Charles Neale
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Father Charles Neale, SJ (died 1823) was the leader of the Jesuit Mission in America.
His siblings were Eleanor Neale who married a John Holmes, Francis Neale, the president of Georgetown College, and Leonard Neale the Archbishop of Baltimore. His grandfather was Oswald Neale[1] whose brother Bennett Neale was a Jesuit priest in America.[2]
In 1773, Neale became a novice in the pre-suppression society and later professed his vows for the first time on August 18, 1805.[3]
On April 19, 1790 four religious Sisters arrived from Europe at the behest of Father Neale. He built them a house at Port Tobacco at his own expense. The nuns were Mother Bernadine Matthews, Superior, her sisters Aloysius and Eleanor Matthews, from Hogstraet, and Sister Mary Dickinson, from the convent at Antwerp.[4]
In December 1821, Father Anthony Kohlmann, the superior of the Maryland Mission was succeeded by Father Neale. At this time Neale was in his advanced years and of feeble health. It was to be the third time doing the duties of that office. At the time of his appointment, Father Neale working as a chaplain and living with a community of Carmelite nuns at Portobacco, St. Marys County, Maryland. Father Anthony Kohlmann and Father Francis Dzierozynski, a Polish Jesuit who was newly arrived in America, went to inform Father Neale of his appointment and to bring some letters from Rome.[5]
Father Neale died in 1823 and was buried in Mount Carmel, Maryland. Mother Mary Dickinson, one of the nuns brought over by Father Neale, became Superior of the convent in 1800, and remained so until her death on March 27, 1830.[6] The convent was then removed to Baltimore in September 1831 at this time Father Neales remains was relocated to Baltimore along with ten nuns from Mount Carmel.[7]
