Sir John Neeld, 1st Baronet (1805–1891) was a member of Parliament for Cricklade between 1835 and 1859, and Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, between 1865 and 1868.[1]
Neeld was one of five sons of Joseph Neeld (1754–1828) and his wife Mary (née Bond) (1765–1857), of Hendon, Middlesex.[2] He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a B.A. in 1827 and an M.A. three years later.[3]
In 1840 he was a founding member of the Conservative Club[4] and in 1845 married Lady Eliza Harriet Dickson, setting up home in London.[3] The same year he was appointed to the office of Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Queen Victoria,[3] [5] for which service he was created 1st Baronet Neeld and became entitled to the style "Sir John Neeld" on 20 April 1859.[6]
In 1852 he was offered the position of Junior Lord of the Treasury by Lord Derby, but refused.[3]
Neeld became a major landowner in Wiltshire, having inherited from his brother Joseph in 1856; in 1872 he was High Sheriff of the county.[3]
Neeld died on 3 September 1891 at Grittleton House, Wiltshire.
His son Algernon William (11 June 1846 – 11 August 1900)[7] inherited the baronetcy; on his death his son, Audley Dallas Neeld, became the 3rd Baronet and inherited Rembrandt's self-portrait of 1669, today in the Mauritshuis.[8] On the Audley's death on 1 May 1941 the title was extinguished.
Neeld's daughter Ada Mary (b. 11 June 1846[9]),[7] twin sister of Algernon,[9] married General Sir George Harry Smith Willis, a British Army General who achieved high office in the 1880s, and they went on to have four sons.[10] Lady Ada Mary Willis (née Neeld) opened the Southsea Railway on 1 July 1885, as her husband was the Lieutenant Governor of Portsmouth at the time.[11] [12] [13]