Family of Faith

Maryland's Neale family played a major role in early work of the Jesuits

By John LaMartina, SJ

Faith. Family. Perseverance.

These were some of the driving forces behind the Neale family, who settled in Maryland in the 1600s and whose faith prompted many of its sons to become Jesuits.

     The family traces its origins back to Lord O’Neale, former King of Ulster, Ireland, who was killed in battle when he rebelled with three other kings against Queen Elizabeth I of England. O’Neale had two sons, one of whom, James, was placed by an army chaplain with the King of Spain. He later became an admiral in the Spanish navy and visited Maryland in 1636. He returned in 1642 as Captain James Neale and obtained a royal grant of land of 2,000 acres called Walleston Manor, which formed a peninsula between the Wicomico and Potomac Rivers. Following his marriage to Ann Gill, who had been a maid of honor to the Catholic Queen Henrietta Maria, he sailed for England, but returned to Maryland in 1660 and settled on the manor property.

      William Neale of Port Tobacco in Charles County, Md., was a direct descendent of Captain James Neale. William’s wife, Anna Brook, a member of a prominent Maryland family, had 13 children: seven sons and six daughters. The sons were William Chandler, Joseph, Oswald, Raphael, Leonard, Charles and Francis Ignatius.

      The eldest son, William Chandler Neale, was born in 1743 and sent as a boy to College of St. Omers in French Flanders. Upon completion of his studies he entered the Society of Jesus in 1760. Following his ordination, he was assigned to work in the Lancashire District of the English Mission in 1771. He later went to Manchester, where he died in 1799. Joseph, the second son, also attended St. Omers but while there was stricken with a fatal illness and begged superiors to admit him into the Society. They complied with his request and even permitted him to pronounce vows of devotion on his deathbed. Oswald, the third son, while studying at St. Omers, also fell ill and begged to be received into the Society but died before his wish was realized. An old manuscript on the Neale family, however, states he died a Jesuit. Raphael, the fourth son, who neither entered nor sought entrance to the Society, finished his studies in Europe and returned to Maryland where he married. The three youngest sons—Leonard, Charles and Francis Ignatius—were destined to play a prominent role in the history of the Church and the Society in Maryland during and after the Suppression of the Jesuits in 1773.

      Leonard Neale, the fifth son, was born in 1746 near Port Tobacco and at age 12 was sent to study at St. Omers. He entered the Society of Jesus at Ghent in 1767 and then studied at Bruges and Liege. When the Society was suppressed in 1773, Leonard had already been ordained at Liege and was still pursuing studies there in theology. He was sent to England, where he engaged in pastoral work for four years and then in 1779 volunteered for the mission in Demerara, British Guiana, where he worked until 1783. Due to poor health, Leonard returned to America and worked zealously as a secular priest in the missions near his home at Port Tobacco until he was appointed pastor of St. Joseph’s–St. Mary’s Parish in Philadelphia in 1789. Leonard remained in Philadelphia until December 1798, ministering to the sick during an epidemic of yellow fever, which he contracted in 1797. In 1799, he was appointed president of Georgetown College by Bishop John Carroll who praised him as a “man truly pious, endowed with the highest prudence, humility and suavity of manner and highly skilled in ecclesiastical learning and discipline.” Leonard Neale was consecrated bishop in 1800, the first bishop ordained in the United States by Bishop Carroll at St. Peter’s Pro-Cathedral in Baltimore. He continued as president of Georgetown until 1806. As bishop, Leonard Neale worked strenuously with Bishop Carroll and with his brother, Fr. Charles Neale, SJ, to bring about the restoration of the Society in America and the retention of Jesuit property in Maryland, although he never re-entered the Society. When Archbishop Carroll died in 1815, Leonard Neale became the second archbishop of Baltimore. Soon after, with the approval of Pope Pius VII, he established the Visitation Monastery in Georgetown. He died on June 18, 1817, at Georgetown and was buried in the crypt under the Visitation Convent Chapel.

      Charles Neale, the sixth son, was born in Maryland in 1751. He was sent to study at Bruges when he was 10 and entered the Society at Ghent on September 7, 1771. Two years later before he took his first vows, the Suppression occurred and he went to Liege to study philosophy with former members of the Society. He also studied theology, taught various classes in the college, and was ordained there about 1780. Due to his poor health, college authorities prevailed on him to go to Antwerp to recuperate. There, he was appointed spiritual director of the Carmelite nuns of that city. Charles returned to Maryland in 1790, bringing with him four Carmelite nuns and hoping to found the first monastery for religious women in the United States. They settled at Mt. Carmel near Port Tobacco, on 900 acres of land he had purchased for them near the old Neale estate.

      Charles Neale worked for the restoration of the Society in America, and he took his first vows on August 18, 1805, at St. Ignatius Church in Port Tobacco, one of the first members of the restored Society in the United States. Charles continued to reside at Port Tobacco until his death on April 27, 1823. He was buried on the grounds of the Carmelite Monastery. When the Carmelites moved to Baltimore in 1831, his body was exhumed and reburied in Baltimore in the Carmelite plot in Bonnie Brae Cemetery,

      Francis Ignatius Neale, the seventh and last son of this remarkable family, was born on January 2, 1756, near Port Tobacco. He studied at the Academy at Liege, was ordained there and returned to America on November 12, 1789. He had wanted to come into the Society in 1773, but because of the Suppression he had to wait 33 years until October 10, 1806, when he entered the first novitiate of the Society in the United States at Georgetown. He was named novice master even though only a novice himself. Francis Ignatius pronounced his First Vows in the Society in 1808 and made his Final Profession in 1816 at Holy Trinity Church, Georgetown. For years, he was an outstanding guide for young Jesuits. He was a great apostolic preacher and founder and pastor of Holy Trinity Church. He built and organized St. Mary’s Church in Alexandria, the first Catholic parish in Virginia; was vice president and president of Georgetown College; and was agent for the Corporation of Roman Catholic Clergymen, which involved supervising the Jesuits’ estates and property of Maryland and Pennsylvania. After years of strenuous apostolic work in Washington, D.C., Francis Ignatius returned to the home of his childhood as superior at St. Thomas Manor in Port Tobacco, where he performed with zeal his duties as a rural pastor—often driving great distances in his big yellow carriage on sick calls. His book, The Pious Guide to Prayer and Devotion, published in conjunction with his brother, Charles, was the first of its kind for Catholics in the United States. Francis Ignatius died on December 20, 1837, at age 82 at St. Thomas Manor and was buried there.

It’s been two centuries since the Neale brothers struggled to maintain their Jesuit identity and spread the Catholic faith in a young nation. Today, descendants of the Neale family are proud of their rich family legacy. Tom Neale of Baltimore, Md., tells us that he and his brothers and sister are direct descendents of Captain James Neale, and their parents, grandparents and great grandparents are buried at St. Ignatius Church in Port Tobacco. A graduate of Jesuit schools, Tom Neale says other descendants live in Washington, D.C.

John LaMartina, SJ, is the resident archivist for the Maryland Province Jesuits