Constituency Dates
Grampound 1774 – 1780
Buckingham 1780 – Feb. 1782
Reading 21 Feb. 1782 – 1796, 1796 – 25 May 1797
Family and Education
bap. 29 June 1750,1New Windsor par. reg. st s. of Richard Neville Aldworth afterwards Neville. educ. Eton 1759-67; Merton, Oxf. 1768. m. 9 June 1780,2Neville to James Grenville, 13 June 1780, Braybrooke mss, Berks. RO. Catherine, da. of George Grenville, 4s. 4da. suc. fa. to estates of Stanlake and Billingbear 1793; and his distant cos. John Griffin Griffin, Lord Braybrooke, under sp. rem., as 2nd Lord Braybrooke, 25 May 1797, inheriting Audley End, Essex, and took the name of Griffin.
Address
Main residence: Stanlake and Billingbear, Berks.
biography text

At the general election of 1774 Neville was returned for Grampound, which had been put at the disposal of Administration by Edward Eliot at a cost of £2,000 a seat. In Parliament Neville seems generally to have supported Administration; he does not appear in any of the minority lists, 1775-8, and on 31 Oct. 1776 (in his one reported speech before 1790) moved an Address commending the Administration’s American measures.3Almon, vi. 6.In the list on the contractors bill, 12 Feb. 1779, Neville was classed as ‘contra present’, but with ‘friend’ added. He voted with Administration on the motion for an account of pensions, 21 Feb. 1780, but with Opposition on economical reform, 8 Mar. 1780; did not vote on the motion to abolish the Board of Trade, 13 Mar., but voted with Administration on Dunning’s motion, 6 Apr., and the motion against prorogation, 24 Apr. 1780; and was classed by Robinson in July 1780 as ‘pro’.

When at the general election of 1780 Edward Eliot, now in Opposition, refused to re-elect Administration supporters, Neville was returned for Buckingham on the interest of his brother-in-law, Lord Temple; but having political disagreements with Temple,4Braybrooke to Glastonbury, 12 Sept. 1806, Braybrooke mss. vacated his seat at Buckingham when a vacancy occurred at Reading, and was returned after an expensive contest. His first reported vote on re-entering the House was with Opposition on Conway’s motion against the war, 27 Feb. 1782. Robinson in his survey for that division noted that Neville was ‘friendly, but called on at Reading on his election to vote against the American war’;5Abergavenny mss. he did not however vote on John Cavendish’s censure motion, 8 Mar. 1782, or on Rous’s motion of no confidence, 15 Mar. 1782. Neville voted for Shel-burne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783, and against Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783. He was classed as pro-Pitt in Robinson’s list of January 1784, in Stockdale’s of 19 Mar., and by Adam in May. At the general election of 1784 he was returned unopposed for Reading. He continued to support Pitt throughout this Parliament.

Braybrooke (as he became in 1797) died 28 Feb. 1825.

Author
M.M.D.
Volume
Commons 1754-1790
Notes
  • 1. New Windsor par. reg.
  • 2. Neville to James Grenville, 13 June 1780, Braybrooke mss, Berks. RO.
  • 3. Almon, vi. 6.
  • 4. Braybrooke to Glastonbury, 12 Sept. 1806, Braybrooke mss.
  • 5. Abergavenny mss.