Maurice "Hunting Cap" O'Connell (; 1728 – 10 February 1825) was a landowner and smuggler, and uncle of

Daniel O'Connell Daniel(I) O’Connell (; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilisation of Catholic Irelan ...

Early life and family

Maurice O'Connell was born in 1728 at

Derrynane House Derrynane House () was the home of Irish politician and statesman, Daniel O'Connell. It is protected as a national monument and part of a 320-acre (1.3 km2) national historic park. The house is located on the Iveragh peninsula on the Ring o ...

on the Iveragh peninsula, County Kerry, the second surviving son of Daniel O'Connell or Donal Mór (died 1770) and

Máire Ní Dhonnchadha Dhuibh Máire Ní Dhonnchadha Dhuibh (-1795?) was an Irish poet. Life Máire Ní Dhonnchadha Dhuibh was born in Glenflesk, County Kerry around 1702. She was the daughter of Domhnall Ó Donnchadha and his wife Alice (née Ferriter). She was descended ...

. O'Connell was one of 22 children, with five sons and eight daughters surviving to adulthood. His grandfather, John O'Connell (died 1741), was a captain in

King James II James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685, until he was deposed in the 1688 Glori ...

's guard at Aughrim. O'Connell was educated in Cork. After the death of his older brother, John, in 1751 he inherited Derrynane. In 1758, he married Mary (died 1791), the eldest daughter of Robert Cantillon of Ballyphillip,

County Limerick County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...

. She was a relative of

Richard Cantillon Richard Cantillon (; 1680s – ) was an Irish-French economist and author of '' Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En Général'' (''Essay on the Nature of Trade in General''), a book considered by William Stanley Jevons to be the "cradle of ...

and had a dowry of £1,000.

Career

He told the antiquary Charles Smith that "We have peace in these glens and amid their seclusion ... profess the beloved faith of our fathers". He maintained a regular correspondence with his youngest brother Daniel Charles O'Connell, a French army officer, taking him in 1793 after his escape from revolutionary France. O'Connell gave him a gift of 300 guineas which allowed Daniel Charles to settle in London and negotiate for the formation of the Catholic Irish Brigade. To avoid the tax on beaver hats worn by the gentry, O'Connell wore a huntsman's velvet cap, earning him the nickname of "Hunting Cap" or "Murrish-a-Caupeen". Uninterested in high society and politics, O'Connell preferred to live in rural County Kerry in obscurity, amassing a fortune despite his generosity and hospitality. He earned this fortune from small business enterprises, but also from smuggling. A warrant was issued for O'Connell and his brother Morgan for smuggling in September 1782 when a revenue inspector was beaten by a crowd in the O'Connell's employ. Through his friendship with

Dominick Trant Dominic, Dominik or Dominick is a male given name common among Roman Catholics and other Latin-Romans. Originally from the late Roman-Italic name "Dominicus", its translation means "Lordly", "Belonging to God" or "of the Master". The most promi ...

, they did not appear in the Dublin High Court but at the

Tralee Tralee ( ; , ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the River Lee') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in ...

assizes, with the charges against him being thrown out. On 27 April 1793, O'Connell was appointed a deputy governor of County Kerry, and later on 18 July 1793, a Justice of the peace. He attended meetings of the grand jury until 1815, at which point he was nearly blind. In December 1796, he notified the authorities when a French fleet entered

Bantry Bay Bantry Bay () is a bay located in County Cork, Ireland. The bay runs approximately from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km (1.8-to-2.5 miles) wide at the head and wide at the entrance. Geograp ...

. Having been won over by

John Crosbie John Carnell Crosbie (January 30, 1931 – January 10, 2020) was a Canadian provincial and federal politician who served as the 12th lieutenant governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Prior to being lieutenant governor, he served as a ...

, O'Connell became a supporter of

Act of Union 1801 The Acts of Union 1800 were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union) to create the United Kingdom of G ...

. Having no children himself, O'Connell supported many of his relatives, most famously his nephew

from around 1780. He raised Daniel at Derrynane House, making him his heir presumptive. He supported him financially as he trained for the bar. Owing to O'Connell's insistence that Daniel marry advantageously, Daniel concealed his marriage to his cousin Mary O'Connell who had no dowry. O'Connell disowned Daniel when he learnt of the marriage.

Death

O'Connell died on 10 February 1825, at the age of 97. He had composed his own epitaph: "the chief ambition of his long and prosperous life was to elevate an ancient family from unmerited and unjust oppression". He was buried on Abbey Island, Derrynane with his parents. He left a fortune of £54,000. Having reconciled with his nephew Daniel, he left him Derrynane abbey and an annual income of approximately £4,000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OConnell, Maurice 1728 births 1825 deaths People from County Kerry Maurice 19th-century Irish landowners 18th-century Irish landowners