John Cleland [SEP] educated at
an officer in the British Army and then a civil servant. William Cleland was a friend to Alexander Pope, and Lucy Cleland was a friend or acquaintance of Pope, Viscount Bolingbroke, Chesterfield, and Horace Walpole. The family possessed wealth and moved among the finest literary and artistic circles of London.
John Cleland entered Westminster School in 1721, but he left or was expelled in 1723. His departure was not for financial reasons, but whatever misbehaviour or allegation had led to his departure is unknown. Historian J. H. Plumb
was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the daughter of John Burton Cleland (1878–1971) and his wife, Dora Isabel Paton (1880–1955). She had three sisters, Dr Margaret Burton Cleland, Elizabeth Robson Cleland and Barbara Burton Cleland; and a brother, William Paton Cleland, who became a surgeon. The father encouraged his children's interest in science. Joan Paton was educated at the University of Adelaide, where she majored in organic chemistry and biochemistry. In 1951 she married Erskine Norman Paton (1922–1985),