Hugh McShane O'Neill

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Hugh McShane O'Neill
Prince of Tyrone, The MacShane of Glenconkeyne, Lord of
Con MacShane O'Neill
MotherCatherine/Julian Maclean
OccupationPrince, Chief of the MacShane O'Neill sept

Hugh McShane O'Neill was an early modern Irish nobleman and rebel associated with the McShanes of

Gearoid Mór Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, and of the primary line of the O'Neill of Tyrone clan.[2]

Hugh was an active rebel and commander in the 1580s through 1615. His first deed of historical note was a raid his brothers conducted on

Maguire of Fermanagh and his lands in early 1573. They were stated to have done great damage to the lands of Maguire. The genealogy that states Hugh was the son of Shane "The Proud" O'Neill is based on his moniker and the fact that he is often in the company of other known sons of Shane O'Neill, collectively known across Ireland in the late 16th century as "The Mac Shanes". According to Scottish sources, he and his brothers Henry MacShane O'Neill and Art "MacShane" invaded Ireland with 3000 Scots from his cousin Lachlan MacLean in 1587.[3]
The link between the MacLeans and the MacShanes was close in that their mother was the daughter of Hector Mor, Chief of the MacLeans, and he and two other brothers had been secured with the MacLeans after the murder of their father, Shane in 1567. See O'Neill dynasty.

The Nine Years' War

Main article: Nine Years' War

When his cousin

Mountjoy
on the slopes of Sleive Gallion. Finally in March 1603, the Earl made peace.

Internal O'Neill struggles

The struggles within the O'Neill family are well known. The Earl Hugh suppressed his own cousins more than he did the English in the first few years of his reign. In 1583 and 1587, the Earl put down any other claimants to the Chiefship, including Tirlough O'Neill, until he had himself recognised as Sir Tirlough Linneach's heir as The O'Neill Mor. In 1590, the Earl hung Hugh "Gaveloch", son of

Shane O'Neill
for conspiring against him. In 1593 the Earl had his cousin Phelim McTurlough, Lord of Loughinshollin and chief of a sept within the Clanaboy O'Neill, murdered on Toome on the Bann River, and instilled himself as the Lord of Loughinshollin.

Hugh and his McShanes were able to weather the rise of the Earl and had split loyalties to the Earl when fighting the English. However, with the loss of the Nine Years' War in 1603, Hugh McShane was able to edge out the Earl and became the new Lord of Killetragh and controlling most of the Lordship of Loughinshollin. He maintained independence from 1600 to 1606, and then replaced the Earl as the sole lord in the years following the Earl fleeing from Ireland in 1607. However, with the

Arthur Chichester put out a warrant for wanted rebels and in 1608 Hugh McShane, his brother Phelim, and Hugh's wild McShanes captured Shane Carragh O'Cahan in Glenconkeyn forest. They turned him over to Chichester for a pardon and remit of some leases for two years.[4] In 1610 Hugh McShane was on the jury that divided the lands out of the forfeited estate of his cousin the Earl of Tyrone. In doing so Hugh received 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of the Earl's lands around Dungannon, and in 1611 another 120 acres (0.49 km2) in Tyrone. Conn MacShane held an adjoining portion, and he and Henry both received large estates in Armagh and Fermanagh. Hugh's new neighbour and friend was the departed Earl's nephew Brian Crossagh, son of Sir Cormac MacBaron O'Neill, something that would cement a friendship impacting them both in later life.[5]

Later life

After his pardon in 1608, Hugh slipped back into the forests of Loughinshollin barony and held on to what power he could during the early years of the Plantation of the newly established County Londonderry. He was granted 120 acres (0.49 km2) outside the ancestral home in Dungannon in 1611.[citation needed] As planters moved into the territories to the north, the combination of the dense forest and Hugh's reputation kept most new arrivals out. By 1615 he had lost his lands in Dungannon over a struggle with the Lord Lieutenant. Sir Thomas Phillips tried in vain from the small fort in Desertmartin to subdue the old Chief, but his strength with the McShanes was unmatchable with the local Irish, and he was never captured. He remained on his former lands, but eventually became known as a highwayman, controlling the forests and roads of southern Londonderry and the GlenShane pass.

In 1615 he, along with Brian Crossagh (son of Cormac MacBaron O'Neill), Rory O'Cahan, and Alexander McDonald (son of the Earl of Antrim), he was named by Lord Chichester as a primary conspirator in a planned rising known as "the Natives Rebellion".[6] They were accused of fomenting a rebellion against the English and Scots planters, and planning the escape of the Earl of Tyrone's young son from a castle in Tyrone.[7] Unlike the other conspirators, Hugh McShane was never captured and brought before the English.[8] He escaped the gallows and died sometime after 1621 still in the forest. The last historical notation was an inquisition taken within Derry in 1621 that listed him as a "gentleman", referring to his status as a landowner. Hugh McShane had a son named Brian McHugh McShane O'Neill and possibly another named Cullough Boy and one named Owen McHugh McShane O'Neill. Brian was named the chief of McShane-O'Neills in the 1620s.

Hugh's son Brian was imprisoned for raiding in 1627. In the

restoration of the Stuart monarchy. Hugh's grandchildren continued to live on the lands Brian eventually settled in the Drapers'
portion of Loughinshollin barony, part of his father's old estate.

The family was permanently established on its own lands by Hugh's great-grandson Owen McShane (Eoghan McShane). In the Census of 1740 they had a farm in the Townland of Moneyneany in the Parish of Ballinascreen, and another in the Townland of Carnacose/Carncose in the Parish of Desertmartin,

Sir William Johnson
, whose father had been a MacShane.

Sources

  1. ^ Fall of the Irish Chiefs and Clans, by George Hill, p. 167.
  2. ^ "The Ancient and Royal Family of O'Neill" 1996. under Conn Bacach O'Neill descendants
  3. ^ "Conn O'Neill of Kilskerry", The Clogher Record, vol 6, no. 2, 1967. pp. 388–394.
  4. ^ Pardon Rolls of King James I; Year 1609
  5. ^ Duiche Neill, Journal of the O'Neill Country Historical Society, Vol. 11, p. 82.
  6. ^ "Conspiracy" – The 1615 Plot, by Raymond Gillespie, p. 32.
  7. ^ Calendar of the State Papers of Ireland, 1615
  8. ^ Destruction of the Peace, Micheline Walsh, p. 60.
  9. ^ Griffith's Valuation 1859, askaboutireland.ie
  10. ^ Protestant Landowners list of 1740, PRONI
  • The Londonderry Plantation 1609–1621, by
    T. W. Moody
    , pp. 51, 166;
  • Plantation in Ulster, by George Hill, pp. 65, 250;
  • Londerry Lands & Families, by George Hill, p. 425;
  • Ireland Under the Tudors, by Richard Bagwell, p. 284;
  • Tyrone's Rebellion, by Hyram Morgan, p. 18;
  • The History of Ulster, by Ramsey Colles, p. 173;
  • The Parishes of Kilrea, by J.W. Kernohan, p. 30;
  • London and the LondonDerry Companies, by Sir T. Phillips, 18 March 1614, pp. 47 & 58;
  • Life and Time of Aodh O'Neill, by John Mitchel, p. 223;
  • Calendar of the State Papers of Ireland, 1608–1610, p. 15;
  • Calendar of the State Papers of Scotland 1657–1667, vol XI, p. 558:
  • Moneyneena, A Hundred Years, Ballinascreen Historical Society, LondonDerry, June 2002, p. 7 and others
  • "The Pedigree of O'Neill, Coat of Arms", Government Office-Republic of Ireland, M.S. No. 168, p. 138
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