He was born at
Spalding,
Lincolnshire, on 12 October 1724, the only surviving son, by his first wife, of
Timothy Neve the antiquary. He was admitted at
Corpus Christi College, Oxford on 27 October 1737, at the age of thirteen, and was elected scholar in 1737 and fellow in 1747. He graduated B.A. 1741, M.A. 1744, B.D. 1753, and D.D. 1758. In 1759 he was one of the preachers at the
Chapel Royal, Whitehall, and on 23 April in that year he was instituted, on the nomination of
John Green,
bishop of Lincoln, to the rectory of
Middleton Stoney,
Oxfordshire, which he resigned in 1792 in favour of his son, the Rev. Egerton Robert Neve (1766–1818). In 1762 he was appointed by his college to the rectory of
Letcomb-Bassett,
Berkshire, but he vacated it two years later, on his preferment to the rectory of
Godington, Oxfordshire, which he kept for the rest of his life. From 1783 to his death in 1798 Neve held the
Lady Margaret professorship of divinity at Oxford and the sixth prebendal stall in
Worcester Cathedral. He was also chaplain of
Merton College, Oxford, and the second
Bampton lecturer. He was partly paralysed for several years before his death, which took place at Oxford on 1 January 1798. He left a wife, three sons, and two daughters. ==Works==