George Oliver

George Oliver, D.D. (1782–1867) was an English cleric, schoolmaster, topographer, and writer on freemasonry.

Life He was eldest son of Samuel Oliver, rector of Lambley, Nottinghamshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of George Whitehead, of Blyth Spital in the same county. He was born at Papplewick, Nottinghamshire, on 5 November 1782, and, after receiving a liberal education at Nottingham, he became in 1803 second master of Caistor grammar school. Six years afterwards he was appointed to the headmastership of Grimsby grammar school.

Oliver was ordained deacon in 1813, and priest in 1814; and in July 1815 Bishop George Pretyman Tomline collated him to the living of Clee, when his name was placed on the boards of Trinity College, Cambridge, by Dr Bayley, subdean of Lincoln and examining chaplain to the bishop, as a ten-year man. In 1831 Bishop John Kaye gave him the rectory of Scopwick, Lincolnshire, which he held till his death. A Lambeth degree of D.D. was conferred on him 25 July 1835.

From 1834 to 1846 Oliver was perpetual curate of St Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton. He was also domestic chaplain to Lord Kensington. He had been appointed Deputy Provincial Grand Master of Lincolnshire in 1832, and in 1840 he was appointed an honorary member of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, with the rank of deputy grand master.

In 1846 Lord Lyndhurst, the Lord Chancellor, conferred on Oliver the rectory of South Hyckham, Lincolnshire, in return for vacating the curacy of Wolverhampton. In 1854 his voice began to fail, and, confiding the charge of his parishes to curates, he passed the remainder of his life in seclusion at Lincoln. He died there on 3 March 1867, and was buried with Masonic rites on the 7th, in the cemetery attached to the church of St. Swithin. Plays by Oliver were put on, anonymously, by the theatre manager Joseph Smedley, another freemason.

Family Oliver married in 1805 Mary Ann, youngest daughter of Thomas Beverley, by whom he left five children.