Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neale, Walter
NEALE, WALTER (fl. 1639), New England explorer, was son of William Neale, one of the auditors to Queen Elizabeth, of Warnford, Hampshire, by his first wife, Agnes, daughter of Robert Bowyer of Chichester (Berry. In 1618 he fought under Count Ernest of Mansfeld on behalf of the elector palatine, both in Bohemia and in the Rhine country, and rose to be captain. His difficulties compelled him in February 1625 to petition for a grant of two thousand decayed trees in the New Forest in lieu of a month's pay (460l.) due to his company (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1623–5, p. 487), and in February 1629 he again prayed for relief (ib. 1628–9, p. 480). In 1630 he sailed for Piscataqua, or the lower settlement of New Hampshire, to act as governor of the infant colony at Portsmouth. He promised to discover a reported great lake towards the west, so as to secure to his employers a monopoly of the beaver trade (Winthrop, Hist. of New England, ed. Savage, 1825, i. 38). During a stay of three years he ‘exactly discovered,’ according to his own account, all the rivers and harbours in the habitable part of the country, reformed abuses, subdued the natives, and settled a staple trade of commodities, especially for building ships. On 15 Aug. 1633 Neale embarked for England, and in 1634, at the request of the king, was chosen captain of the company of the Artillery Garden in London (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1633–1634, pp. 230, 443). He applied soon afterwards for the place of muster master of the city (ib. 1611-18, p. 340). After carefully drilling the company for four years, Neale asked to be appointed sergeant-major of Virginia, but George Donne, second son of the dean of St. Paul's, obtained the post (ib. Col. Ser., American and West Indies, 1574–1660, pp. 134–5, 285). He was appointed in 1639 lieutenant-governor of Portsmouth (ib. Dom. 1639, pp. 32, 391).
[Fell's Eccl. Hist. of New England, i. 155, 165, 190–1; Neill's Virginia Carolorum, pp. 87, 132; Neill's Founders of Maryland, p. 184.]