Note 1. The Most Reverend Leonard Neale, D. D., Second
Archbishop of Baltimore, and Founder of the Visitation in
the United States, was born at the Neale Mansion, near
Port Tobacco, Md., October 15, 1746. He was a direct
descendant of Capt. James Neale, a privy councillor, and
Anne Gill, maid of honor to Queen Henrietta Maria, who
emigrated to Lord Baltimore s Colony and settled there in
1642. William Neale, a great-grandson of the Captain, was
Leonard s father and Anne Brooke his mother, a woman
of reputed sanctity. Leonard was early taught at Bohemia
Manor, Md., a school conducted by the Jesuits. At the age
of twelve (1758) he was sent with his brothers to the College
of Saint Omer in French Flanders, and having graduated with
distinction he continued his studies at Bruges and at Liege,
where he entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained priest.
He had passed nearly sixteen years in Flanders when the
Suppression of the Society was decreed . Five years were then
devoted to the English mission and four to labors in British
Guiana; and he saw his native Maryland again only in 1783.
In 1784 the Reverend John Carroll having been made Prefect
Apostolic of the United States, Father Neale became his Vicar
General, which office he exercised in Philadelphia for nearly
six years, when he was recalled to assume the Presidency of
Georgetown College (1799-1806) . Here he filled also the post
of professor; and under his guidance the institution was
developed from an academy into a college in 1801 . Baltimore
was erected into an Episcopal See in 1790 ; and at the venerable
Bishop Carroll s request Rome named Doctor Neale his
coadjutor. He was consecrated by Bishop Carroll in 1800, the
Bull, expedited in 1795, having failed to reach America
earlier on account of war troubles. On the death of Arch
bishop Carroll he succeeded that Prelate (1815) .
Note 2. Archbishop Neale s brothers who became Jesuits
were the Reverend Charles Neale, who founded the Carmelite
Order (from Antwerp) in this country ; the Reverend Francis
Neale, for many years pastor of Trinity Church, Georgetown,
which he completed, and for two years President of Georgetown
College; the Reverend William Chandler Neale, who died
young in England ; and Joseph Neale, who died a novice
in the Society. Two of Archbishop Neale s great uncles were
also Jesuits: the Reverend Henry Neale, who labored several
years in the Philadelphia missions, and was the first priest
to die in that city (1748) ; and the Reverend Bennett Neale,
who exercised his ministry in Maryland, near Bel Air (where
his "Mass House" is still standing) from 1747 to 1770, and
died at New Town in 1787.
Note 3. Anne Neale, the Archbishop s sister, became a
religious of the Order of Poor Clares at Aire, in Artois (now
Pas-de-Calais), France.
