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FAMOUS PEOPLE

JOHN CLEVELAND:
JOHN CLEVELAND was one of the foremost poets of his day but is little remembered now. He was born in LOUGHBOROUGH in 1613, the son of THOMAS CLEVELAND. His father was assistant to the Rector of BURTON'S CHARITY SCHOOL, later to become LOUGHBOROUGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL. THOMAS was appointed Vicar of Hinckley in 1621, at which time the family moved there and JOHN became a pupil of HINCKLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL. He later went on to study at CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE and to become a fellow and tutor at ST JOHN'S COLLEGE.

It was during this time that he established a reputation both as a poewt and an ardent supporter of the Royalist cause. He opposed OLIVER CROMWELL's election as MP for Cambridge in 1640 and, on the outbreak of war, joined the force of CHARLES I at Oxford. He continued to support the KIng through his poetry and was appouinted Judge Advocate of Newark in 1645. When the garrison there surrendered he was taken prisoner by the Scots but later released as "a mere ballad-monger".

Following this, he travelled the country earning his living as a tutor and staying with fellow Royalists. It was while staying with Edward Cooke in Norwich that he was arrested on suspicion of Royalist activities and imprisoned at Great Yarmouth. While in prison, he wrote a letter to CROMWELL who was impressed with him and ordered his release as no threat to the government.

At the end of his life, he went to live in Gray's Inn, London and it was here that he died of a fever in April 1658. He was buried in the church of St Michael Paternoster Royal on College Hill but his grave and epitaph were both destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1999. CLEVELAND ROAD and JOHN CLEVELAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE in Hinckley are both named after him.

In his book "WORTHIES OF ENGLAND", Thomas Fuller calls CLEVELAND "a general artist, pure latinist, exquisite orator and eminent poet". His poetic works included "THE PURITAN"; THE REBEL SCOT": ELEGIE ON THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY" and "THE KING BEHEADED". These were very popular at the time, especially after the Restoration of CHARLES II in 1660, which he did not live to see. The style of his work can be seen in this example from "THE REBEL SCOT", written in 1647, which was an attack on the Scots for "betraying" CHARLES I:

"Hence then, you proud imposters, get you gone You Picts in gentry and devotion You scandal to the stock of verse, a race Able to bring the gibbet in disgrace... Nature herself doth Scotchmen beasts confess Making their country such a wilderness".