♂Francis Neal

Francis Neal (died 1716) was a planter of Talbot County, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, whose will settled his land on his wife, his eight children and a grandson. He dated that will in the manner of the Quakers, “the 19th day of the 8th Month call’d Octobr” 1716. Friends would not use month names of pagan origin, and under the old calendar^W, whose year began in March, October was the eighth month. He was probably the sixth great-grandfather of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014), through his son Francis Wingfield Neal (1680–1745).

Planter of Talbot County

He was most likely born about 1651. In January 1700 he acquired 150 acres of Eiston’s Mannor, on the north side of the Great Choptank River, and in November 1711, giving his age as about sixty, he made a deposition in a Chancery Court case over the bounds of a tract of land. By 1716 he called himself “Francis Neale Senr of Talbot Coty … Planter”, and he held, besides his home plantation, tracts called Hickory Ridge, Cabe, the Adventure and Shadwells Addition, and a hundred acres called Shadwell at Tuckahoe, in Queen Anne’s County.

Will and death

He made his will on 19 October 1716. His eldest son, Francis, had a hundred acres of Hickory Ridge, “whereon he now lives”. The sons Jeremiah, Jonathan and Samuel were to share Cabe and the Adventure, and his daughter Mary had seventy acres of Cabe. Shadwells Addition went to his married daughters, Sarah, the wife of Robert Register, and Johannah, the wife of Charles Climar, and Shadwell to a grandson, Francis Neal. His wife Ann was left “my Dwelling Plantation & Neck” for her life, to pass after her to their son Edward, who was to live with his mother. All five sons were named executors. Francis Neal died before 27 November 1716, when the will was proved in Talbot County.

Notes

The link to Francis Wingfield Neal

The will of 1716 names an eldest son Francis already living on part of Hickory Ridge. Francis Wingfield Neal’s own will, of 13 July 1740, left Hickory Ridge to his sons Francis and Samuel, so the same tract passes from the elder Francis to the younger. Christou and Wright, Colonial Families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, vol. 4, makes the same identification. No record names Francis Wingfield Neal’s father in so many words, so the link is probable rather than proved.

Birth and land

The birth about 1651, the acquisition of part of Eiston’s Mannor on 21 January 1700 and the Chancery deposition of 27 November 1711 are taken from Christou and Wright, vol. 4, which cites the Talbot County land records and the Chancery Court record for them.

A Quaker family

The same compiled history records that his son Samuel married Hannah Webb, a widow, at Tuckahoe Meeting House on 2 February 1718, and that his son Francis was described as a Quaker in a deposition of 1727. Both fit the Quaker dating of the will.

The descent to Floyd Amatus Delahorne

The descent from him to Floyd Amatus Delahorne passes through John Dillahunty (1780–1830), whose descent from John Dillahunty (1750–1797) of Davidson County, Tennessee, is probable but not proved.