William Clevland (king)

William Clevland (1720 – 6 December 1758) was an Anglo-Scot who became the self-appointed King of the Banana Islands off the coast of present-day Sierra Leone.[1]

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

Early life and family

William Clevland was the son of Commodore William Clevland, a Scotsman who settled at Tapeley Park, near Bideford, Devon. His brother was John Clevland, who was appointed as Secretary of the Admiralty.[2]

Career

In the 1730s Clevland was working for the Royal African Company, which had a monopoly on trade at Sierra Leone. He was on board a slave ship that was wrecked off the Banana Islands. He and surviving African slaves made their way to the islands, which they settled. Clevland took power and named himself king.[3]

His children included:

  • By Kate Corker, daughter of King Skinner Corker:
    • John Clevland (1740–1764)
    • Elizabeth Clevland Hardcastle (1741–1808) who settled in South Carolina.[4]
  • By Ndamba, a Kissi woman. Their children included:

Both Elizabeth and James were sent to England for their education.

John succeeded his father as sovereign of the Banana Islands, but died in 1764.[5] He was succeeded by James Cleveland.[6]

In this period, the British had a trading post at the mouth of the Sierra Leone River and by 1792 had established a colony of freedmen at Freetown.

References
  1. Lang (1999)
  2. Lang (1999)
  3. Caulker-Burnett I.
  4. "Elizabeth Clevland Hardcastle, 1741-1808 : a lady of color in the South Carolina low country". Family Search. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  5. Garber, Melbourne (2016). "Banana, Bonthe, Bunce Islands and Sierra Leone's Other Islands – Their History and Inter-Relatedness during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade" (PDF). Journal of Sierra Leone Studies (March 2016). Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  6. Louise, E. (2001). Elizabeth Clevland Hardcastle, 1741-1808: A Lady of Colour in the South Carolina Low Country. Columbia, South Carolina: Phoenix Publishers.

Sources
  • Lang, George (1999). Entwisted tongues: comparative creole literatures. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi Bv Editions. ISBN 978-90-420-0737-6.


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