Cleaveland (whaling family)
Whaling family from Massachusetts
The Cleavelands were a family of whalers from the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States, from the seventeenth though the nineteenth centuries. They are related to many of the other whaling families of the islands, including the Mayhew, Athearn, Coffin, Look, Luce, and Pease families.
Moses Cleaveland
The Cleveland families of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket trace their name to Moses Cleaveland, the first of that name on the islands. He was born September 1, 1651, in Woburn, Massachusetts, and died October 30, 1717, in Southold, New York.
During his life, Moses Cleveland is believed to have been a soldier, mariner, and farmer. He served in the bloody King Philip's War of 1675–1678. In April 1691, when the Martha's Vineyard town of Edgartown formed a company of militia, he was made second sergeant.
In addition to giving rise to the Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket families, Moses Cleaveland was an ancestor of: General Moses Cleaveland, who laid out the initial plan of the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and for whom that city was named; and Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States.
Ebenezer Cleaveland
Ebenezer Cleaveland, son of the first Ebenezer—the first Cleaveland born on the Islands—was born in Edgartown, Massachusetts, in 1708 and died September 10, 1794, on Nantucket. He was a whaling captain.
“Cleaveland (whaling family)” enters the record as whaling family from Massachusetts. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cleaveland, whaling and family can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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