He was born on 27 December 1679 in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, the only son of John Le Neve (d.1693, buried in Westminster Abbey 2 August 1693[1]), by his second wife Amy Bent (d.12 December 1687), daughter of John Bent of London, a member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors.
His grandfather, another John Le Neve, resided firstly at Cavendish, Suffolk and later in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.
Le Neve's mother died on 12 December 1687, when he was eight years old, and at the age of twelve he was sent to Eton College as an oppidan.
He succeeded to a small amount of property and became a ward of his kinsman (whose exact relationship to him has not been traced) Peter Le Neve (1661-1729), the herald and antiquary.
At the age of 41 he took holy orders and in January 1722 was presented by his patron William Fleetwood to the rectory of Thornton-le-Moor in Lincolnshire.