Sir Richard Neave, 1st Baronet
Sir Richard Neave, 1st Baronet | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date |
| Died | January 28, 1814 (aged 82) |
| Occupation(s) | Merchant, Banker |
| Known for | Governor of the Bank of England (1783–1785) |
Sir Richard Neave, 1st Baronet (22 November 1731 – 28 January 1814) was a prominent British merchant and served as Governor of the Bank of England.
Life
The son of James Neave and Susanna Trueman, Neave possessed extensive commercial ventures across the West Indies and the Americas. He held leadership roles including chairman of the Ramsgate Harbour Trust, the Society of West Indian Merchants, and the London Dock Company, alongside a directorship at the Hudson's Bay Company. His network extended to American political figures such as George Read from Delaware, who alerted him in 1765 about colonial dissatisfaction stemming from British taxation measures.
Neave lived at Bower House in Havering-atte-Bower before acquiring Dagnam Park in 1772 to enhance his social standing. There, he demolished the original structure and commissioned a grand Georgian mansion.
His involvement with the Bank of England spanned nearly five decades as a director; he was Deputy Governor in 1781 and Governor between 1783 and 1785, coinciding with the concluding period of the Bengal bubble crash. In 1794, he assumed the role of High Sheriff of Essex. That same year, he was honored by election to both the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Society. On 13 May 1795, Neave was granted a baronetcy.
Family
Neave married Frances Bristow in 1761, daughter of merchant and MP John Bristow. Around 1765, Thomas Gainsborough painted portraits of the couple. Their eldest daughter Frances wed Beeston Long, another Governor of the Bank of England; both were vice-presidents of the London Institution in 1806.
Their second daughter, Catherine Mary, became wife to antiquarian Henry Howard. The third daughter, Caroline Mary Neave (born 1781), never married and devoted her life to improving conditions for women and children confined in prisons and aboard convict transports until her passing in 1861.