NEILE, RICHARD, son of Paul Neile, King Street, Westminster, tallow chandler, and Sybil Hasinge; bapt. 11 Mar 1561/2; at school under Grant (Wood, Athenae Oxon. , ii, 341); according to Leighton’s Epitome, 1646, 66, “the Schoolmaster was never off his Breech, by which he became so sorry a Dunce, that untill that hour he could never make a right Latin Theame”; St. John’s Coll. Camb. , adm. 22 Apr 1580, Burghley scholar (on nomination of Dean Goodman), matr. 1580; BA 1583/4; MA 1587; BD 1595; DD 1600 (incorp. Oxford 15 Jul 1600); ordained deacon and priest (Peterborough) 6 Jul 1589; Chaplain to Lord Burghley; held various ecclesiastical preferments; Treasurer of Chichester 5 Jul 1598 – Dec 1610, Prebendary 30 Apr 1604 – Jan 1613/4, also Canon Residentiary 20 Jan 1609/10- Jan 1613/4; Master of the Savoy 24 Jan 1602/3-5; Dean of Westminster 5 Nov 1605 – Dec 1610; took a great interest in the School, and while Dean is said to have sent two or three scholars yearly to the Universities at his own cost; Rector of Southfleet, Kent 1608-10; consecrated Bishop of Rochester 9 Oct 1608; translated to Lichfield and Coventry 6 Dec 1610, and to Lincoln 18 Feb 1613/4; made a violent attack on the House of Commons 24 May 1614, for which he finally apologised with tears; translated to Durham 9 Oct 1617; Privy Councillor 29 Apr 1627; translated to Winchester 7 Feb 1627/8; accused of Arminianism by the Commons 13 Jun 1629; sat regularly in Court of High Commission and in the Star Chamber; Archbishop of York from 19 Mar 1631/2; an uncompromising churchman and strict disciplinarian; of little learning, but of much address and capacity for business; m. ; d. 31 Oct 1640. DNB.
In the account which he drew up of what had been done by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster during the time that he was Dean he records “Myself have yearly sent out of this School (besides those six that have been elected), whom I have gotten placed in other colleges besides Trinity College and Christ Church, some years two, some years three, and with some charge to me ; which I have carefully done in a thankful remembrance of God’s goodness showed to me in my being preferred from this School to St.John’s College, Cambridge, by the honourable bounty of my foundress and patroness, the Lady Mildred Burghley”.
