Henry Neale
(1751-1815)
MSA SC 3520-15926
Biography:
Before he was one of the more influential men in Saint Mary’s County, Henry Neale began his public service as the third lieutenant of John Allen Thomas' Fifth Independent Company in August of 1776. One of seven independent companies formed to guard the Chesapeake Bay coast from potential excursions from the Royal Navy, Neale and the rest of his company soon found themselves marching up to New York to aid General George Washington and the Continental Army in defending the city from the British. [1]
On August 27 1776, the first full-scale engagement between American and British forces began at the Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes referred to as the Battle of Long Island). The British experience and American inexperience showed in this engagement, as the British were able to outflank the American line and forced a general rout. At the request of Colonel William Smallwood, George Washington sent the as of yet untested Fifth Independent Company and some New Englanders to cover the retreat. Here the Fifth Independent Company aided the rest of the American forces swim or wade across Gowanus Creek, as the bridge had been destroyed the day before. [2]
The British were not the only enemy, as sickness plagued the American camps. Immediately following the Battle of Brooklyn, Neale’s Captain, John Allen Thomas, wrote a letter to Maryland’s Council of Safety, describing the conditions the Fifth Independent Company was in. Captain Thomas wrote
I have had from fifteen to twenty of my men extremely ill and have not yet been able to procure them the least assistance. The Province have[sic] but two surgeons here, one of them very ill, and none can be procured here.
Out of the entirety of the Maryland troops, not just his own company “we have at this time near two hundred men unfit for duty and most of them without any assistance.” Although Captain Thomas pleaded for help to come from Maryland, no help came. [3]
Neale continued his service with the Continental Army through the rest of 1776, including the battles of Harlem Heights; White Plains; Fort Washington; Trenton; and Princeton. In February of 1777 he was promoted to Captain of the newly formed second Maryland Regiment, and then resigned from this post one month later. [4] While it may seem strange that someone would resign one month after receiving a promotion, it was rather common. In early 1777, Maryland regiments were reorganized, disbanding the Independent Companies and increasing the number of regular regiments from one to seven. With so many new officer positions to fill, commissions were handed out left and right, even to men who just wanted to go home. Henry Neale may very well have been one of these men.
After March 1777, Neale returned home, and resumed private life. In 1781, he was appointed to aid in the recruitment of troops for the Continental Army. [5]
Neale was active in the militia after the war. He was appointed Lt. Colonel of the Forty Fifth Regiment in 1794. During his service, Neale worked unsuccessfully to recruit men into a new militia regiment, possibly to aid in subduing the Whiskey Rebellion. Although he did not participate in quelling the rebellion, Neale continued to serve as the Lieutenant Colonel of the Forty Fifth Regiment of militia through 1800. He retired from militia service sometime before the outbreak of the War of 1812. [6]
In addition to his military and militia service, Henry Neale was also a political office holder. He was an associate justice of the Saint Mary’s County Court (1798-1802). On three occasions (1805, 1808, and 1811), he ran for a seat in the House of Delegates for Saint Mary’s County as a Federalist, winning all three of those races. He was also appointed to the special sessions of the House of Delegates in 1809 and 1812. [7]
He was also an active member of the community and a businessman. He was appointed to a committee of correspondence following the Chesapeake-Leopard incident in 1807, was a founding investor in the Union Manufacturing Company of Maryland, and chaired a meeting on August 7, 1812 in Leonard Town, Saint Mary’s County convened to voice local displeasure of the actions of the mob in Baltimore that destroyed the presses of Alexander Contee Hanson's Federal Republican newspaper. [8]
Henry Neale was a very wealthy man. He was the eleventh wealthiest man on the tax rolls of Saint Mary’s County in 1800. At his death, the inventory of his estate listed several symbols of status, including a coach, nine beds, several books of classics and law, and 100 oz. of silver plate. Aside from all of that, about 80 percent of the wealth of his estate came from his 42 slaves which, while about the average for someone of his social status, placed him far above the average Marylander, slaveholder or not. [9]
His land holdings vary by source, but Neale owned around 1500 acres of land in 1800, and declined as his life progressed, likely due to land sales. [10]
Henry Neale died in late 1815 at the age of 64 after a “Short but severe illness,” leaving behind his wife Elenor and their children. Elenor assumed the role of head of the household after Henry’s death. In 1837 she petitioned the Maryland General Assembly and successfully obtained a pension of $240, “the half pay of a Captain,” “as a further remuneration for his services during her life,” which she received until her own death just a few months later in September 1837. [11]
Nicholas Couto, 2016
Notes:
[1] Muster Rolls and Other Records of Service of Maryland Troops in the American Revolution, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 18, p. 25; Return of the Maryland troops, 27 September 1776, from Fold3.com; Mark Andrew Tacyn, “’To the End:’ The First Maryland Regiment and the American Revolution” (PhD diss., University of Maryland College Park, 1999), 48-73; Reiman Steuart, The Maryland Line (The Society of the Cincinnati, 1971), 154-155. For more on the experience of the Marylanders at the Battle of Brooklyn, see "In Their Own Words," on the Maryland State Archives research blog, Finding the Maryland 400.
[2] Steuart, 154-155.
[3] John Allen Thomas to Maryland Council of Safety, 4 September 1776, Maryland State Papers, Red Books, vol. 12, no. 89, MdHR 4573 [MSA S989-17, 1/6/4/5].
[4] Steuart, 115, 155-156; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, NARA M881, from Fold3.com.
[5] Governor and Council, Commission Record, 1726-1837, p. 111, MdHR 4013-1 [MSA S1080-6, 2/26/3/15].
[6] Neale to Gov. Thomas Sim Lee, 4 September 1794, Maryland State Papers, Brown Books VI: 14, MdHR 4614-14 [MSA S991-7 1/6/5/8]. Neale was sometimes referred to as Colonel rather than Lieutenant Colonel.
[7] Governor and Council, Commission Record, 1726-1837, p. 16-17, MdHR 1347 [MSA S1080-7, 2/26/3/16]; Election information from A New Nation Votes.
[8] “Saint Mary’s County’s response to the Chesapeake-Leopard Incident,” 24 July 1807 Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC); “Articles of Association of the Union Manufacturing Company of Baltimore,”, 5 March 1808, North American and Mercantile Daily Advertiser (Baltimore); “Saint Mary’s County’s response to the Mob in Baltimore,” 22 August 1812, Alexandria Gazette.
[9] Whitman H. Ridgway, Community Leadership in Maryland, 1790-1840: A Comparative Analysis of Power in Society. (Chapel Hill, N.C, 1979) 23; Inventory of Henry Neale, 1816, Saint Mary’s County Register of Wills, Inventories,1814-1818, p. 371-380, MdHR 9946-1 [MSA C1611-6; 1/60/11/10]; Steven Sarson, "Landlessness and Tenancy in Early National Prince George's County, Maryland," The William and Mary Quarterly (2000): 569-598.
[10] Saint Mary’s County Commissioners of the Tax, Assessors Returns, 1813, Third Election District, p. 10, MdHR 20389-11/12 [MSA C1530-10, 1/60/10/27]; Ridgway, 346.
[11] “Obituary of Henry Neale,” December 27 1815, Federal Republican (Georgetown, DC); Pension of Elenor Neale, Treasurer of the Western Shore, Pension Roll, Military, 1811-1843, p. 49, MdHR 4534-4 [MSA S613-1, 2/63/10/33]; Laws of 1836, Resolution No. 35, Archives of Maryland Online, vol. 537, p. 365.
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