MAC NEECE, Thomas (1 son of James Mac Neece). b. near Markethill, co. Armagh 4 Jany. 1807; sizar at Trin. coll. Dublin 1825, univ. scholar 1828, B.A. 1830, M.A. 1838, B.D. and D.D. 1848, fellow June 1836 to death; tutor, lecturer and examiner 1836–42; archbishop King’s lecturer in divinity 1842 to death; R. of Arboe, Armagh 1842 to death; author of On faith, two sermons 1850; Sermons preached in the chapel of Trinity college, Dublin 1863. d. Boulogne 26 Sep. 1862. bur. Arboe. Sermons by T. Mac Neece (1863), memoir pp. ix–xxi, portrait.
MACNEIL, Roderick (elder son of Roderick Macneil of Barra, Invernessshire). b. 1790; ensign in army 17 March 1808; captain 60 foot 1 Dec. 1814; captain 1 life guards 1 July 1819; major 84 foot 9 Aug. 1821; major 2 life guards 29 Dec. 1821, placed on h.p. 17 June 1828; lieut. col. 91 foot 16 July 1841; lieut.-col. 78 Highlanders 15 April 1842 to 9 Nov. 1846; commanded a division of the army in Madras 1846–51; granted distinguished service reward 1 Sep. 1848; colonel of 8 foot 18 March 1855 to 3 June 1860; colonel of 78 highlanders 3 June 1860 to death; general 21 Dec. 1862. d. 35 Hyde park gardens, London 22 Oct. 1863.
MC NEILE, Edmund Hugh (son of the succeeding). b. 1841; ed. Trin. coll. Camb., scholar; 32 wrangler and B.A. 1863, M.A. 1866; C. of Emmanuel ch. Liverpool 1865; C. of Steeple Claydon, Bucks. 1866; V. of St. Paul’s, Prince’s park, Liverpool 1867 to death; hon. canon of Liverpool 1880 to death; chaplain to bishop of Chester 1877–84. d. St. Paul’s vicarage, Liverpool 8 Jany. 1893.
MC NEILE, Hugh (son of Alexander Mc Neile, sheriff of Antrim). b. Ballycastle, co. Antrim 15 July 1795; ed. Trin. coll. Dublin, B.A. 1815, M.A. 1821, B.D. and D.D. 1847; served his terms at King’s inns, Dublin, and at Lincoln’s inn; C. of Stranorlar, Donegal 1820; R. of Albury, Surrey 1822–34; P.C. of St. Jude, Liverpool 1834–48; hon. canon of Chester cath. 1845–68; P.C. of St. Paul, Prince’s park, Liverpool 1848–67; canon residentiary of Chester cath. July 1860; dean of Ripon 9 Sep. 1868, resigned Oct. 1875; author of Seventeen sermons 1825, 2 ed. 1828; Popular lectures on the prophecies 1830; The church and the churches 1846, 3 ed. 1867; The collected works of Dean Mc Neile 1877, vol. i. d. Bournemouth 28 Jany. 1879. bur. Bournemouth cemetery 1 Feb. J. R. Dix’s Pulpit portraits (Boston 1854) 228–55; John Evans’s Lancashire authors and orators (1850) 182–9; Orators of the age. By G. H. Francis (1847) 406–15; J. Grant’s Portraits of public characters (1841) 239–50; E. M. Roose’s Ecclesiastica (1842) 420–4; Church of England photographic portrait gallery (1859), portrait 36; Christian cabinet illustrated almanack for 1860 p. 30; Drawing room portrait gallery 3 series (1860), portrait 11; Dublin univ. mag. xxix 462, portrait; I.L.N. lxxiv 105 (1879), portrait; Graphic, xix 241 (1879), portrait.
M’NEILL, Alexander Duncan (1 son of Alexander M’Neill, advocate). b. Edinburgh 1829; ed. Edinb. high sch. and univ.; an actor in the English provinces; played at Drury Lane, at Lyceum and at Birmingham; manager of old Theatre royal, Aberdeen 1862 and lessee 1869; manager of Royal Princess’ Edinb. 14 Sep. 1868 to death; first appeared as Richelieu 28 Sep., and first time in Edinb. as Rob Roy 7 Nov. 1868; also directed Theatres royal Dumfries and Dundee, and the Gaiety theatre Glasgow; a good actor as Rob Roy, as Jacques in As you like it, and as sir John Falstaff; made his last appearance as Rob Roy at Lyceum, Edinb. 21 July 1884; wrote The gloamin’ and the mirk, a story of modern Athens, a drama at the Princess’ 8 Feb. 1869. d. 4 Buccleuch place, Edinb. 7 Nov. 1884. His son W. A. M’Neill was lessee of the Princess’ Nov. 1884 to 22 May 1886 when the house closed. J. C. Dibdin’s Edinburgh stage (1888) 482–7.
M’NEILL, Archibald (5 son of John M’Neill of Colonsay, Argyllshire). b. Colonsay, Sep. 1803; writer to the signet 18 June 1829; director and principal clerk at chancery office Edinb. 24 March 1843 to 1858; one of the principal clerks of session 6 July 1858 to death; took great interest in the breed of the deer hounds possessed by his family, and contributed to W. Scrope’s Days of deer stalking 1883, An account of the original Scotch greyhounds and details of deer coursing; author of Notes on the authenticity of Ossian’s Poems. By a member of the Society of antiquaries of Scotland 1868. d. Edinburgh 2 June 1870. Journal of jurisprudence, July 1870 p. 375.
M’NEILL, Archibald. b. 1852; ed. at Baptist theological coll. near Birmingham; connected with Birmingham Daily Mail, and Birmingham Morning News; leader writer and dramatic critic on Newcastle chronicle; came to London 1878, writer and dramatic critic on The Sportsman from 1882; sent on 18 Dec. 1887 to Rouen to report the prize fight between James Smith and Jake Kilrain 19 Dec., missed at Boulogne on 20 Dec., found drowned on the beach near the jetty on 6 Jany. 1888 having probably been murdered. I.L.N. 21 Jany. 1888 pp. 57, 58, portrait; Daily Graphic 10 Dec. 1891 p. 9, view of house where he is said to have been murdered.
MC NEILL, Sir John (brother of Archibald Mc Neill 1803–70). b. Colonsay, Aug. 1795; ed. at univ. of Edinb., M.D. 1814; assistant surgeon Bombay army 6 Sep. 1816, surgeon 1 May 1824, retired 4 June 1836; attached to H.E.I.Co.’s legation in Persia 1824–35; secretary of special embassy at Teheran 30 June 1835; minister plenipotentiary to shah of Persia 9 Feb. 1836, envoy and min. plenipo. 25 May 1836 to 5 Aug. 1842; notwithstanding his protests Herat was besieged by the Persians Nov. 1837 to Sep. 1838; he concluded a treaty of commerce with Persia 11 Oct. 1841; F.R.S. 5 April 1838; chairman of board of supervision entrusted with working of Scottish poor law act of 1845, 1845–68; sent to the Crimea with A. M. Tulloch, Feb. 1855, to report on the commissariat department, &c., their final report was signed in London, Jany. 1856; knight of Persian order of the Sun and Lion 1835; G.C.B. 15 April 1839; P.C. 6 May 1857; the last survivor of original members of Royal Asiatic Society 1823; F.R.S. Edinb. 1840; D.C.L. 24 June 1857; author of Progress and present position of Russia in the East 1836, another ed. 1854. d. Cannes 17 May 1883, bust in National portrait gallery, Edinb. Kinglake’s Invasion of the Crimea 6 ed. vol. vii passim (1877); I.L.N. lxxxii 549 (1883), portrait; Sir A. M. Tulloch’s Crimean Commission (1880) with preface by Mc Neill pp. v–xiv.
MACNEILL, Sir John Benjamin (son of Torquil P. Macneill). b. Mount Pleasant, Dundalk 1794; lieut. in Louth militia 29 April 1811; one of principal assistants to Thomas Telford the engineer, having the turnpike roads in north of England entrusted to him; a consulting engineer in London and Glasgow about 1834; constructed the Wishaw and Coltness railway and other small lines in Scotland; conducted a series of important experiments in canal-boat traction; made known his system of sectio-planography 1837, adopted for railway plans by standing orders of house of commons; surveyed North of Ireland for the Irish railway commission; professor of civil engineering, Trinity college, Dublin 1842–52; completed the Dublin and Drogheda railway; completed first section to Kildare of Great southern and western railway 1844 for which he was knighted by earl de Grey 1844; F.R.S. 5 April 1838; author of Tables for calculating the cubic quantities of earthwork in the cuttings for canals, railways and turnpike roads 1833, 2 ed. 1846; translated C. L. M. H. Navier’s On the means of comparing the advantages of different lines of railway 1836. d. 186 Cromwell road, South Kensington, London 2 March 1880. Min. of proc. of instit. of C.E. lxxiii 361–7 (1883).
MAC NICHOLAS, Patrick. Professor of Greek in Maynooth college; bishop of Achonry 23 Feb. 1818 to death, consecrated 17 May 1818. d. Ballaghadareen, co. Mayo 13 Feb. 1852.