NEVILLE, Grey (1681-1723), of Billingbear, Berks.

Grey, known as ‘Bishop’, Neville was returned as a Whig for Berwick on the interest of his brother, Henry Grey, who had inherited the Northumberland estates of the Greys of Warke. In 1715 he collaborated with his fellow Member for Berwick, John Shute, later Lord Barrington, in preparing a statement for the Government setting out the grounds for repealing the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts,1Dudley Ryder Diary, 154. for which he spoke and voted in 1719. He also voted for the septennial bill but opposed the peerage bill, commenting ironically on the Government’s attempt to rush it through a thin House.2Thos. Brodrick to Ld. Midleton, 8 Dec. 1719, Brodrick mss. After the collapse of the South Sea bubble he spoke, 8 Dec. 1720, in support of a motion, which was lost, calling for an inquiry into the responsibility of ministers for the affair, four days later carrying another requiring the South Sea directors to lay an account of their proceedings before the Commons. He subsequently defended Lord Sunderland against the charges brought against him in the House of Commons, saying that ‘though he hated all that had promoted the South Sea scheme, yet on such trivial evidence he would be for even one that was accused of murdering his father’.3Geo. Tilson to Ld. Whitworth, 15 Mar. 1721, Add. 37324, f. 90. He also opposed the proposal that John Aislabie should be included in the bill for confiscating the estates of the South Sea directors.4Coxe, Walpole, ii. 215. Three days before the election at Berwick in 1722 his brother, at his instance, wrote to Sunderland stating that Neville had been given to understand that Sunderland had offered ‘to procure him £1000 towards his expenses at Berwick’.

If your Lordship has any such kind intentions to assist a gentleman who (as well as myself) has personally served your Lordship, the sooner you are pleased to do it, the greater the obligation will be. I beg your Lordship will either give me leave to wait on you at your own hour, or that you vouchsafe to order your secretary to give me an explicit answer, that in case my poor brother cannot have any favour from his Majesty we may have time to raise the money to support him.5Hen. Grey to Sunderland, 28 Mar. 1722, Sunderland (Blenheim) mss.

Re-elected, he died next year, 24 Nov. 1723.