After some schooling at Rochester he attended for two years the borough hospitals, whence he removed to Edinburgh and took the degree of M.D.
He was detained a prisoner in France for no less a period than eleven years, being confined successively at Fontainebleau, Verdun, and Valenciennes.
On his arrival he found the prisoners in the utmost need of medical assistance: "He accordingly proposed to the committee of Verdun, an association of the principal British officers and gentlemen in France, charged with the general distribution of charitable succours obtained from England, to give them his gratuitous care, which was gladly accepted, and a dispensary was in consequence established, though not without great difficulties from the French military authorities."
Cleverley was allowed to return home in 1814, when he received for his services at Valenciennes the marked thanks of the managing committee of Lloyd's.
He died of fever at his house in Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square in 1824, leaving five sons (the eldest 14 years old) "in a destitute state" without him.