When the Normans invaded England in 1066 one of William's Barons was Gilbert, Gilbert was a decendant of a Viking lieutenant to "Rolf the Ganger" who invaded Normandy in around 900. Gilbert's grandmother was the sister of one of Williams Great Grandmothers.
For his part in the conquest of England Gilbert was give lands all over England and these holding are in the Doomsday book (1086), however surnames were not in common use and Gilbert was know by many names "Gilbert de Cleva" (latin) "Gilbert de Clive (french). The names of Clive, Clyve, Cleves, Cleeves, Cleaves etc. may all have come down from Gilbert. (Alan Cleave's letter lists many holdings and possible decendants).
There are two places in Herefordshire named Clive or Cleve, ( some surnames are taken from places of origin and Cleaves, Clyve, Cleeves etc. may has arisen this way in some instances). The Bishop of Hereford from 1115 to his death in 1119 was Geoffrey de Cleve.
In 1325 John Clyve was in charge of Customs at Southhampton and this may have been an inherited post.
There was a Warin de Cleve in the 13th Century whos family aquired the manor of Huxley in Cheshire by marriage around 1300 and the manor of Styche near Market Drayton, Shropshire, in 1479. When Joshua Clive died without sons the Cheshire lands passed to other families (through his daughter?) but his younger brother Ambrose inheritied Styche and his decendants are the Earls of Powis (who changed their name from Cleve to Herbert in 1807) and the Clives of Hereford. Ambrose died in 1645. One of Ambrosed sons, Robert was born in 1614 and became a member of Parliament, a lawyer and a Colonel in the Parliamentary Army.
The Clives (decentants of Robert Cleve) were pronouncing their name as "Cleve" up to about 1580 when a George Clives discovered a document showing that the name had been spelt as "Clyve" in the past. They were not very rich, not until one of Robert's grandsons went out to India as a Clerk in the service of the East India Company in 1744. After three years as a clerk Robert Clive switched to the company's private army and won many battles against Indian Princes and French forces in India.
This Robert Clive returned to England in 1760 with an enormous fortune and bought up properties in Shropshire. He was later elected as Member of Parliament for Shrewbury. Because of the electral laws of the time some M.P.s were elected by a very few voters and with his money Robert Clive was able to manipulate the system so that the Clive family controlled most Shropshire, seats in Parliament.
For further details see the Victorian Histories of the Counties of England, also "History of Shropshire,".
Alan traced his own ancestory as far back as a marriage in 1685. In 1685 a
Robert Cleaves (or Cleves or Clives) married a
Philippa Forest at East Pennard.
Robert Cleves had been baptised at nearby
Bouton. There is a Cleves signature on a will dated 1543 from
Bouton and a Clives on the Church register dated 1556.
This
Robert Cleaves
had a son named
John
born 1686, from whom were decended the following generations,
William
his son
John (born 1746), his son
William, his son
Isaac (died 1857),
his son
Isaac (born 1851 - died 1908),
his son [
Ernest born 1886) and his son Alan W (born 1913).
From whom there are living decendants.
The third son of Robert Cleaves and Philippa Forest of
East Pennard was
James Cleeves b1691 - d1764 of
East Pennard,
his son was another
James Cleaves b1720 - d1767 of
East Pennard.
His son William Cleeves
who was baptised in 1747 at Ditcheat and married Mary Higgins in 1769 in
East Pennard.
Alan W Cleaves' great grandfather
Issac Cleaves left High Littleton, Somerset, for Australia in 1840.
Two of his older Brothers,
James and
Job had already left High Littleton for Abersychan, South Wales,
seeking work in the coal mines. Job later left for Australia in 1864,
but James remained in Wales and has many decendants there and elsewhere in Britain.
A large family now spelling their name Cleeves is found in Avon, Somerset and Wales (plus the USA)
and is decented from a Samual Cleaves or Cleves born in Burcombe Somerset about 1792
(reading Alan's writing it could be Butcombe,
and I've checked and both names exist in Somerset!
.
Samual Cleaves (or Cleves) married at Bedminster in Bristol in 1817 to Unity Clark.
There was a Charles Cleaves married to Mary Lansdowne in Bath Abbey
on the 5th of July 1831, they moved to Bristol where Charles was a brewer.
There was a Charles
Cleaves living with his wife Mary in Bristol in about 1840 to 1851, when his son Josiah
Robert Cleaves was baptised at the Baptist Templer Church Charles' occupation was
listed as vitualler. Later a daughter Emily was baptised in December 1851 aged 2 years
and 1 month, at Saint Phillip and Jacob Church, Bristol, when Charles' occupation was listed as a Brewer.
The 1861 Cardiff census for St. Mary's
and St. John's shows a Charles Cleaves, 19, unmarried, printer, born in Bristol.
Josiah Robert Cleaves (see above) was a printer's overseer,
he married (when is surname is give as Cleves) to Sarah Anne Armitage (probably at Cardiff)
they had a son Herbert Robert Cleves on 29 February 1868 (and perhaps other children).
Alan W Cleaves believed that the
Charles Cleaves who was 19 in 1861 emigrated with his wife Jane at the age of 36
(when his wife was 34) on the ship "Rodney" 1st December 1878.
With their Children Anne(?) (15) Minnie (4) and Sydney (2).
Herbert Robert Cleves was also a printer whose children were :-
In (about) 1984 Alan W Cleaves
found six listings for Cleaves in the Cardiff telephone directory. My (distant) relative was one of them.
There was a marriage of Eliza Cleves to William Lilley on 7th of September 1590 at Saint Deny's, Warminster, Wiltshire.
There was a George Cleeves, christened on 15 Nov 1594 at Saint Thomas, Salisbury, Wiltshire. His father was John Cleeves.
There was a marriage of Joane Cleeves to Robert Mytten on 7th of October 1596 at Saint Deny's, Warminster, Wiltshire.
There was a Elizabeth Cleeves, Christened on 28th of August 1633, also at Saint Thomas, Salisbury, Wiltshire. Her mother was Elinor Cleeves.
There was a John Cleeves, Christened on 17th of August 1650, also at Saint Thomas, Salisbury, Wiltshire. His father was Thomas Cleeves.
There was a marriage of Sarah Cleeves to Richard Mislebrook, on 2 December 1739,at Downton, Wiltshire.
There was a Josiah Robert Cleaves, christened on the 10 May 1840 at Temple, Bristol, Gloucester. His father was Charles Cleaves his mother was Mary.
There were many other Cleaves/Cleeves in Sussex, Kent, and Hampshire.
From 1851 Census
James Cleaves from Butcombe aged 66 [born 1785] in the Asylum for the poor of Bristol Stapleton.
He is lised as a pauper and his occupation as Soap Chandler. [ref Z3402]
Their son
William appears to have been baptised twice, at Bruton in 1772
and at Hornblotton in 1782 after his mother died in childbirth .
This William
and his wife Grace had 9 children, including
Josiah (born 1804)
and
Charles who was baptised at Hornblotton in 1809.
Herbert Victor Graham Cleves was a college principle who had three daughters and one son,
Kenwyn Graham Cleves b1931. Kenwyn Graham Cleves is (was in 1984) a
teacher at Taunton, Somerset, he had 3 sons and a daughter.
From Other Sources
From "Vital Records"
Narrative History of the County of Somerset
by Brenda Ralph Lewis & David Nash Ford
" Richard Tucker of Stogumber and George Cleaves of Brompton Ralph founded
Stogumber in New Somersetshire and Falmouth in Maine"
Go Back
Cleves, Cleaves, Cleeves, Clive, Clyve Family
Cleaves families in Somerset
Decentants of Edward Cleves, b1830
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