree of Christie of Tapeley Park and Glyndebourne, pp. 407–8
• Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry, 1858, Volume 3, pedigree of Clevland of Tapeley
• Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)
2. Sir Lewis Namier (1964). L. Namier; J. Brooke, eds. CLEVLAND, John (1734-1817), of Tapley, Devon. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
3. Mary M. Drummond (1964). L. Namier; J. Brooke, eds. STEVENS, Richard, of Winscott, Devon. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
4. Burke, p.408; Lauder, p.42; Vivian, p.180
5. Now a grade II* listed building. See North Devon Record Office B127-6/73-74, Lease 29th/30th April 1814, Consideration: £5000 and 10s, of "Capital messuage and tenement etc., built by Augustus Saltren Willett, dec'd., and called Porthill House, Northam" from: 1. John Clevland, of Tapley, Esq. 2. Frances Saltren Willett, of London, widow. 3. John Saltren Willett, of London, Esq. 4. Augustus Saltren Willett, Esq., Lieutenant in His Majesty's Sixth or Innishkilling Regiment of Dragoons. 5. Rev'd. Stanier Porten, of Charlwood, Surrey, clerk, Harriett, his wife, William Saltren Willett, Esq., Captain in the Thirty-fourth Regiment of Foot, Francis Saltren Willett, of London, spinster, to Sir Richard Goodevin Keats, Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath and a Vice-Admiral of His Majesty's Fleet
6. Burke's Armorials, 1884