Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cleland, William (1674?-1741)
CLELAND, WILLIAM (1674?–1741), friend of Pope, was of Scotch birth. He studied at Utrecht, served in Spain under Lord Rivers, and after the peace became a commissioner of customs in Scotland, and after 1723 of the land tax and house duties in England. He died on 21 Sept. 1741, in his sixty-eighth year, having been dismissed from his office (worth 500l. a year) two months previously. He is known chiefly from his connection with Pope. Pope presented a portrait of himself by Jervas, and a copy of the Homer, to Cleland, with the inscription, 'Mr. Cleland, who reads all other books, will please read this from his affectionate friend, A. Pope.' A letter, obviously written by Pope, but signed William Cleland (dated 22 Dec. 1728), was prefixed to later editions of the 'Dunciad.' Pope also made use of Cleland to write a letter to Gay (16 Dec. 1731) in contradiction of the report that 'Timon' was intended for James Brydges, duke of Chandos [q. v.] A note by Pope on the 'Dunciad' letter is the chief authority for the facts of his life; some writers at the time of its first publication had even denied Cleland's existence. There is no doubt of the facts mentioned, but other statements about Cleland are contradictory. Scott, in his edition of Swift, described him as the son of Colonel W. Cleland [q. v.], which is impossible, as Colonel Cleland was born about 1661. He is also said to have been the prototype of Will Honeycomb, which is improbable from a consideration of dates. Neither can he be identified with a Colonel Cleland with whom Swift dined on 31 March 1713. He and Mrs. Cleland are mentioned in Swift's correspondence by Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Barber as known to Swift (Scott's Swift, iii. 195, xviii. 195, xix. 91). Pope (3 Nov. 1730) asks Lord Oxford to recommend a son of Cleland's, who was then at Christ Church, having been elected from Westminster in 1728. Another son was probably John Cleland [q. v.], a disreputable person, who was also at Westminster in 1722, and who was mentioned in his lifetime as the son of Pope's friend. His father's portrait, in the the fashionable costume of the day, is said always to have hung in the son's library.
[Carruther's Life of Pope (1857), 258-63, where all the evidence is given; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 457-8; Gent. Mag. 1735, P. 500, 1741, p. 500, 1789, p.180; Welch's Queen's Scholars of Westminster, 276, 281, 297.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.70
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 30 | i | 18-17 f.e. | Cleland, William (1674?-1741): for and after 1723 read until 1714 and from May 1724 till July 1738 |