[2] One of his sisters, Charlotte Vansittart Neale (1817–1881), married in 1841 Charles Frere, a barrister and parliamentary clerk, by whom she had nine children, including Charlotte Vansittart Frere (1846–1916), married in 1882 A.G. Folliott-Stokes of St Ives, artist, writer and author of several important books on Cornwall, and had issue.

[1] In 1828, after receiving early education at home, Vansittart-Neale entered Oriel College, Oxford, where he was tutored by John Henry Newman.

[2] Vansittart-Neale became a Christian socialist in 1850, and joined the council of the Society for Promoting Working Men's Associations.

He visited America in 1875, with a deputation whose object was to open-up direct trade between farmers of the western states and English co-operative stores.

After resigning as secretary to the Co-operative Congress Board in 1891, he became a member of the Oxford University branch of the Christian Social Union.