The Clelands of Lanarkshire were a family whose name became inextricably linked with the Covenanting struggle of seventeenth-century Scotland — the great Presbyterian resistance to Stuart attempts to impose episcopacy on the Church of Scotland. Their most famous son, William Cleland (1661–1689), was both a soldier and a poet of the Covenant: a young man who died fighting for his beliefs at the Battle of Dunkeld, leaving behind verse that captures the fierce, sardonic spirit of the Covenanting tradition.
History and Origins
The Cleland family held lands in Lanarkshire from the medieval period, their estate of Cleland in the middle ward of the county giving them both name and identity. The name Cleland — also spelled Clealand, Cleilland, and in various other forms in historical records — is of Lanarkshire origin, reflecting the family's deep roots in the Clyde valley. Like many Lanarkshire families, the Clelands were touched by the Reformation of 1560, which swept away the Catholic church and established a Presbyterian system of church government that became central to Scottish identity.
The Covenanting Struggle
The Covenanting movement — which resisted the imposition of episcopacy (bishops) on the Church of Scotland by Charles I and subsequently by Charles II — found intense support in Lanarkshire. The county's Presbyterian tradition ran deep, and its tenant farming communities had absorbed the Reformed faith with a passion that made them resistant to any compromise. The Clelands were among the families who committed to the Covenant, and the persecution of the 'Killing Time' (1679–1688) — when government troops under figures like John Graham of Claverhouse ('Bonnie Dundee') suppressed Covenanting conventicles across the southwest — shaped the family's identity and history profoundly.
William Cleland — Poet and Soldier of the Covenant
William Cleland (1661–1689) is the most celebrated Cleland of his era — a young man whose short life combined military courage with poetic talent in a way that made him a symbol of the Covenanting spirit. Born in Lanarkshire around 1661, he was educated at St Andrews University and fought at the Battle of Drumclog in June 1679, when a Covenanting force under his command routed Claverhouse's government dragoons in one of the most dramatic Covenanting victories. He subsequently fought at the disastrous Battle of Bothwell Bridge (1679), where the Covenanters were crushed, and spent the years of persecution in exile in the Netherlands before returning to Scotland with William of Orange's invasion in 1688.
The Battle of Dunkeld and Cleland's Death
In August 1689, following the Glorious Revolution that placed William and Mary on the throne, Cleland was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Cameronian Regiment — the fighting unit formed from the most committed Covenanters. At the Battle of Dunkeld in August 1689, the Cameronians — a regiment of raw, fiercely committed Presbyterians — faced the Jacobite Highlanders who supported the exiled James VII in the narrow streets of Dunkeld. Cleland commanded the defence of the town, was mortally wounded early in the fighting, and died during the battle — at the age of only twenty-eight. The Cameronians held Dunkeld, securing a crucial victory for the Williamite cause. His poetry — satirical, vivid, and alive with the argumentative energy of the Covenanting tradition — survives as a remarkable literary legacy.
The Diaspora
Cleland families emigrated from Lanarkshire during the great waves of Scottish emigration in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The agricultural improvements that transformed Lanarkshire displaced many tenant families, and the industrial revolution — which made Lanarkshire the heartland of Scottish heavy industry — drew families from the countryside to the towns before the further displacement of de-industrialisation sent them overseas.
In America, Cleland families are found in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania — the states that received the earliest Scottish and Ulster-Scots emigrants. The Covenanting tradition, with its emphasis on conscience, individual responsibility, and resistance to tyranny, translated readily into American Protestant culture, and Cleland families contributed to the Presbyterian churches that became central to American religious life. In Australia and New Zealand, Cleland families arrived during the nineteenth century, with notable descendants in the professions and public life of both countries.
How to Research Cleland Ancestry
Cleland research should focus on the middle ward of Lanarkshire, particularly the area around the estate of Cleland near Motherwell. The Lanarkshire Archives hold local parish and estate records. Old Parish Records for Lanarkshire parishes are available through the National Records of Scotland. William Cleland's poetry is collected in the edition prepared by Thomas Crawford (1967) and is an important primary source for the Covenanting period. For the Cameronian Regiment, the regimental history by C.R.B. Barrett (1901) provides detailed material. The National Library of Scotland holds manuscripts relating to the Covenanting period.
Notable Clan Members
- William Cleland (1661–1689) — Covenanting soldier and poet. Fought at Drumclog (1679). Lieutenant-Colonel of the Cameronian Regiment, mortally wounded at the Battle of Dunkeld (1689) — his last action securing a crucial Williamite victory. His poetry, including a satirical 'mock poem' on the Highland Host, is a vivid record of the Covenanting spirit.
- James Cleland (1770–1840) — Glasgow statistician and superintendent of public works. His statistical surveys of Glasgow — the Annals of Glasgow (1816) and subsequent works — provide an invaluable record of the city's extraordinary growth during the industrial revolution.
- John Cleland (1709–1789) — Novelist and journalist, author of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (commonly known as Fanny Hill, 1748–49) — one of the most controversial English novels of the eighteenth century. His connection to the Lanarkshire Clelands is debated.
- Robert Cleland (fl. 1680s) — Covenanting minister who suffered persecution during the 'Killing Time' for his commitment to Presbyterian church government. His experience was representative of the many Lanarkshire clergymen who faced imprisonment, transportation, or death for their religious convictions.
Related Clans and Families
Often allied, neighbouring, or linked by marriage: