The Honourable James O'Neill (1819–1882) was born in Manorhamilton, County Leitrim, Ireland.[1] In Ireland, he trained as an apothecary but then emigrated to New Zealand, arriving in 1840. There, he became a significant 19th-century politician.
In 1862, O'Neill and his oldest child Mary O'Neill were passengers on the SS White Swan together with the prime minister and several other senior members of the New Zealand government. The ship was holed by a rock while steaming from Napier to Wellington and began sinking. Captain Allen Harper deliberately ran the ship aground and thereby saved the lives of all those on board.[4]
O'Neill resigned his House of Representatives seat in 1869 and was appointed a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council, the Upper House of the New Zealand Parliament.[5] In addition to serving in both houses of the New Zealand Parliament, O'Neill was also a founding director of the Bank of New Zealand,[6] and a justice of the peace.
Later life
He resigned his Legislative Council seat in 1872 and returned to the British Isles where he died at Southsea, England, in 1882 aged 65
^"New Zealander". Vol. 9, no. 759. 23 July 1853. p. 3. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
^Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First published in 1913]. New Zealand Parliamentary Record, 1840–1984 (4th ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. pp. 160, 220. OCLC154283103.
^Warman, M. (2002) 'The White Swan Incident: The shipwreck that could have sunk a government', Masterton, New Zealand, Wairarapa Archive p 58.