PAGE 36

A FAMILY OF CRAFTSMEN

THE CLEEVELYS OF CHARLTON KINGS, PART II

The story of the Cleevelys is taken up again with the children of JOHN, who died in 1628/9.  I believe that he is the ancestor of all the Cleevelys now in Charlton. 

/16/ JOHN - presumably born about 1560, buried 23 February 1628/9 (aged about 69)

• wife Joane, married 27 March 1585; buried 6 March 1630/1

• son John, baptised 13 June 1585, buried 8 August 1587

• son Henry, Baptised 14 November, buried 20 November 1586

• daughter Joane, baptised 17 May 1588, buried 29 June 1596

• son THOMAS, baptised 8 January 1591/2

• daughter Margaret, baptised 13 December 1594

1553-7 are missing years, where folios have been torn out of the register.  John's baptism may have been entered on them.  But that would make him rather old to be the husbandman aged about 40 of Men and Armour; even if born in 1560, he must have been 48 in 1608.  But he was tall and fit to be a pikeman, so perhaps his age was minimized by the compilers of the list or by himself.  As a husbandman, he probably held land under Ashley manor, acquired either by his father after 1564, or by himself as a young man, or received with his wife Joane as her portion.  This last seems the likeliest.

 John and Joane were unlucky with children.  Only one son and one daughter survived infancy.

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/17/ THOMAS - son of John and Joane

• baptised 8 January 1591/2

• wife Ann Jordan, married 7 March 1616/7, buried 29 August 1617

• wife Jane Dowdeswe1l, married 21 October 1622, buried 13 August 1667

• son Thomas, baptised 3 September 1623, buried 19 May 1673

• son SAMUEL, baptised 30 October 1625, buried 23 January 1689/90

• son NICHOLAS, baptised 7 September 1628, buried 11 January 1705/6

• daughter Jane, baptised 23 January 1631/2, died a spinster,

• her brother Samuel's son Thomas was her heir in 1711

• son John, baptised 24 October 1634, buried 2 December 1634

Thomas would have been 25 at the time of his first marriage and 30 at the time of his second.  His wife Jane was the sister of Robert Dowdeswell who on 2 April 1638 granted a moiety of his customary lands held under Cheltenham manor to his wife Anne and then surrendered them to use of his daughter Jane and her heirs or in default to use of his sister Jane Cleevely and her heirs¹.  This remainder did not take effect.

Thomas Cleevely was in trouble in 1631 because he had taken two stray sheep valued at 6s. out of the common pound for Cheltenham manor (in Horsefair Street).  He was fined 8d.².  Capture of strays was a privilege of Cheltenham which Ashley did not enjoy.

/18/ SAMUEL - 2nd son of Thomas and Jane

• baptised 30 October 1625, buried 23 January 1689/90

• wife Mary, buried 30 September 1655

• wife Elizabeth Stock, married 5 March 1656/7, buried 28 December 1675

• son SAMUEL, born 2 December 1657; (? married Judeth, buried as Judeth Cleevely, widow 19 April 1712); dead by 1711

• son Robert, baptised 9 October 1659, buried 20 May 1678

• daughter Mary, baptised 26 August 1663, buried 23 February 1689/90

• daughter Elizabeth, baptised 1 July 1666, buried 12 February 1689/90

• son THOMAS, baptised 19 March 1670/1, heir of aunt Jane 1711 daughter Sarah, baptised 7 December 1672

Samuel and his brother Nicholas were both excused hearth-tax in 1671, which shows that they were living in houses with only a kitchen fire to warm them.

PAGE 38/39 – FAMILY TREE CHART (best placed here)

/19/ NICHOLAS - 3rd son of Thomas and Jane

• baptised 7 September 1628, buried 11 January 1705/6 (aged 78)

• wife Eleanor, married -, buried 16 September 1680

• son NICHOLAS born 5 December 1657, buried 17 November 1727 (aged 70)

• son FRANCIS, baptised 3 March 1660/1, buried 22 March 1720/1 (aged 60)

• daughter Hannah, baptised 20 December 1663

• daughter Elinor, baptised 17 October 1666

• sons William and JOHN, baptised 1 June 1669. William buried 12 July 1670

Nicholas was a Dowdeswell family name, and this may be why Nicholas Dowdeswell in his will of 16 November 1632 (G.R.O. 1633/28) left 3 sheep to his namesake (? godson) Nicholas Cleevely.  He was also "kinsman" to Robert Whithorne, buried 5 January 1680/1, who in his will of 1680 (G.R.O. 1680/150) left 10s to Nicholas Cleevely senior and 20s to Nicholas Cleevely junior; I think the elder Nicholas must have married a Whithorne.

Nicholas Cleevely lived next door to John Jones with whom he had a dispute in 1692 respecting the boundary of their gardens.³

/20/ NICHOLAS - eldest son of Nicholas and Eleanor

• born 5 December 1657, buried 17 November 1727

• wife Grace, married -, buried 7 September 1671

• wife Elizabeth Potlugg, married 29 December 1683, buried 6 April 1708

• wife Frances Thorn widow, married 14 August 1715

• ?? wife Mary Acton, married 15 September 1723

The second Nicholas was married at least three, perhaps four times.  He had no child by any wife, and there does not seem to have been any other Nicholas in Charlton who could have become the husband of Mary Acton in 1723.  This is the Nicholas who received a 20s legacy from Robert Whithorne in 1680.  He became a builder, head of the firm "Nicholas Cleevely and Brothers" who was paid for work on the Church house⁴ in 1697, again in 1705, and yet again in 1709 when his bill came to 14s..  The brothers who worked with him must have been Francis and John; his cousin Thomas /23/ son of Samuel /18/ and his more distant connection William /13/ son of Henry may have worked under him.  In their day, most Charlton houses were still timber-framed (like Church House), and alterations or rebuilding involved woodwork rather than bricklaying.  Only the wealthy like John Prinn could afford to cover their timber-frame houses with a brick skin, as he was doing about this time at New Court and Forden House.

Nicholas Cleevely had no children and his brother Francis only daughters, while their brother John appears not to have married at all, so the family firm was probably carried on after Nicholas's death in 1727 by the widow and sons of Thomas /23/.

/21/ FRANCIS - second son of Nicholas and Eleanor

• baptised 3 March 1660/1, buried 22 March 1720/1

• wife Sarah Fisher, married 24 April 1688

• daughter Sarah, baptised 20 February 1688/9; buried as spinster 28 December 1733

• daughters Elizabeth and Hester, baptised 19 July 1691; Hester buried 2 November 1691 

/22/ JOHN - twin son of Nicholas and Eleanor baptised 1 June 1669; alive till 1708

He seems to be the John Cleevely who paid rent to the parish for a house called "Griffins" in 1696, and continued to pay rent for a parish garden until 1708.

PAGE 40 

/23/ THOMAS - son of Samuel and Elizabeth, carpenter

• baptised 19 March 1670/1, buried 13 November 1725

• inherited from aunt Jane 1711

• wife Sarah Kent married in Cheltenham 1701; she married² 15 October 1728 William Billings of Gloucester

• daughter Elizabeth, baptised 9 August 1702, married --Lea

• daughter Sarah, baptised 5 November 1707

• son Thomas, baptised 21 November 1709, buried 14 November 1710

• son JOHN, baptised 30 October 1711, buried 25 March 1783

• daughter Judeth, baptised 1 November 1714

• son William, baptised 22 May, buried 24 May 1717

• son THOMAS, baptised 4 September 1718

• daughter Edith, baptised 7 February 1720/1, married 12 February 1744/5 Thomas Hall; buried 23 August 1770

By trade, Thomas was a carpenter, as we know from his inventory.  But he also had some land.  As son and heir of Samuel Cleevely who was kinsman and heir of Jane Cleevely deceased, he inherited field land in Naunton and a parcel of garden near Hempcroft field in 1711.⁵  He may also have come into a little money.  At all events, in the following year, he was able to put down cash to buy a home for himself and his wife Sarah.

He bought half an Ashley manor tenement in Church End Street (Church Street).  The house had belonged to the Crump family who had the nearby forge in 1671.  On 2 May 1712, Thomas paid £12 to Grace Crump, sole daughter and heir of Jane Crump widow deceased, for a moiety of the property.⁶  The other moiety was occupied by Mary Collins, who had the eastern part.  The house stood about half way between the present day Forge Cottage and Baptist Church, just where the slope leads up to the Library.

We may guess that Thomas was not a robust man.  He anticipated an early death.  On 3 May 1723⁷ he surrendered the house to use of himself and his wife for their lives and after to the use of Thomas their younger son and his heirs - this would enable Sarah to bring up the boy (and at the same time bring up the still younger daughter Edith, though nothing was said about her).  Thomas had already had to part with land. On 25 March 1724, he accepted £21 from John Prinn Esq. (of Forden House) for his parcel of land near Hencroft field, between a close of William Rook and the highway near the church (i.e. Horsefair Street), and for all his field land in Naunton, the lands he had inherited from his aunt Jane in 1711.⁸  The same heriot, 2s. 9d., was paid for them in 1711 and in 1724, so we may be sure he had sold everything.  Perhaps he was already ill.  He was buried on 13 November 1725, when his son Thomas was seven. 

His goods were not appraised till 19 September 1726 (1726/77) - an unusually long interval between the death of a testator and valuation.  As he had sold all his land, it is understandable that he had no implements of husbandry when he died.

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MAP –  placed here on original

"An Inventory of the Goods of Thomas Cleevely late of Charlton Regis in the County of Glouc: Carpenter decd  Appraised the 19 day of September An 1726.

								£	 s	d

Imprimis his Purse and Wearing Apparrell			l	 0	0  

Item
In the Kitchen two Kettles two potts and some other Small
brass Vessels twelve dishes of pewter and some small pewter
things a Skimmer & ladle					3	 1	 0

Item
In the Hall a Table board & Frame six old chairs		-	 8	 0 

In three Chambers three beds & bedsteads and Healing to
them all							4	 0	 0
Three Chests three Coffers six Chairs				-	10	 0
Six pairs of sheets some table linning & some other odd
linning								2	10	 0

Item
In the Shop a parcell of Carpenters Tools			1	 2	 6

Item
Without Doors a Parcell of wood a ladder & some other Lumber	-	15	 0

Item
All other goods unnamed with & without the house		-	12	 0
								-------------------
								13	18	 6
								===================
Appraised the Day & year above written
Sam11 Cooper
Sam11 Sloper

PAGE 42 

This was a comfortable home, according to the standards of the day - a hall or living room, a separate kitchen, and three bedrooms, all sufficiently furnished.  The family did not brew at home - there was no brewhouse and no brewing equipment.  In the yard was a workshop, where Thomas kept a quantity of tools worth the fairly high figure of £1.2s.6d., which did not include his ladder.  He did not have as much wood on the premises as his distant kinsman Henry in 1733, but the totals of their trade items come out much the same, Henry £2. 15s. 0d. and Thomas £2. 9s. 6d.  In general terms, however, Thomas was better off and was living in a more modern style.

There was one child younger than Thomas the heir.  This was Edith, baptised in 1721, who on 12 February 1744/5 married Thomas Hall.  The Halls was an old Charlton family, tenants under Ashley in the 16th century.  A Thomas and Margaret Hall had a son Thomas baptised 28 November 1720, but if he is our man, then his age as given on his tombstone (viz. 56) is wrong.  The grave of Thomas and Edith Hall is just by the west way into the church, facing the railings: she died on 26 August 1770 and her husband on 11 May 1782.  Later Halls lived in Church Street in an ancient messuage on the site of the present Baptist church, and were plumbers and glaziers. 

Across the road from Thomas Cleevely's house was a parish house occupied by several poor families.  It was described in 1700 as "a long rainge of houses --­ at the East end of which said house there is a garden about a quarter of an Acre more or less, which Garden is now in possession of one Jno Cleevly".⁴   The parish land ran right down Church Street to Frigmary Lane (School Road) and altogether there was half an acre of it.  John Cleevely paid 4s the half year for his quarter acre till 1708 and after that Mary Collins paid the same sum from 1709-1714.  At Michaelmas 1714 Thomas Cleevely took over the garden and at Ladyday 1715 - "Thomas Clevly for the Parish Garden at Churchend" began to pay 7s 6d, indicating that he now rented the whole half acre.  He continued to pay this rent till 1726, the year of his death; and Widow Cleevely continued the payments till 1730.  In 1731 William Billings took over the 7s 6d "for the Widow Cleevly now his wife".  In fact, they had been married some time - William Billings of Gloucester married Sarah Cleevely on 15 October 1728.  In 1735 he persuaded the parish that the land was over-valued - his rent was fixed at 13s a year, instead of 7s 6d for the half year.

When Widow Cleevely remarried in 1728, she presumably wanted a man to help to manage the family business, since her elder son John was still only 17.  Billings may have been connected with the building trade (as later Billings have been) ­ if so, it would explain a Gloucester man settling in Charlton Kings.  John and later his brother Thomas must have worked with him.  Thomas we know was a carpenter like his father.

In 1766, the parish had to help William Billings to the extent of 10s and in that year he gave up the parish garden, which his stepson John took over.  William Billings was getting elderly and past digging, but he was not buried till 6 February 1774.  His wife had predeceased him - she was buried 6 September 1767.  As the house in Church End had been settled on Thomas the younger son, it seems best to deal with him and his descendants next.  They were the builders whose work can still be seen in Charlton Kings, at the Baptist Church, the old schools, and various houses.  Their story will be continued in Part 3.

1. G.R.O. D 855 M 10 f.167

2. ibid f.53

3. D 855 M 12 p.49

4. P.76a CH 1/1; Bulletin 6 p.43

5. D 855 M 13 p.189

6. D 109 original surrenders 18

7. D 855 M 14 P.217

Author - M. Paget, 1984

Charlton Kings Local History Society

END OF PART TWO