After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, he fled first to the French colony of Saint-Domingue, then to Boston, where he became a prosperous merchant.

In 1692, he was captured by a French privateer near Jamaica, and for being a fugitive Protestant, was first sentenced to a life sentence as a galley slave, imprisoned in a castle dungeon in Marseille for two years, [1][2] and then transferred to the Château d'If off the coast of Marseille for 50 days.

[3] He was released in 1697, following the intercession of King William III, whose ministers argued that Neau was an English subject.

"[5][6] In 1704, Neau cut his ties with the French Protestant church in New York and converted to Anglicanism.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel then appointed him as minister to black slaves in North America, and he established the first school open to African-Americans in New York City.