Background
In 1807, Neve set sail for Weymouth with her father, who was involved in merchant shipping and privateering, but a storm caused the ship to land at Chesil Beach.
In 1807, Neve set sail for Weymouth with her father, who was involved in merchant shipping and privateering, but a storm caused the ship to land at Chesil Beach.
She was educated in Bristol, England, gaining an interest in literature and poetry.
She lived at Saint Peter Portuguese on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel. Born on 18 May 1792 in Guernsey, as a child, living in Le Pollet, Street Peter Portuguese, Guernsey, Margaret Harvey survived a fall down the stairs, which left her concussed for three days. She was the eldest of eight children.
Neve, as she would become, could remember the turmoil that the French Revolution brought to Guernsey.
In 1815 she went to a "finishing school" in Brussels, becoming fluent in French, Italian and able to converse in German and Spanish. She would read the New Testament in Greek.
Visiting the battlefield of Waterloo, shortly after the battle, with her headmistress, once the corpses had been buried, she picked up souvenirs which she showed to Prussian Field Marshal Blücher, whom she met, when presented to him in London. Neve met with Charles François Dumouriez, a general of the French Revolutionary Wars, who dubbed her la spirituelle.
John (1793) married in 1826 and moved to Jersey, then England.
Elizabeth (1796) never married. Maria (1799) and Augusta (1801) had died as infants. Thomas (1803) emigrated to the United States.
Augusta (1804) married and Louisa (1805) died in 1821.
Margaret married John Neve, born 1779, from Tenterden, Kent, in Street Peter Portuguese (Town) church on 18 January 1823. On their honeymoon, they visited the Waterloo battlefield.
She lived in England for 25 years of marriage, but returned to Guernsey in 1849 after his death at Tenterden. They did not have any children.
Neve"s mother, Elizabeth Harvey (née Guille), died in 1871 at the age of 99.
Their last trip was in 1872, when they visited the Polish city of Krakow. On 18 May 1899 a reception was held at Rouge Huis to celebrate her 107th birthday and her entrance into her 108th year. The town council, jurats, the officers of the staff, and about 250 of the leading residents attended.
Despite her age, Margaret was found making marmalade the next morning by a reporter from The Times.
She was reported as never being ill until the age of 105, when she had the flu, followed by bronchitis at 108. At the age of 110, she climbed a tree to pluck an apple, explaining that they were much tastier when eaten straight from the tree.
A newspaper report records that she enjoyed a glass and a half of old sherry at lunchtime and a weak whiskey and water at supper. She was in the habit of always rising early and abstaining from eating and drinking between meal times.
Neve died on 4 April 1903 at age 110.
Flags in Guernsey were lowered to half mast as a show of respect.
