NEALE, John (1612-80), of Nether Dean, Beds.

Originally from Staffordshire, the Neales first established themselves as landowners at Nether Dean in 1545, when, after the dissolution of Huntingdon Priory, Richard Neale (the MP's great-grandfather) purchased the manor from Sir William Butt.15VCH Beds. iii. 134; Noble, Mems. of House of Cromwell, ii. 36. John Neale inherited the estate from his father in October 1627, at the age of nearly 15.

Neale trained as a lawyer, being admitted in October 1632 to the Middle Temple, where he was bound with John Wells and Justinian Pagitt, both named merely as ‘gentlemen’.16MTR ii. 800. He was among those listed by the sheriff, William Boteler*, as being in arrears for his assessment for the Ship Money writ of September 1637 (for £1 at Dean and 1s at Melchbourne); and it is significant that while most of those listed as being in arrears finally settled after the judgement in Hampden’s case in the summer of 1638, Neale is one of those listed as continuing to refuse to pay in July 1638.17Emmison, ‘Ship-money pprs.’, 80, 82. He was called to the bar in June 1641, and, in the following February, ordered to be sworn.18MTR ii. 908, 920.

Perhaps because of his legal practice in London, Neale was not named to the original sequestration ordinance for the county of Bedford in March 1643. He was, however, named in a pair of ordinances relating to the raising and levying of money later in the year – on 1 June and 3 August respectively. From early in the war, Neale took an active role in administration of the parliamentarian war-effort in the county, becoming one of the stalwarts of the Bedfordshire county committee.19‘Civil War Pprs. of Sir William Boteler’, 3.

His connections at Westminster and his standing within the local parliamentarian interest both appear to have been transformed by his marriage, contracted by September 1644, to Anna Cromwell. As an heiress, his wife brought a substantial dowry and. as the cousin of Oliver St John* (who married her sister) and of Oliver Cromwell*, she brought with her an extensive network of connections with some of the leading parliamentarian families. Nor was this Neale’s first link to the future lord protector. In September 1641 he and his mother had leased their lands in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire to Cromwell and one of their relatives, Peter Neale, for one year for the nominal sum of 20s.20Glos. RO, D1637/T52. Neale’s marriage to Anna Cromwell was also valuable in other ways. As one of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Henry Cromwell of Upwood, she had been bequeathed £2,000 on her father's death in 1630, and oversight of that capital had been entrusted to yet another kinsman, Valentine Wauton*.21Noble, Mems. of House of Cromwell, i. 33. An important manuscript volume of virginal music which belonged to her survives.22Anne Cromwell’s Virginal Book, 1638 ed. H. Ferguson (Oxford, 1974).

In any event, from the autumn of 1644, Neale seems to have been noted by legislators at Westminster as a reliable nominee to county commissions. In October 1644, he was named to the assessment commission for the county, and, the following February, to the commission to oversee collections for the New Model army and for the monthly assessment.23A. and O. i. 620, 635. He was a member of the county’s sequestration committee by 11 October 1644 at the latest; and the one surviving minute book for this committee, covering the year from May 1646 to May 1647, reveals that Neale took an active role in the committee’s work. In May 1646, for example, he was twice appointed to act with Sir William Boteler* in examining witnesses concerning sequestration cases.24Luke Letter Bks. 594 P. Bell, ‘Mins. of the Beds. cttee. for sequestrations 1646-7’, Miscellanea (Beds. Hist. Rec. Soc. xlix), 82, 86, 89, 96, 97.

Neale’s election as knight of the shire in the first protectoral Parliament in 1654 was almost certainly owed to his close connections by marriage to the lord protector. He appears to have made no contribution whatever to the debates of the Parliament and is not recorded as having been appointed to any committees. He continued to serve as an assessment commissioner and as a justice of the peace throughout the later 1650s.

After the Restoration, Neale seems to have accommodated himself to the new regime, serving as a dutiful local magistrate as he had done under the republic. He was a again an assessment commissioner on or before 20 January 1662, and seems to have served continuously thereafter until his death in 1680.25SR. He was named a commissioner for enforcing the statutes against recusancy on 22 July 1675.26CTB iv.788. Shortly before his death, he inherited the Buckinghamshire estates of his brother Timothy Neale, including land in Wing (where their mother was buried in the parish church of All Saints), the manor of Bierton and Hulcott, and the advowson of the church at Hulcott. On his death, these passed to his younger son Henry. Among his other assets were two bonds worth £200 each for a debt of £100 due to him from Denzil Holles*, 1st Baron Holles. These bonds, together with principal seat, Nether Dean, passed to his son John.27PROB11/363/699; PROB11/364/563; VCH Beds. iii. 134. He was buried in the south chapel of All Saints, Dean, where a mural plaque was erected in his memory.28VCH Beds. iii. 135. His son Henry† was elected as MP for Buckinghamshire in 1696 as a whig.29HP Commons 1690-1715.