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William Clevland (king)

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King of the Banana Islands
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

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.

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.

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.

His 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. He was succeeded by James Cleveland.

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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