Joseph Neily (abt. 1720 - abt. 1778)

Descendants

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Biography

Joseph was born about 1745. Calnek's History indicates that the immigrant Joseph Neily was born "in the north of Ireland", that the family arrived in Nova Scotia about 1765, spent some time near Windsor, where one of them worked for John Clark and married his daughter Jane, and some of them moved to Annapolis Co. (Wilmot Twp.) in 1768. Calnek's ms. describes Joseph's Wilmot lot as “the farm next east of the Wilmot Church.” It also states that Joseph's family in 1768 “consisted of himself, wife, and one child, and he then had 20 head of cattle and had improved fifteen acres on his lot number thirty-four”. Calnek's source for this is not given, but it sounds as though it was from a land grant petition which we have not yet relocated. His wife and child would have been Mary and Rebecca, suggesting that John, and perhaps Joseph, Jr., were still in Windsor. The ms. also notes that in 1768 Robert, unmarried, was on the adjacent lot 35, owned four head of cattle, and had improved ten acres. "Joseph Kneely" was officially granted the 440 acres of lot 34 of Wilmot, extending from the Annapolis River north to Lily Lake, on 10 December 1774 by Governor Francis Legge, the same date as grants to his neighbours Francis and William Burns. Joseph (Sr.) died in 1777, leaving his wife Mary and three sons and two daughters. His will (Appendix 1) is well worth reading for the glimpse it provides into their life and beliefs. We do not know where Joseph or Mary, or any of their children except Martha, are buried.

Joseph NEILY m. Mary _____?__, had children as follows:

1. Robert NEILY - He was principal heir and executor of his father's 1777 will; a land grant map of 1770 shows a grant for him beside his father's, but it was later (1787) granted to Timothy Saunders. Calnek ^[1]indicates that Robert moved to Walton, Hants Co. Calnek states that “Robert occupied an adjoining lot” (to Joseph's) “in 1768, but afterwards settled in the district afterwards known as Walton, Hants County, where he married and where many of his offspring still reside.” No further N.S. records for him have been found, but a Robert Neily appears in some Québec records in the early 1800’s; a Robert Neely from County Tyrone who petitioned for land in Upper Canada in 1819 was probably a different onere.
2. John NEILY, b. 1745? m. Jane CLARK - These are the ancestors of nearly all Neilys and Neileys known from subsequent generations (about 1900 descendants and spouses known). Although he received only ten shillings from his father's will, the property being divided between Robert and Joseph, he somehow ended up with the land and home. It may be that he was already well-to-do from his years of working for the wealthy landowner John Clark and marrying his daughter, or that he received (purchased?) a share of the land grant while his father was living.
3. Joseph NEILY m ? - Known only from his father's will, but the presence of one or two Neilys in Annapolis Co. in the early 1800s who were not children of Joseph, Sr., nor of John and Jane, suggest that he may have married and had at least one child. He may well have been older than John. It is possible that he took the name McNeily and became the progenitor of a family of that name at Margaretsville, N.S. Some of their children switched back and forth between Neily and McNeily, and one, Lemuel Morton Neily, moved to Ontario, and has descendants across Canada and the U.S.A.
4. Rebeccah NEILY - Known only from her father's will. The fact that the will makes no special provision for her or Martha (each gets just the token 10 shillings) suggests that she may have been married.
5. Martha NEILY, b. 1750? m. 1) James REAGH 2) Timothy SAUNDERS - After arriving with the family in 1765, Martha stayed with her "newly wedded" husband (married before coming to N.S.), Belfast native James Reagh, on a farm that he bought in the Ardoise Hills, on the old Halifax Road. According to Calnek, he opened a public house or tavern there, had four children, and “died of rheumatic fever consequent upon the exposure and over exertion in 'breaking roads', leaving his widow and children in very straightened circumstances”. After his death, about 1780, she and the four children rejoined her mother and brothers (and sister?) in Wilmot. Robert's land grant (lot 35) was taken over by New England Planter Timothy Saunders, and it was granted to him 5 April 1787. By 1790 the widow Martha had married this neighbor. She had eleven children, producing over 2700 descendants and spouses through the Reagh and Saunders lines. She may have been third of the children, but is named last in the will. The 1750 birthdate is from her restored gravestone in Greenwood Village.

Notes

"This is the most widely used spelling for the name, although it was "Neiley" in Joseph, Sr.'s will, "Kneely" on his land grant, and probably "Neely" (as it is pronounced) in Ireland. Joseph, Sr., could not write, so there was a good chance that it changed from the original. Some of the "North Kingston Neilys" , notably George (N4-2-5-4), Inglis (N4-2-5-7), William Wallace (N5-2-5-8-3), and William M. (N4-2-5-9) adopted the spelling "Neiley", generally followed by their descendants, and another branch, descended from George E. Neily (N5-2-5-1-4), uses "Neely". The spellings "Nealy", "Neilly", and other forms are often found in documents or directories, but, as far as I know, were not used by members of this family".^[2]

1. ↑ Calnek, William Arthur. 1897. History of the County of Annapolis. Toronto, William Briggs. Xxii + 660p. Edited with additions by A. W. Savary and published following the author's death.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1}

   Sources

   Wayne P. Neily http://www.neilyworld.com/neilyworld/famhist.htm