Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Prevost, George (1804-1893)
PREVOST, Sir GEORGE (1804–1893), baronet, tractarian, only son of Sir George Prevost (1767–1816) [q. v.], by Catherine Anne, daughter of Major-general John Phipps, was born at Roseau in the island of Dominica on 20 Aug. 1804. He succeeded to the baronetcy on 5 Jan. 1816; matriculated at Oxford, from Oriel College, on 23 Jan. 1821; graduated B.A., taking a second class in literæ humaniores, and a first class in the mathematical school in 1825; proceeded M.A. in 1827; was ordained deacon in 1828, and priest in 1829. Prevost was a pupil and disciple of John Keble, whom he frequently visited at Southrop; there he met Isaac Williams [q. v.], whose sister Jane he married on 18 March 1828. Through life he maintained the cordiality of his relations with his old college friend, Samuel Wilberforce [q. v.], successively bishop of Oxford and Winchester. He was curate to Thomas Keble [q. v.] at Bisley, Gloucestershire, from 1828 to 1834, when he was instituted on 25 Sept. to the perpetual curacy of Stinchcombe in the same county. He was rural dean of Dursley from 1852 to 1866, proctor of the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol from 1858 to 1865, archdeacon of Gloucester from 1865 to 1881, and honorary canon of Gloucester from 1859 until his death at Stinchcombe on 18 March 1893. He was buried in Stinchcombe churchyard on 23 March.
By his wife, who died on 17 Jan. 1853, Prevost had issue two sons: George Phipps (1830–1885), who held a colonel's commission in the army; and Charles, the third baronet (d. 1902).
Prevost, who was retiring by nature and profoundly pious, was an enthusiastic supporter of the Oxford tractarian movement from its inception, and he remained faithful till death to the via media. He contributed to ‘Tracts for the Times,’ and translated the ‘Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. Matthew’ for Dr. Pusey's ‘Library of the Fathers,’ Oxford, 1843, 3 vols. 8vo (American reprint, ed. Schaff, 1888, 8vo). He edited the ‘Autobiography of Isaac Williams,’ London, 1892, 8vo, and printed his archidiaconal charges and some sermons.
[Foster's Baronetage, Alumni Oxon., and Index Ecclesiasticus; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage; Times, 20 March 1893; Guardian, 22 March 1893; Reginald Wilberforce's Life of Samuel Wilberforce, ed. Ashwell; J. H. Newman's Letters during Life in the English Church, ed. Anne Mozley; Charles Wordsworth's Annals of my Life, 1847–56, p. 67; Liddon's Life of Pusey, iii. 37, 280.]