Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/42

 he announced that he was making collections of the same sort, beginning at the year 1400, but these collections—Harl. MSS. 3805-16, which are now in the British Museum—were never printed. Later in that year he issued a fifth volume, containing a supplement of monuments between 1650 and 1718, 'collected since the publication of the former volumes.' In 1720 he published in two parts 'The Lives and Characters … of all the Protestant Bishops of the Church of England since the Reformation, as settled by Queen Elizabeth, Anno Dom. 1559, by J. L., gent.' All his works were unsuccessful from a pecuniary point of view, and he fell into difficulties. In order to improve his position, and presumably on the suggestion of the Bishop of Ely, to whom his 'Fasti' had been dedicated, he took holy orders, though aged 41, and was presented by his patron to the Lincolnshire rectory of Thornton-le-Moor in January 1721-2. His creditors still pursued him, and he was imprisoned to insolvency in Lincoln gaol in December 1722. By a singular irony of fate, the exact day of his death is unknown, and if there is a monument raised to him who noted those of so many others, it is not now visible. A successor was appointed to the rectory of Thornton-le-Moor, 'vacant by the death of John Le Neve, the last incumbent,' on 23 May 1741.

Le Neve married by license, dated 25 January 1698-9, at St. George's, Southwark, his first cousin, Frances, second daughter of Thomas Boughton of Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire, and Elizabeth Le Neve, sister of the bridegroom's father (, Marriage Licences, ed. Foster, p. 964). By his wife Le Neve had eight children.

[T. Duffus Hardy's Life, prefixed to his edition of the Fasti, Oxford, 1854.]  LE NEVE, PETER (1661–1729), Norfolk antiquary, is generally said to have been born in London on 21 Jan. 1661–2 (but the entry in the ‘Merchant Taylors' School Register’ gives the date as 2 Feb. 1661–2). Both dates would seem to be wrong, as he was baptised at St. Michael's, Cornhill, 22 Jan. 1660–1 (information from C. H. Athill, Bluemantle). He was the son of Francis Neve (the ‘Le’ having been dropped for several generations when Peter re-adopted it), a citizen and draper of London, by Avice, daughter of Peter Wright, a London merchant (from whom, no doubt, he took his christian name), and the grandson of Firmian Neve of Ringland, Norfolk. Sir William Le Neve [q. v.] was his third cousin once removed. Peter entered Merchant Taylors' School on 11 March 1672–3. In 1675–6 his father was described as an upholsterer of the ‘Crown,’ Cornhill, and he may have obtained his first taste for heraldry from the scutcheons and pennons supplied for funerals by his father. A transcript of a book belonging to Sir Philip Woodhouse, made in 1680 (now in the present writer's library), and apparently in Le Neve's handwriting, suggests that he was interested in genealogy at an early age. When nearly twenty years old (1681) his father died. He was then resident at the ‘Harrow’ in the Poultry. Soon afterwards Le Neve seems to have moved to Warwick Lane, ‘against the White Horse in Paternoster Row,’ where he was still known as ‘Peter Neve.’

Le Neve's abnormal powers of work rapidly gave him a high reputation, and in 1687, when he was only twenty-six, he was elected president of the Antiquarian Society, on its revival in that year. This office he resigned in 1724, after holding it for thirty-seven years. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society. Before 1689 he began the immense and careful calendars of the records relating to his own county of Norfolk. By that date he had completed a careful calendar of the fines of the county down to the reign of Edward II. On 17 Jan. 1689–90 he was made Rouge Croix pursuivant. In 1694–5 he was suffering from fistula, apparently in London, and in the same year probably took part in Queen Mary's interment (, Letters). In 1696 he was at Doctors' Commons, no doubt at the college, and was well enough off to offer pecuniary help to his friend Millicent. From 1696–8 he was corresponding with Tanner, offering to help him with his description of Wiltshire, encouraging the undertaking of the ‘Bibliotheca,’ and helping him with the ‘Notitia’ and the ‘Monasticon’ (Tanner MSS. Bodl.) In 1699 his brother Oliver killed Sir Henry Hobart, father of John Hobart, first earl of Buckinghamshire [q. v.], in a duel, and had to leave the country. Le Neve watched his brother's interests in England with great care and zeal, and ultimately arranged for his safe return to England.

In 1698 he transcribed and annotated the ‘Visitation of Norfolk,’ made by Bysshe in 1664 (Rye MSS.) By 1701 he had made great progress in his projected ‘History of Norfolk;’ in a note to his ‘Fines Calendar of Edward II’ he mentions that he had transcribed the book, arranging his notes under the headings of the several towns in alphabetical order. In 1702 he reported on the Calthorpe MSS. (see Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. vii. p. 113).

He was still hard at work at the records