John II Clevland (1734 – June 1817) 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).

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

Marriage

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). 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.Burke, p.408; Lauder, p.42; Vivian, p.180 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 NorthamNow 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 (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:

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),Burke's Armorials, 1884 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 Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895

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