Catalogue description NEVILLE DIARIES AND PAPERS

Diaries, letter books, accounts, MS and papers relating to Sylas Neville, with other letters etc of Douglas family, John Gifford and Miscellaneous.

And also at back of Catalogue.

Photocopies of originals given by Basil Cozens-Hardy to the West Sussex Record Office in April 1967

(Add. MS. 9471)

Neville, Sylas, 1741-1840

Records received by the Norfolk Record Office on 3 & 10 October 1974 [MS 21546] (MC7/1, 395 x 1 - MC7/852, 396 x 1)

The diaries were edited and published by Mr. Cozens-Hardy in 1950 (The Diary of Sylas Neville 1767-1788, Oxford University Press), save the foreign diary 1777-80 which was prepared for publication (see MC7/26 in list) but not in fact published. It is summarised on pp. 257-264 of the published diary.

Late in life, Neville mutilated the diaries and letters, apparently in an attempt to remove compromising or politically embarrassing matter. Many of the excised passages were later restored by Francis Howes.

On Neville's death in 1840 his papers passed to a neighbour, the Rev. Francis Howes (d. 1844) a Minor Canon of Norwich Cathedral. Howes transcribed the early diaries and some of the correspondence, afterwards destroying the originals. In this list, unless otherwise stated, transcripts of documents are by Howes. From Howes' son the papers passed to the antiquary Hargrave Harrison. On his death in 1896 they were purchased by L.G. Bolingbroke and from his family they came to Basil Cozens-Hardy.

Sylas Neville was born in 1741, apparently in London. In 1768-9 he came to Great Yarmouth and settled at Scratby Hall. The years 1772-6 were spent mainly in Edinburgh where he qualified as a doctor of medicine. 1777-80 were spent in foreign travel, mainly in Italy. On his return, after visits to London, Edinburgh etc., he settled at Norwich in 1783 and there spent the rest of his life, intending to practise medicine but in fact subsisting increasingly on charity and the proceeds of begging letters. He died in 1840.

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