Family and Education

b. 1567, 2nd s. of Sir Henry Neville I of Billingbear by his 2nd w. Elizabeth, da. of Sir John Gresham of Titsey, Surr.; bro. of Henry. educ. L. Inn 1586. m. by 1604, 5s.

Offices Held

Burgess, New Windsor 1593.

Biography

The Edward Neville returned for Windsor in 3595 is unlikely to have been Edward Neville I, who at this time was claiming the barony of Bergavenny. The Member of 1589 is designated ‘esquire’ in the return, and the Member of 1593, ‘gentleman’. Both were admitted to the freedom of the borough immediately before return, and to complete the confusion over status the 3593 Member appears as ‘esquire’ in the borough’s record of admission. If Edward Neville I be ruled out, the 1593, MP was in all probability his cousin and namesake the second son of Sir Henry Neville, high steward of Windsor, and younger brother of Henry Neville, the other 1593 burgess. There might easily have been doubts as to whether he should be styled ‘gentleman’, as in the return, or ‘esquire’, as in the borough records, when he had just been left the manor of Culham, in the parish of Wargrave, and other property in Berkshire, and all his father’s ‘household stuff’ at the Savoy in London. He was presumably the Edward Neville of Culham, Sunninghill and Windsor, whose fourth son, Charles, was born in 1608 and educated at Eton and Oxford. Charles Neville took his BA in 1626 as equitis aurati filius; there is no other evidence that Edward Neville was knighted, and the date of his death is unknown.

Misc. Gen. et Her. ii. 318; Vis. Berks.(Harl. Soc. lvi), 250; PCC 1 Nevell; Eton Reg.; Al. Ox. 1057; Bodl. Ashmole 1126, f. 38v.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Alan Harding

Notes