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History

The Cleaver Ordination Candidates Fund was founded under the Will of Mrs Friederica Frances Swinburne, who died on 14 April 1916. It is thought to have been named after the Revd William Henry Cleaver (1834-1909), whose son was one of the original Trustees. He died in July 1909, just over a year before Mrs Swinburne signed her Will.

The Revd W H Cleaver
The Revd W H Cleaver

The original Trustees named in Mrs Swinburne’s Will were:
  • The Revd Henry Falconar Barclay Mackay, Vicar of All Saints Margaret Street
  • The Revd William Bouverie Trevelyan, Principal of Liddon House London
  • The Revd Dr Darwell Stone (Chairman, 1919-38 ), Principal of Pusey House Oxford
  • The Revd Charles William Euseby Cleaver
  • Henry William Hill, Secretary of the English Church Union
  • William Donaldson Rawlins KC (Chairman, 1917-19)
  • Henry Pelham Archibald Douglas Pelham-Clinton, 7th Duke of Newcastle
  • Walter Robert Riddell, Fellow of Hertford College Oxford
  • Ian Malcolm Esq
  • The Hon. Edward Frederick Lindley Wood MP, later 1st Earl of Halifax
  • The Revd Fr Philip Napier Waggett SSJE
  • The Revd George Arthur Weekes, Fellow (later Master) of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Chairman, 1938-)
The Will provided that new Trustees should be appointed by the second Viscount Halifax (President of the English Church Union), and after his death by a majority of the surviving or continuing Trustees.

As will be seen from the list of the initial Trustees and the power given to Viscount Halifax to appoint new Trustees, the Fund was founded within a definite Anglican Catholic tradition. All applicants must therefore submit a brief theological statement expressing their understanding of this tradition and supporting their claim to stand within it.

The Trustees received a generous legacy from Canon Professor Joshua Roy Porter (1921-2006), Professor of Theology at Exeter University, who was Chairman of the Trustees from 1988 to 2001. The Roy Porter Fund enables an annual study day to be held at Pusey House, Oxford, for ordinands and deacons.

N.B. The photograph of W H Cleaver is reproduced by permission of St Peter's Home and Sisterhood and Surrey History Centre: Copyright of St Peter's Home and Sisterhood.