Daniel Neal Daniel Neal (14 December 16784 April 1743) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

Biography

Born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, he was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, and at the universities of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

and

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

. In 1704 he became assistant minister, and in 1706 sole minister, of an independent congregation worshipping in

Aldersgate Street Aldersgate is a Ward of the City of London, named after one of the northern gates in the London Wall which once enclosed the City. The Ward of Aldersgate is traditionally divided into Aldersgate Within and Aldersgate Without, the suffix denot ...

, and afterwards in Jewin Street, London, where he remained almost until his death. He married Elizabeth Lardner (d. 1748), by whom he had one son, Nathanael, and two daughters. In 1720 Neal published his ''History of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

'', which obtained for its author the honorary degree of MA from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

. He also undertook to assist Dr John Evans in writing a history of Nonconformity. Evans, however, died in 1730, and, making use of his papers for the period before 1640, Neal wrote the whole of the work himself. This

History of the Puritans (book) The history of the Puritans can be traced back to the first Vestments Controversy in the reign of Edward VI, the formation of an identifiable Puritan movement in the 1560s and ends in a decline in the mid-18th century. The status of the Puritans ...

deals with the time between the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

and 1689; the first volume appearing in 1732, and the fourth and last in 1738. The first volume was attacked in 1733 for unfairness and inaccuracy by

Isaac Maddox Isaac Maddox (27 July 1697 – 27 September 1759) was an Anglican clergyman, successively bishop of St Asaph and of Worcester. Life Isaac was the son of a Dissenter, Edward Maddox, stationer of London. He was orphaned at an early age, and b ...

, afterwards

bishop of St Asaph The Bishop of St Asaph heads the Church in Wales diocese of St Asaph. The diocese covers the counties of Conwy and Flintshire, Wrexham county borough, the eastern part of Merioneth in Gwynedd and part of northern Powys. The Episcopal seat is loca ...

and

bishop of Worcester A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, to whom Neal replied in a pamphlet, ''A Review of the principal facts objected to in the first volume of the History of the Puritans''; and the remaining volumes by

Zachary Grey Zachary Grey (6 May 1688 – 1766) was an English priest, controversialist, and conservative spokesman for the Church of England. He was also an editor, commentator on William Shakespeare, and critic of dissenter historians. Life Grey was the ...

(1688–1766), to whom the author made no reply. ''The History of the Puritans'' was edited, in five volumes, by Dr

Joshua Toulmin Joshua Toulmin ( – 23 July 1815) of Taunton, England was a noted theologian and a serial Dissenting minister of Presbyterian (1761–1764), Baptist (1765–1803), and then Unitarian (1804–1815) congregations. Toulmin's sympathy for bot ...

(1740–1815), who added a life of Neal in 1797. This was reprinted in 1817, and an edition in two volumes was published in New York in 1844.

References

Additional Literature

* Bracy V. Hill II: ''Faithful Accounts? The Hampton Court Conference and The King James Bible in Early Eighteenth-Century Dissenting Histories''. In: ''Reformation'' 16, 2011. S. 113-144. Online: * Bracy V. Hill II: ''Suffering for their Consciences: The Depiction of Anabaptists and Baptists in the Eighteenth-Century Histories of Daniel Neal''. In: ''Welsh Journal of Religious History'' 5, 2010. S. 84-113. Reprint Online In "The Baptist History & Heritage" 9, no. 3 (Fall 2014): 39-67 : * Laird Okie: ''Daniel Neal and the "Puritan Revolution"''. In: ''Church History'' 55:4, 1986. S. 456-467. * Laird Okie: ''Neal, Daniel (1678–1743)''. In: ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Online: * John Seed: ''Dissenting Histories: Religious Division and The Politics of Memory in Eighteenth-Century England''. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2008. * Joshua Toulmin:
Memoir of the Life of Daniel Neal, A.M.
'. In: Daniel Neal: ''The History of the Puritans, or Protestant Nonconformists''. Hrsg. von Joshua Toulmin, durchgesehen und annotiert von John O. Choules. Harper & Brothers, New York 1843. * Walter Wilson:
The History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches and Meeting Houses, in London, Westminster, and Southwark: Including the Lives of Their Ministers, from the Rise of Nonconformity to the Present Time: With an Appendix on the Origin, Progress, and Present State of Christianity in Britain
'. 4 Bände. W. Button, London 1814. Bes. Band III, S. 91ff. {{DEFAULTSORT:Neal, Daniel 1678 births 1743 deaths British historians Historians of Puritanism Burials at Bunhill Fields