[1] Neve, as she would become known, could remember the turmoil that the French Revolution brought to Guernsey; at the time, her father was in command of the militia on the island.

[3]: 19 Neve met with Charles François Dumouriez, a general of the French Revolutionary Wars, who dubbed her "la spirituelle" ("the spirited one").

[4] Margaret married John Neve, born 1779, from Tenterden, Kent,[5] in St Peter Port (Town) church on 18 January 1823.

[citation needed] The census for 1871 shows Margaret A. Neve (78) and her sister Elizabeth Harvey (73) living at 'Chaumière', Rouge Huis, St Peter Port, Guernsey.

However, the Harvey family (through Neve's niece Louisa) did exchange correspondence with the Royal Household, expressing gratitude for the signed photograph given to them on 4 May 1896 by the Queen.

He was involved in merchant shipping and privateering, earning a great amount of wealth over the years, and married Elizabeth Harvey (née Guille) when they were both 19.

John died on 4 December 1820, aged 49, while Elizabeth lived with her remaining children in a house called "Chaumière" ("The Thatched Cottage"), which he had bought in 1808.

In his 2006 memoir, Bagpipes in Babylon, Balfour Paul related how his mother 'knew her well enough to send congratulations on her 110th birthday and to receive from her in reply a neatly written letter and photograph.'