George Oliver

George Oliver (1781–1861) was an English Roman Catholic priest, writer and a historian of Exeter, Devon, England, and its environs.

Life Oliver born at Newington, Surrey, on 9 February 1781 to a Scottish Presbyterian father, who died young, and an Irish Catholic mother. He was educated, first at Sedgley Park School, Staffordshire, and afterwards at Stonyhurst College. During the eleven years that he spent at Stonyhurst, Charles Plowden was his spiritual director, and took an interest in his literary studies. He was promoted to holy orders at Durham by bishop William Gibson, in May 1806.

In October 1807, he was sent to the mission of the Society of Jesus at St. Nicholas, Exeter, as successor to Thomas Lewis. ‘The History of Exeter,’ Exeter, 1821, 8vo; 2nd edit. Exeter, 1861. An index to the second edition, privately printed in 1884, was compiled by J. S. Attwood. A translation of Father John Gerard's Latin 'Autobiography' from the manuscript at Stonyhurst College; printed in fourteen numbers of the Catholic Spectator, 1823–6. 'Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Devon, being Observations on many Churches in Devonshire, originally published in the "Exeter and Plymouth Gazette," with a Letter on the Preservation and Restoration of our Churches,' Exeter, 1828,; written with the Rev. John Pike Jones of North Bovey, who contributed the introduction and the descriptions of twelve churches. 'Ecclesiastical Antiquities in Devon, being Observations on several Churches in Devonshire, with some Memoranda for the History of Cornwall,' 3 vols., Exeter, 1839–40–1842.