John Le Neve

John Le Neve (1679–1741) was an English antiquary, known for his Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ ("Feasts of the Anglican Church"), a work of English church biography which has been published in many subsequent editions.

He was born on 27 December 1679 in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, the only son of John Le Neve (d.1693, buried in Westminster Abbey 2 August 1693), by his second wife Amy Bent (d.12 December 1687), daughter of John Bent of London, a member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors. His grandfather, another John Le Neve, resided firstly at Cavendish, Suffolk and later in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London. His father's first wife had been Frances Monck (1633-1677), buried in Westminster Abbey, a daughter of Colonel Thomas Monck of Potheridge, Devon, the brother of General George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1608-1670), by whom he had a daughter Mary le Neve, who died an infant. His uncle Richard le Neve (d.1673) was a sea-captain who died in action against the Dutch in 1673 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, while another of his uncles, Edmund le Neve (d. 1689), was a barrister of the Middle Temple.

John's mother died on 12 December 1687, when he was eight years old, and at the age of twelve he was sent to Eton College as an oppidan. His father died on 20 July 1693 when John was fourteen, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, as were both his wives. John succeeded to a small amount of property and became a ward of his kinsman (whose exact relationship to him has not been traced)Peter Le Neve (1661-1729), the herald and antiquary. Another of his guardians was his first cousin John Boughton, whose sister he married in 1699. From Eton he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1694 and matriculated in 1696, but left without taking a degree.

All his works were loss-making, and he fell into difficulties. At the age of 41 he took holy orders and in January 1722 was presented by his patron William Fleetwood to the rectory of Thornton-le-Moor in Lincolnshire. His creditors pursued him and in December 1722 he was imprisoned for insolvency in Lincoln gaol.

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