Burton, a member of Nevison's gang, gives a detailed statement of a number of robberies committed by them on butchers, merchants, and other wayfarers. Their headquarters were at the Talbot Inn at Newark, and York, Lincoln, Nottingham, and Derby were the scene of their operations (Depositions from York Castle, pp. 259–262). Nevison was arrested on 1 March 1684–5 by Captain Hardcastle, at a public-house at Thorp, near Wakefield. Hardcastle conveyed him to York, where he was hanged on 15 March following, or, according to Gent, on 4 May 1685. ‘This,’ says the chapbook, ‘was the end of the remarkable Mr. Nevison, who was a person of quick understanding, tall in stature, every way proportionable, exceeding valiant, having also the air and carriage of a gentleman.’ A popular ballad records his virtues in the same style:
He maintained himself like a gentleman,
Besides he was good to the poor;
He rode about like a bold hero,
And gained himself favour therefore.
(Ingledew, Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire, 1860, p. 125). A tradition noticed by Macaulay represents Nevison as the real hero of the ride from London to York, popularly attributed to Turpin (History of England, 8vo, 1858, i. 397). Macaulay and the chapbook life both call him William, but the ‘Depositions’ and the proclamation in the ‘Gazette’ give his name as John Nevison, or Nevinson.
[Authorities cited in the article. A life is also given in Charles Johnson's Lives of Highwaymen and Pirates, folio, 1742, p. 103. See also Gent's History of York, 1730, p. 227; Twyford and Griffiths's Records of York Castle, 1880, pp. 24–28; Bloody News from Yorkshire, or the Great Robbery committed by twenty Highwaymen, 4to, 1674.]
NEVOY, Sir DAVID, Lord Reidie, afterwards Lord Nevoy (d. 1683), of Reidie, Scottish judge, was a regent at St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, but was deposed in 1649 (Lamont, Diary, Maitland Club, p. 4). He was admitted an advocate 27 Nov. 1649, and acted as sheriff-depute of Forfarshire (Angus) under Cromwell. On 25 June 1661 he was appointed an ordinary lord of session and was knighted, assuming as his title at first that of Lord Reidie, but afterwards that of Lord Nevoy. He died late in 1683, having married, on 21 April 1653, Margaret Hay, fourth daughter of the laird of Pitfours. Several of his letters to Charles II and Lauderdale are among the Brit. Mus. Add. MSS.
[Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of Justice; Lamont's Diary, Maitland Club, pp. 4, 84, 137, s.v. Navee; John Nicol's Diary of Transactions in Scotland (Bannatyne Club), pp. 325–6, 355, 488; Books of Sederunt.]
NEVYLE, ALEXANDER (1544–1614), scholar. [See Neville.]
NEVYNSON, CHRISTOPHER (d. 1551), lawyer, was eldest son of Rowland Nevynson of Briggend, in the parish of Wetheral, Cumberland, and first-cousin of Stephen Nevynson [q. v.] (Berry's County Genealogies, p. 390; Nicolson and Burn, Westmorland and Cumberland, i. 451; Addit. MSS. 5520 f. 156, 5528 f. 45; Philipot, ‘Visitation of Kent,’ 1619–21, with additions by Hasted, in Addit. MS. 5507, f. 333). It is possible that he at first contemplated a religious life. He is probably identical with the Christopher Nevynson who in 1533 was sub-prior of the convent of Hulm Cultrum, in the parish of Wetheral, and there was a likelihood of his becoming abbot there (see State Papers, Henry VIII, 16 Aug. 1533 and 11 Aug. 1536). On the suppression of the monasteries he seems to have turned to law. He graduated LL.B. at Cambridge in 1535, and LL.D. in 1539, and on 1 July of that year was admitted to the College of Advocates.
As a lawyer Nevynson acquired a reputation for great learning and professional skill. At the accession of Edward VI (3 Sept. 1547) he was appointed a commissioner for the visitation of the dioceses of Westminster, London, Norwich, and Ely (Strype, Eccles. Mem. ii. 74; Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 9). In 1549 he was a commissioner for the trial, ‘for errors of scripture,’ of Anne, countess of Sussex (Wood, Letters of Royal and Illustrious Ladies, iii. 240). He was also present as one of the king's visitors at Peter Martyr's disputation at Oxford, 28 May–June 1549 (Strype, Cranmer, p. 286; Foxe, Acts and Mon. vi. 298), and as one of the judges and commissioners of the process against George von Parre, an anabaptist follower of Joan Bocher [q. v.] of Kent (Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 39–45; Strype, Eccles. Mem. ii. i. 385; Burnet, Hist. of the Reformation, v. 249). Nevynson's will, dated 15 March 1550–1, was proved at Canterbury on 12 Sept. 1551. He is described as of Adisham, Kent, and mention is made of his wife, his daughter Jane, and son Thomas, and numerous cousins. He left the leases of not less than six manors to his son (Nicholas, Test. Vetusta). A sepulchral brass to the son and the son's wife in the church at Eastry was dated 1590 (cf. Addit. MS. 32490, f. 36).
[Authorities quoted; Cooper's Athenæ Cant.; Nicolas's Testamenta Vetusta, p. 736; Wilkins's
