Mary O'Shiell (1715d. ''after'' 1745), was a French-Irish privateer shipowner and slave trader. She is a known figure in the history of
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
, alongside her sisters
Agnés O'Shiell and
Anne O'Shiell.
[Éric Lhommeau et Karen Roberts, Guide du cimetière de la Bouteillerie Nantes, Nantes, Le Veilleur de nuit, 2009, 88 p. ().]
Life
She was the daughter of the Irish Jacobite
Luke O'Shiell (1677-1745), who was born in
Dublin but emigrated to Nantes after the Irish defeat, and Agnès Vanasse (1690-1724). The family manor of the O'Shiell,
Manoir de la Placelière, became the gathering place of the large Irish colony in Nantes. She married
Antoine Walsh
Antoine Vincent Walsh (1703 – 1763), was an Irish shipowner and slave trader operating in Nantes, France, whose family were exiled Jacobites.
Early life
Antoine Walsh was the son of the Jacobite loyalist Philip Walsh (1666-1708), of Ballynacooly ...
, a leading
slave trader in the
slave trade of Nantes. In 1755, the O'Shiell family became ennobled.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:OShiell, Mary
18th-century French businesswomen
18th-century French businesspeople
French people of Irish descent
Businesspeople from Nantes
1715 births
Year of death unknown
French slave traders
Women slave owners