General Notes

The Cleveland Line (photocopy, no author, publisher, etc. a ttached.): "Passenger ship lists show that Edward Winn, his wife Joanna, his daughters Ann and Elizabeth came to America with their indentured apprentice Moses Cleveland about 1635, disembarking probably at either Boston or Plymouth , Mass. Edward Winn was a shipbuilder and housewright. Moses was apprenticed as a joiner or carpenter. Indenturing was a common practice with orphaned children in England and other countries, and we can speculate that his brothers were also sold for their keep and to learn a trade not much later.

Moses soon worked out his indenture and learned his trade as a carpenter well. He was made a freeman in 1643 in Woburn, Massachusetts and gained considerable prominence in local politics. On Sept 26, 1648, he married Ann Winn..... He soon acquired more land and built a masonary house that became a historical landmark. He was admitted to full communion with the First Church of Charlestown in 1692."

MILITARY: Served as Sgt. of militia in King Phillips War 1675 from Woburn, Mass

In (The History of the City of Cleveland 1796-1896, p22) it "states that William Cleveland, of York, England, who died at Hinckley, in Leicestershire, in 1630, was the remote ancestor of the American Cleveland's. It is also shown that a lineal descendant of his, whose name was Moses, and who was a housewright, or builder, by trade, emigrated from England and landed at Boston in the year 1635, where he remained for several years.... This Moses Cleveland was a man of intelligence and enterprise....But this Moses, who had now become a freeman, feeling that he had ancestral blood in his veins of a superior quality, thought that it out to be transmitted, and after a brief courtship married ...Anne Winn.... The result was that he became the accredited progenitor of all the Cleveland's born in the United States- a race not only numerous, but noted for great moral worth and many noble traits of character."

(from "English Notes" by Prentiss Glazier in The Connecticut Nutmegger Vol. 12 No. 4, p578)
"Moses Cleveland, son of Isaac and Alice, was baptized at St. Stephen's in Ipswich Co., Norfolk, 2 Feb 1621. Aaron, another son, was baptized 1 May 1623 and buried 7 Apr 1627; Enoch, another son, was baptized 8 May 1625. Alice, the mother, was buried 4 May 1626; her husband, Isaac, was buried 3 Jun 1626, ''leaving six children to the charge of the parish" At this time, it's unknown where Prentiss got his information.

According to family tradition, Moses Cleveland came to New England in 1635 as "a ship's carpenter's apprentice, and worked his passage over. It is generally stated that he came from Ipswich as an indentured apprentice to a joiner, housewright or master builder, name of his master not ascertained,but conjectured to be Edward Winn ( whose daughter he afterwards married), for 'he went to Woburn with his master,' and there settled in 1640-1;" admitted a freeman in 1643; granted land at Woburn 1648-9; listed on Woburn militia roll 1663 at age 39.

from: The American Forbears and Some of the Decedents of Charles Theron Brown and His Wife Martha Elizabeth Hebbard, Michael R. Gannett, 1978 It has also been said that Moses and the group he was with came first to Virginia to settle but having to much trouble with the Indians, they boarded a ship and came up the coast to Plymouth.


Children of Moses Cleveland

Moses Cleveland
Hannah Cleveland
Aaron Cleveland
Samuel Cleveland
Miriam Cleveland
Joanna Cleveland
Edward Cleveland
Josiah Cleveland
Isaac Cleveland
Joanna Cleveland
Enoch Cleveland

Moses Cleveland is apparently the ancestor of all Cle(a)velands who are of New England origin. When he arrived in Massachusetts from Ipswich, County Suffolk, England, in 1635, he was an indentured apprentice to a housewright. After remaining a few years in Boston, Moses, along with Edward Winn, founded the town of Woburn in 1640. Moses became a freeman in 1643. At that time a freeman was required "to be of godly walk and conversation, to be at least twenty years of age, to take an oath of allegiance to the government of Massachusetts Bay Colony, to be worth 200 pounds, to hold office if elected or pay a fine of forty shillings, and to vote in all elections or pay the same fine." Because these restrictions were so severe, many eligible apprentices chose not to become freemen with so little freedom!

In 1642 Woburn selectmen appointed "land viewers" who allocated Moses a share of the public lands promised by the General Court, thereby designating Moses as an official "citizen." The 1663 Woburn Militia Muster Roll gives his age as thirty-nine. Around this time he also witnessed the certificate of Constable Thomas Dutton, who had tried unsuccessfully to deliver a circular letter from King Charles II to the people of Woburn. The good constable apparently needed verification that he had tried to fulfill his official duties but was spurned by the citizens, who felt that Charles was trying to "seduce the towns from their allegiance

from:The American Forbears and Some of the Descedents of Charles Theron Brown and His Wife Martha Elizabeth Hebbard, Michael R. Gannett, 1978 It has also been said that Moses and the group he was with came first to Virginia to settle but having to much trouble with the Indians, they boarded a ship and came up the coast to Plymouth.

Moses Cleveland became a man of some prominence in New England and,
it would seem, was identified with all the political movements of the
day.