The Cleeve Family of Greensted – Part 2

When Alexander Cleeve married, he settled upon Trustees his manor of Greensted, and at his death in 1738 his will stated that his wife was to continue to live at Greensted Hall, and upon her death, the estate was to be sold for the benefit of his children.

We now look at some of his children:

Bourchier Cleeve: Born in 1715, and so named after his mother Ann Bourchier. He was an English Pewterer and a writer on finance. In 1736, aged only 21, he was given the Freedom of the City of London. In 1740/1 he married Mary Haydon (died 1760) and they had three children – Richard, Ann and Bourchier. He purchased an estate in Foot Cray, Kent, pulled down the old house and built himself a Palladian mansion, called Foots Cray Place.

Cleeve was wealthy and collected paintings by Rembrandt, Reubens, Van Dyke, Canaletto and Hans Holbein. Visitors were invited to admire the house and its contents. In addition Cleeve laid out the grounds and arranged for water to be diverted from the Cray to run through a canal and a cascade in front of the house. However he did not long survive the building of the house.

In 1755 he paid a fine to be excused service as the Sheriff of London. His will written in 1759 only mentions Ann, his two sons are believed to have pre-deceased him. Ann inherited his estates, which came into the possession of Sir George Yonge upon his marriage with Cleeve’s daughter in 1767.

Cleeve wrote A Scheme for preventing a further Increase of the National Debt, and for reducing the same (1756), inscribed to the Earl of Chesterfield (1756). The scheme was to impose a high tax on houses, and to repeal an equivalent amount of taxes on "commodities". Part of this tract was taken up with estimates of the amount subtracted in taxes from incomes. Cleeve's estimates were exaggerated, as was shown by Joseph Massie's Letter to Bourchier Cleeve, Esq., concerning his Calculations of Taxes (1757). He wrote another pamphlet, on the staffing of the navy.

Jane Cleeve: Born in 1716 she married the Reverend Thomas Velley, who was Rector of Chipping Ongar and Bobbingworth from 1740. He died in 1750, aged 47 years and is buried at St Martin’s, Chipping Ongar. They had 4 children. A son, Thomas (1748 – 1806), matriculated from St. Johns College, Oxford, and graduated B.C.L. in 1772. He became lieutenant-colonel of the Oxford militia and was made D.C.L. of the university in 1787. He resided for many years at Bath, and devoted himself to botany, and especially to the study of algæ, collecting chiefly along the south coast. He became a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1792.

Jumping from a runaway stage-coach at Reading on 6 June 1806, Velley fell and suffered concussion, from which he died on 8 June.
The only surviving daughter of Thomas and Jane, Mary, born in 1743, married the Reverend Richard Budworth (1746-1805), who on the death of Richard Cleeve, succeeded to the living of High Laver.

They had three children, their surviving son was Captain Philip Budworth, who resided at Greensted Hall.