Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cleaver, Euseby
CLEAVER, EUSEBY (1746–1819), archbishop of Dublin, was a native of Buckinghamshire, being a son of the Rev. William Cleaver, master of a school at Twyford in that county, and a younger brother of William Cleaver [q. v.], bishop successively of Chester, Bangor, and St. Asaph. He was educated on the foundation at Westminster School, whence he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1763. He graduated B.A. in 1767, M.A. in 1770, B.D. and D.D. in 1783. In 1774 he was presented to the rectory of Spofforth, Yorkshire, which he held till 1783, when Lord Egremont, whose tutor he had been, presented him to the rectories of Tillington and of Petworth, Sussex. He became prebendary of Hova Villa in the church of Chichester in 1787, and in the same year, through the interest of his brother, the bishop of St. Asaph, who had been tutor to the Marquis of Buckingham, he was appointed chaplain to that nobleman, then going to Ireland as viceroy for the second time.
In March 1789 he was promoted to the sees of Cork and Ross, and in June the same year he was translated to the sees of Ferns and Leighlin. He suffered heavy losses by the rebellion of 1798, having his palace plundered and his library and property of all kinds destroyed, but he himself escaped personal violence. In August 1809 he was raised to the archbishopric of Dublin. His mind eventually became impaired, and the functions of the see were discharged by a coadjutor for some years previously to his death at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in December 1819. His wife, by whom he had several children, died 1 May 1816.
This prelate was 'as eminent for his mildness and condescension as he was for his great piety and extensive learning.' His only publication is a 'Sermon preached before the Incorporated Society in Dublin for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland,' Dublin, 1792, 4to. A portrait of him, painted by Stewart, has been engraved by J. Grozer.
[Welsh's Alumni Westmon. ed. Phillimore, pp. 362, 372, 379, 460, 462; Cat. of Oxford Graduates, ed. 1851, p. 132; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 279; Gent, Mag. lxxxix. pt. ii. p. 564; Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hibern. ed. 1847, i. 190, ii. 27, 343; Mant's Hist. of the Church of Ireland, ii. 757.]