Neville Grenville, George (1789-1854), Anglican cleric and Master of Magdalene

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Neville Grenville, George (1789-1854), Anglican cleric and Master of Magdalene

• The Revd & Hon George Neville Grenville

17 August 1789 - 10 June 1854

Master of Magdalene College, 1813 - 1853

Third son of 2nd Baron Braybrooke, he assumed the name of Grenville in recognition of a legacy from a maternal uncle. Educated at Trinity College.

He was appointed Master by his father at the controversial age of 24. This made him ineligible on two accounts as the Master should be 30 years of age 'or thereabouts' and in Holy Orders. The first was ignored and the second was resolved when he was hastily ordained deacon and priest on the same day in Trinity College Chapel.

As a Master of a College he valued good breeding and gentlemanly behaviour and was addicted to genealogy and noble pedigrees. Academic activity was low on his list of priorities.

To provide more undergraduate rooms he moved out of First Court and into a separate new Lodge in 1835.
He was also responsible for starting a project to transcribe and publish Samuel Pepys' diary which had lain unread and virtually unknown in the library [see Cunich, P., Hoyle, D., Duffy, E., Hyam, R., A History of Magdalene College Cambridge, 1428-1988 pp. 195-199 and Latham, R. C. Pepys and his Editors (Occasional Paper no 6, 1992, p. 2) for further details]

Vice-Chancellor, 1818-1819
Dean of Windsor, 1846

Arms in Hall glass, E3. Memorial brass in Chapel.

Cunich, P., Hoyle, D., Duffy, E., Hyam, R., A History of Magdalene College Cambridge, 1428-1988 pp. 195-199

Latham, R. C. Pepys and his Editors (Occasional Paper no 6, 1992, p. 2)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography