Family and Education

b. 22 Feb. 1755, o.s. of George, 1st Earl of Abergavenny, by Henrietta, da. of Thomas Pelham, M.P., of Stanmer, Suss., sis. of Thomas, 2nd Lord Pelham and 1st Earl of Chichester, wid. of Hon. Richard Temple of Romsey, Hants.  educ. Westminster 1766; Ch. Ch. Oxf. 1773.  m. 3 Oct. 1781, Mary, da. and h. of John Robinson,1 4s. 2da.  suc. fa. as 2nd Earl of Abergavenny 9 Sept. 1785.

Offices Held

Biography

At the general election of 1784 Nevill intended to offer himself for Monmouthshire should John Hanbury, who was in bad health, decline to stand again. Advised by John Robinson, Nevill sounded Hanbury;2 but on learning that Hanbury intended to stand, dropped his pretensions.

On 29 Mar. 1784 George Rose wrote to Robinson:3

The business at Seaford has taken a strange turn. General Grant and Andrew John Drummond would not go there, and the people would not elect them in their absence, the consequence of which will be probably that your son-in-law and Sir Peter Parker will be chose.

Next day Nevill and Parker were elected on the Treasury interest after a contest. Nevill appears not to have been present or to have known of his candidature—his seat at Seaford was later described by Robinson as got ‘without our privity and to our surprise’.4

On Hanbury’s death, Nevill announced his candidature for Monmouthshire. He did not apply for the Chiltern Hundreds until he was certain he would meet with no opposition; and although a petition had been presented against his election at Seaford, he was allowed to vacate his seat. He presumably supported Pitt but maintained a certain degree of independence, as is shown by a letter from Thomas Pelham to his father about the Westminster scrutiny:5

I am sure that you will be glad to hear that Lord Nevill resisted the earnest desire of his father Robinson and refused to vote with the minister in support of the scrutiny. He seemed very attentive to the debate and left the House before the division.

He died 27 Mar. 1843.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. HMC Carlisle, 492.
• 2. There is the draft of a letter in Robinson’s hand to Hanbury, dated 21 Jan. 1784, in the Abergavenny mss.
• 3. Laprade, 119.
• 4. Fragment of a letter from Robinson to Nevill. written before 18 May 1784, Abergavenny mss.
• 5. Add. 33128, f. 332.