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Richard Griffin, 2nd Baron Braybrooke

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Richard Griffin, 2nd Baron Braybrooke (3 July 1750 – 28 February 1825) was an English politician and peer. He was known as Richard Aldworth-Neville or Richard Aldworth Griffin-Neville to 1797.

Richard Griffin, 2nd Baron Braybrooke, 1810 engraving

Life

The only son and heir of Richard Neville Aldworth Neville, he was born on 3 July 1750 in Duke Street, Westminster. He matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, on 20 June 1768, was created M.A. 4 July 1771, D.C.L. 3 July 1810, and was incorporated LL.D. of Cambridge in 1819.[1][2]

Richard Aldworth Neville, portrait by George Romney.

Neville was Member of Parliament for Grampound from 10 October 1774 till the dissolution in 1780, and for Buckingham in the next parliament till his appointment as agent to the regiment of Buckinghamshire militia in February 1782. On the 21st of the same month he was returned for Reading, and was re-elected there for the three succeeding parliaments (1784, 1790, 1796).[1]

A Grand Tour Group of Five Gentlemen in Rome (c.1773), group portrait attributed to John Brown. To the right of the guide, with a spaniel on his knee, is the future 2nd Baron Braybrooke.[1] The others of the party are: John Staples, James Byres, Sir William Young, 2nd Baronet, and Thomas Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton.

On the death, in May 1797, of his father's maternal uncle John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, by whom he had been adopted as heir, Griffin-Neville succeeded to the Braybrooke barony. He assumed the additional surname and arms of Griffin, and came into possession of the Audley End estate until the death in 1802 of Dr. Parker, son-in-law of the late Baron, who had a life interest in it. Braybrooke increased the property by the purchase of neighbouring manors and farms from the Earls of Bristol and Suffolk, and other acquisitions. He became Lord Lieutenant of Essex and custos rotulorum of the county immediately after his accession to the peerage (19 January 1798), and was also vice-admiral of Essex, recorder of Saffron Walden, high steward of Wokingham, hereditary visitor of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and provost marshal of Jamaica.[1]

Braybrooke died on 28 February 1825, after a lingering illness, at his seat at Billingbear House, and was buried at Laurence Waltham.[1]

Family

Aldworth-Neville married in June 1780, at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, Catherine, youngest daughter of George Grenville. Their sons were:[1]

  • twins, who died immediately after birth;
  • Hon. Richard, who became 3rd Baron Braybrooke;
  • Hon. Henry, a captain in the dragoons, who died in 1809 while serving in Spain;
  • Hon. George Neville-Grenville; and
  • William, who died young.

Of four daughters:[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Neville, Richard Aldworth Griffin-" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 40. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ^ "Neville, Richard Aldworth Griffin-, Lord Bray-Brooke (NVL819RA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ^ "The Dowager Lady Wenlock". The York Herald. British Newspaper Archive. 9 May 1868. p. 3. Retrieved 22 July 2014.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainLee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Neville, Richard Aldworth Griffin-". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 40. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Grampound
17741780
With: Hon. Sir Joseph Yorke
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Buckingham
1780–1782
With: James Grenville
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Reading
1782–1797
With: Francis Annesley
Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant and
Vice-Admiral of Essex

1798–1825
Succeeded by
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Baron Braybrooke
1797–1825
Succeeded by