‘a father to me in a thousand instances’ (Præmonition to Funeral Sermon on John Sarney, 1760). He was subsequently curate of Aldbourne, Wiltshire. Neale died in 1792. He left a son, James Neale, who graduated B.A. in 1771 as a member of St. John's College, Cambridge, became perpetual curate of Allerton Malleverer, near York, and died on 10 Nov. 1828 at Botley, Hampshire (Gent. Mag. 1828, pt. ii. p. 571).
Neale was an excellent classical and oriental scholar, but want of means prevented him from publishing very much. In 1771 appeared his translation, in small octavo, of the ‘Prophecies of Hosea,’ strictly literal, without division of verses, accompanied by a scripture commentary, to which a few pertinent notes were appended.
His grandson, William Henry Neale (1785–1855), theological writer, baptised at Little Hampton, Sussex, on 12 May 1785, was third son of the Rev. James Neale (d. 1828) mentioned above. He was elected to Christ's Hospital in April 1793, where he gained an exhibition, was admitted sizar of Pembroke College, Cambridge, on 11 Feb. 1803, and graduated B.A. in 1808, M.A. in 1811. On 8 Feb. 1808 he was appointed to the mastership of Beverley grammar school, Yorkshire, but resigned it in December 1815 (Oliver, Beverley, p. 279). In November 1823 he became chaplain of the county bridewell in Gosport, Hampshire (Gent. Mag. 1823, pt. ii. p. 463), where he continued until 1850. On 5 March 1840 Neale was elected F.S.A. (Gent. Mag. 1840, pt. i. p. 416), but had withdrawn from the society by 1847. In 1853 he accepted nomination as a poor brother of the Charterhouse, and died on 20 Jan. 1855 (Charterhouse Register).
Besides re-editing his grandfather's translation of ‘Hosea,’ with much original matter, in 1850, Neale wrote:
- ‘The Mohammedan System of Theology; or, a compendious Survey of the history and doctrines of Islamism, contrasted with Christianity,’ 8vo, London, 1828.
- ‘The Different Dispensations of the true Religion, Patriarchal, Levitical, and Christian, considered,’ 8vo, London, 1843.
[Information from the master of Pembroke College, Cambridge; W. H. Neale's Preliminary Observations to J. Neale's Prophecies of Hosea, 2nd edit. pp. 5–6; Poulson's Beverlack, i. 467, and Holderness, ii. 286.]
NEALE, JOHN MASON (1818–1866), divine and author, born at 40 Lamb's Conduit Street, London, on 24 Jan. 1818, was only son of the Rev. Cornelius Neale. The latter was senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman at Cambridge in 1812, fellow of St. John's College, of evangelical views, and a writer of allegories, sermons, and various compositions in prose and verse, which were collected and published after his death, with a memoir of the writer prefixed, by his brother-fellow of St. John's, the Rev. William Jowett [q. v.], a leader of the evangelical party at Cambridge. His mother, Susanna Neale, was a daughter of John Mason Good [q. v.], and her religious opinions resembled those of her husband. Cornelius Neale died at Chiswick in 1823, and the widow, with her son and three daughters, went to live at Shepperton, where the little boy was placed under the charge of the rector, William Russell, with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. In 1829 the family removed from Shepperton, and Neale was educated sometimes at home and sometimes at school, first at Blackheath, next at Sherborne, Dorset, and then for a short time at Farnham, Surrey. Early in 1836 he read with Dr. Challis, professor of astronomy, at Papworth Everard, of which village Challis was incumbent, and in October 1836 he won a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was accounted the best classical scholar of his year; but, although the son of a senior wrangler, he had so rooted a distaste for mathematics that he would not qualify himself to become a candidate for classical honours by gaining a place in the mathematical tripos. The rule which rendered this necessary was rescinded in 1851, but Neale took an ordinary degree in 1840. He won the members' prize in 1838, and after his graduation he acted for a while as chaplain and assistant tutor at Downing College. He was not elected fellow. In 1845 he won the Seatonian prize for a sacred poem, an achievement which he repeated on ten subsequent occasions. The religious movement which is usually identified with Oxford was proceeding in a different way, but with scarcely less force, at Cambridge, and it deeply affected Neale. He warmly espoused high-church views, and in 1839, while yet an undergraduate, was one of the founders of the Cambridge Camden Society, which was afterwards, on its removal to London, called the Ecclesiological Society. Neale was ordained deacon at St. Margaret's, Westminster, by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol (Dr. Monk), on Trinity Sunday, 1841, on the title of his fellowship. He began parochial work at St. Nicholas, Guildford, Surrey, as assistant curate, or rather locum tenens, for his friend Hugh Nicolas Pearson [q. v.]; but as a ‘Camdenian’ he was now a marked man, and the Bishop of Winchester (Dr. Sumner) would not license him in his diocese. On Trinity Sunday 1842 he was ordained priest by Bishop Monk at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and the next day he accepted the small living
