NEAL, Daniel (1678-1743), author of the History of the Puritans, was born in London in December 1678. He received his early education at Merchant Taylors’ School and at a Dissenting academy, after which he went to Holland and studied some time at the universities of Utrecht and Leyden. In 1704 he became assistantminister of the Independent congregation of Aldersgate Street, London, and in 1706 sole pastor. In 1720 he published in two volumes a History of New England, which reached a second edition in 1747. His occasional printed sermons also assisted to increase his reputation among Nonconformists, and it was at the request of several influential co-religionists that he undertook to write a History of the Puritans, the first volume, which commenced with the Reformation in England, appearing in 1732, and the fourth, bringing the narrative down to the Act of Toleration of 1689, in 1738. The History was attacked for unfairness and misstatements by Bishop Maddox, to whom Neal replied in a pamphlet entitled A Review of the Principal Facts objected to the first volume of the History of the Puritans. The conscientious accuracy of Neal is indeed beyond praise, although he was undoubtedly strongly prepossessed in favour of his own side of the question, and it has been somewhat happily said of his representations of the Puritans, that he “blanches them into a sweet and almond whiteness.” He died in April 1743.

Neal’s History of the Puritans, accompanied with a life of the author, was edited by Toulmin in six volumes, 1793. This edition has been frequently reprinted, and an edition in bvo volumes, revised and enlarged by John 0. Choules, appeared at New York in 1848.

NEALE, John Mason (1818-1866), ecclesiastical historian and hymnologist, was born in London, January 24, 1818, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He became incumbent of Crawley, Sussex, in 1842, and in 1846 warden of Sackville College, East Grimstead, an appointment which he held till his death, August 6, 1866.

Neale was strongly High Church in his sympathies, and in 1855 founded a sisterhood named St Margaret’s. The most important of his publications is his History of the Eastern Church (1850-51). He occupies a high place as a hymnologist, but principally as a translator of ancient and modern hymns, his best-known translations being probably “Brief life is here our portion,” “To thee, 0 dear, dear country,” and “Jerusalem the golden,” which are included in the poem of Bernard of Cluny, De Contemptu Mundi, translated by him in full. He also published Essays on L·iturgiology, 1863; and among his other works are Mcdiaeval Preachers, 1857, and History of the so-called Jansenist Church of Holland, 1858.