Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Neale, Samuel
NEALE, SAMUEL (1729–1792), quaker, born in Dublin on 9 Nov. 1729, was son of Thomas and Martha Neale. He succeeded to an estate in Kildare county at seventeen, and spent his youth in hunting, coursing, and ‘frequenting the playhouse.’ In his twenty-second year he was deeply impressed by the preaching of Catherine Peyton and Mary Peisley at Cork. He accompanied them on their mission to Bandon and Kinsale, and returned to Cork a changed man. Becoming a quaker minister, he started in March 1752, with an American Friend, on a journey through Ireland, attended the London yearly meeting, and travelled in Holland and Germany. He held many meetings on his own account. In 1756 he visited Scotland, and stayed at Ury, near Aberdeen, with the grandson of Robert Barclay (1648–1690) [q. v.] the apologist. He many times subsequently visited England, but his home was at Rathangan, near Edenderry, King's County.
In August 1770 he sailed for America on a ministerial visit, accompanied by Joseph Oxley [q. v.] He travelled on horseback to most of the meetings in Philadelphia, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, East and West Jersey, New England and New York, and returned to Cork on 16 Sept. 1772.
He died at Cork on 27 Feb. 1792, and was buried in the Friends' burial-ground there on 2 March, having been a minister forty years. Neale married Mary Peisley (b. 1717) on 17 May 1757. She had long been a minister, and in her youth had a similar experience to Neale's. She travelled in England and America, and exerted much influence. She died suddenly three days after the marriage. Three years later Neale married Sarah Beale (d. 7 March 1793). Before his death he prepared the journals and letters of Mary Peisley for publication, Dublin, 1795. His own journals were first published in Dublin in 1805.
[Some Account of the Lives and Religious Labours of Samuel and Mary Neale, forming vol. viii. of Barclay's Select Series, London, 1845. Reprinted in vol. xi. of The Friends' Library, Philadelphia, 1847; Leadbeater's Biog. Notices, pp. 291–306.]