Neale, John Mason

(1818–66)

   Order Founder and Hymn Writer.

   Neale was born in London, and was educated at the University of Cambridge. A devoted high churchman, he founded the Cambridge Camden Society in 1839 for the study of ecclesiastical art. This was to become the Ecclesiological Society and was highly influential in the ceremonial and liturgical revival of the nineteenth-century Church of England. From 1846 he was Warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead, which was a charity hospital for old men. He also founded the Sisterhood of St Margaret, an Anglican version of vincent de paul’s Sisters of Charity, who were dedicated to educational and charitable work. This was to become one of the leading orders of the Church of England. Neale himself was constantly embattled with his Bishop over his ritualism. Always in delicate health, he died young. Today he is primarily remembered for his hymns, many of which are translations from early Greek and Latin originals. Among those which are still sung are ‘All glory, laud and honour’, ‘Good King Wenceslas’, ‘O come, O come Emmanuel’, ‘Jerusalem the golden’ and ‘O happy band of pilgrims’.

   M. Donovon, ‘John Mason Neale’, Church Quarterly Review, clxvii (1966);

   A.G. Lough, John Mason Neale (1975).