12. NEALE-BEER

Baker  Tree

JAMES NEALE and SUSAN BEER (12)

 

JAMES NEALE. James married in Sandwich in 1623 and brought up his family in Eastry and Sandwich. We have not found a plausible baptism for him. We would expect him to have been born around 1600 or a little earlier, towards the end of the Elizabethan era.

 

SUSAN BEER. We are on safer ground with Susan. The fact that she was married in Sandwich, on the east Kent coast, means that this was then her home parish. She is almost certainly Susan, daughter of John Beare, who was baptised at St Peter’s, Sandwich, on 3 Oct 1602. This was the year before the death of Queen Elizabeth.

Her mother was Sara Crispe.

She was the second of five children, but the oldest of the three who survived infancy.

 

James Neale married Susan Beer at St Clement’s, Sandwich, on  3 Nov 1623. James’s surname is given as Neyle. Both were of that parish.

 

Although they were said at their wedding to be both of the parish of St Clement, Sandwich, they set up home in Eastry, three miles away.

Eastry has a labyrinth of caves, with many carvings. They may have been used for hiding places in times of religious persecution.

The couple’s first two children were baptised in Eastry.

Bapt St Mary the Virgin, Eastry
1623/4 Feb  22  James Neale sonne of James Neale
1625 Jul  10  Susan

 

After Susan’s birth, the family moved back to Sandwich, and the remaining four children were baptised at St Peter’s.

Baptisms. St Peter, Sandwich.
1626  Mary  10 Dec
1629/30  John  7 Mar
1633  Thomas 22 Sep
1635  Peter  30 Aug.

At previous baptisms, only the father’s name is recorded’  Peter’s is the first where both James and Susana’s names are given.

In this register their surname is given as Neales.

 

Susan died six years after completing her family. She was only 39.

Burial. St Peter, Sandwich.
1641 Apr 7  Susan wife of James Neale

This was the year before the Civil War started. James may well have been of an age to have fought in it, but we have no record of that.

 

James married again. On 13 Feb 1641/2 we have the marriage at St Peter, Sandwich, of James Neale and Margaret Itell. This is probably Margarita Ittill who was baptised in Margate in 1617.

 

The baptisms at St Peter’s for children of James Neale continue.

1643  Jul 16   Elizabeth
1645/6  Feb 25   Thomas
1649  April 14   John
1654  July 10   Jane  “born 10 Jul  between 10 and 11 of the clock in the morning and bapt the 17th of the same month.

 

After 1645 the baptism register becomes more complicated by the fact that James Neale junior had also married a woman named Margaret and begun to have his own children baptised. But we are able to distinguish between the two families because they used different churches. The children of James junior were baptised at St Mary the Virgin, Sandwich, while James senior continued to use St Peter’s.

 

On 7 Nov 1654 we have the burial at St Peter’s of Jeames Neale “of St Thomas Hospital”’

St Thomas Hospital, Sandwich, was founded in 1392 and named after Thomas à Becket. It was used as almshouses, accommodating 12 brothers and sisters. Until the late 19^th century it was situated off the cattle market.

Since we do not have a birth date for James, we do not know how old he was when he died. He was probably in his 50s.

 

[1] https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/38/56/1385642_569135e7.jpg