Alexander Cleeve (c.1670-1738)

He was a wealthy pewterer of the Parish of St. Michael's in Cornhill, London. There is some confusion as to whether he was the same Alexander Cleeve who was an Administrator in the Gambia and Chief Agent for the Royal African Company on James Island. That Alexander Cleeve was in Gambia from 1686 and was back in England by 1695. However, this Alexander Cleeve, the Pewterer, was a member of the Worshipful Company of Pewterers and was recorded as making pewter in London from 1689 so it seems unlikely that they were the one and the same man. In 1711, Alexander the Pewterer was one of the largest investors in the South Seas Company. He lived between Cornhill in London and Greensted Hall in Essex which he built in 1695. His first wife (Mary) died in 1708 and his second wife survived him along with ten children.