Frederick William Hervey was born on 2 October 1769, the son of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Jermyn Davers, 4th Baronet.

[3] Hervey served as an Ensign in the 1st Foot Guards from 1788 to 1793, and in 1798 was captain in a volunteer infantry regiment at Bury St Edmunds and Major-commandant of the Ickworth yeomanry which were both raised during the French Revolutionary War.

[5] Hervey married Elizabeth Albana (1775–1844),[6] daughter of Clotworthy Upton, 1st Baron Templetown and Elizabeth Upton, Baroness Templetown, by whom he had two daughters and six sons: He died on 15 February 1859 from gout.

He had given the land for the Woodvale Cemetery at Brighton, where he was originally buried in the cruciform Gothic Revival tomb which still bears his name, but his body was later taken to St Mary's Church, Ickworth—the church closest to Ickworth House, where the Marquesses are traditionally buried.

It stands near the eponymous Bristol Ground, originally a pauper burial area within the Extra Mural Cemetery but now part of the Woodvale grounds: it has become a memorial garden attached to Woodvale crematorium.