Person:Henry Neale (7)

Torrey shows Henry's birth date as 1607. Sprague, however, says he was born about 1618, based upon two records. Henry Neale, carpenter, deposed in Middlesex Court 30 June 1654, aged about 35 years. His gravestone says he died 16 October 1688, aged 71, "the father of twenty one children". The town death record calls him "Seargent".

    On 24 February 1639/1640, Henry had a grant of land at Braintree based on a family of three.  On 14 July 1648 the trustees of William Hudson Sr. of Boston sold to Henry Neale and Peter George 80 acres of land on Adams Street in Quincy, easterly from Common Street to Dewson Street, bounded on the northwest by Furnace Brook.  This was the Neale home for many years.  About 1657 he removed to Providence, where he purchased a house.  He returned to Braintree before 1661, and was active in town affairs. He was selectman in 1678.
    On 27 April 1643, Henry Hobson servant of Henry Neale was freed from him and put to another. He was put to Goodman Thomas Meekins for the rest of his time for Ð4 per annum. (Records of Court Assistants)
    On 26 December 1664 son Henry Neale was mentioned in the will of Quinton Pray of Braintree.

    The will of Henry Neale is dated 11 August 1688, proved 20 February 1691; a codicil dated 12 September 1688 gives goods, etc. to wife Hannah.  The will provides for the four sons, for wife Hannah, and for eleven daughters: Abigail Scott, Hannah wife of Nehemiah Hayden, Sarah Mansfield, Mary Thayer, Ruth Thayer; and Deborah, Lydia, Rebecca, Rachel, Elizabeth and Joanna, these last six receiving only Ð50 each.  
    The will provides:

- To son Samuel 5/ having formerly given him 24 a. and he being obstinate and refusing to hearken to my counsel & hath been chargeable and troublesome to me. - To son Joseph a cow having formerly given him an estate in lands & in case he die without issue to return to my heirs, and to be null & in fee simple if he have heirs. - To son Benjamin all housing & land in Braintree on N. side of country road from a beginning at land given to son Joseph on the west, extending E. to three great rocks by the country road on the E. side of my dwelling house & from thence on a straight line on E. side of a small swamp & down to the brook northerly, then N. on the brook & with liberty of a way 4 pole wide on E. side of said land to pass & re pass, & 4 a. meadow near town creek, E. & S. on John Baxter, N. on a ditch between it & meadow given to son Joseph & W. on a swamp formerly Capt. Ting's, reserving half the dwelling house & barn & garden & 1 a. near it for use of wife Hannah for life & 10 a. pasture partly bought of Wm. Savell on N. side of the brook provided he abide with my wife and assist her until aged 24. - To dau. Abigail Scott 5/ and lands formerly given her. - To dau. Hannah Heiden 12 a. at Monotoquid part whereof her husband hath improved & 4 a. swamp & meadow in the farm & her husband Nehemiah to have the refusal of land between said 12 a. & the pond, he paying Ð10. - To son Henry 10 a. of my farme on land at Monotoquid, & 3 a. swamp & meadow as it shall fall with the rest in equal division & lyeth between land given son Samuel and the saw mill. I give son Henry Ð3 in the hands of his cousin Samuel Allis which said Allis oweth me & Henry is not to sell without consent of the selectmen or overseers of the poor, that it may not be wasted but improved for his good. - To dau. Sarah Mansfield Ð30. - To dau. Mary Thayre half of land between the Frenchs & land laid out to son Samuel & 4 a. swamp & meadow as it falls in equal division & other half of said land being about 20 a. to dau. Ruth Thair with 4 a. swamp & meadow as it falls in equal division. - To daus. Deborah, Lydia, Rachel, Elizabeth & Joanna Ð50 ea. Rest of lands to wife for life & she sole executor. S. Tompson Sr. & Christopher Webb, overseers. Wit: Samuel Webb, Nathaniel Etheridge, Christopher Webb.

    On 3 February 1718/1719, the inventory of goods, etc. remaining at death of wife Hannah included 3/4 acre of land. Sworn to by Joseph & Benjamin Neale administrators de bonis non.

Possible ancestry: A Henry Neale & Mary Skot m. 1612 Bury St. Edmunds (St. James Ch.) Co. Suffolk - from Boyd Mar. Index, Salt Lake City. Henry Neale & Eliz. Ring 1625 Browne (also in Bishops Transcript).

1. ↑ Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   3:264.
2. ↑ Waldo Chamberlain Sprague. Genealogies of the Families of Braintree, MA 1640-1850. (Frank E. Dyer)
   pp. 3395-3396, 3943.
3. ↑ Charisse Taylor Bass & Emma Lee Walton. Descendants of Deacon Samuel and Ann Bass. (privately printed, Freeport, IL, 1940)
   pp. 9-10.