Hugh Boyd M‘Neile (18 July 1795 – 28 January 1879) was a well-connected and controversial Irish-born Calvinist Anglican of Scottish descent.
Fiercely anti-Tractarian and anti-Roman Catholic (and, even more so, anti-Anglo-Catholic) and an Evangelical and millenarian cleric, who was also a devoted advocate of the year-for-a-day principle, M‘Neile was the perpetual curate of St Jude's Liverpool (1834–1848), the perpetual curate of St Paul's Princes Park (1848–1867), an honorary canon of Chester Cathedral (1845–1868) and the Dean of Ripon (1868–1875).
He was a member of the Protestant Association (in its 19th-century incarnation), the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, the Irish Society, the Church Missionary Society, and the Church Association.
M‘Neile was an influential, well-connected demagogue, a renowned public speaker, an evangelical cleric and a relentless opponent of "Popery", who was permanently inflamed by the ever-increasing number of Irish Roman Catholics in Liverpool. He was infamous for his stirring oratory, his immoderate preaching, his prolific publications, and his inability to accurately construe the meaning of the scripture upon which his diatribes were based (see below). He was just as deeply loved, admired and respected by some, as he was an object of derision and scorn for others.
Family
Hugh Boyd M‘Neile, the younger son of Alexander M'Neile (1762–1838) and Mary M'Neile, née McNeale (?-1852), was born at Ballycastle, County Antrim on 17 July 1795, just three years before the Irish Rebellion of 1798; and, in 1798, M‘Neile was taken by his mother from Ballycastle to relatives in Scotland, in an open boat, to escape the dangers and atrocities of "the troubles" associated with the Irish Rebellion (Boyd, 1968).
M‘Neile's father owned considerable property (including the large farm at Collier's Hall), was a Justice of the Peace and served as the High Sheriff of the County of Antrim. His brother, John M‘Neile (1788–1855), having made his fortune in South America, returned to Ireland and was one of the founding members of the Northern Bank, the first bank in Belfast. John M‘Neile married Charlotte Lavinia Dallas (1803–1859) on 11 June 1823 and had two sons, Henry Hugh (1829–?) and Alexander John (1842–?) and one daughter, Mary Harriet (1833–1919), who married Hugh McCalmont Cairns (1810–1885), the First Earl Cairns, who served as Attorney General in the third Derby–Disraeli ministry (10 July 1866 – 29 October 1866), as Lord Chancellor in the first and second Disraeli ministries, and as (opposition) Conservative Leader in the House of Lords (1869–1870).
M‘Neile was tall, extremely strong, intelligent, a good horseman and considered by most to be extremely handsome.
In 1822 M‘Neile married Anne Magee (1803–1881), the fourth daughter of William Magee (1766–1831), the Archbishop of Dublin. They had sixteen children (four of whom died early in life): three daughters, two of whom remained unmarried, and thirteen sons. As a testament to his influence, a number of his children went on to have distinguished careers, including: Alexander M‘Neile (1823–1912) Colonel William M‘Neile (1824–1870), Commissioner of Punjab. Elizabeth M‘Neile (1827–1910) Hugh M‘Neile (1828–1842), who was killed, aged 14, in an accident with a loaded pistol. Mary M‘Neile (1831– ?) Daniel James M‘Neile (1835–1874), of the Bengal Civil Service. John Magee M‘Neile (1837–1898) Anne M‘Neile (1838–?) The Revd Edmund Hugh M‘Neile (1840–1893), an honorary canon of Liverpool (1880–1893), also served at St Paul's, Prince's Park, Liverpool (1867–1893) and as chaplain to the Bishop of Chester (1877–1884). He married Cecilia Elizabeth (1841–1929), daughter of Sir Thomas Francis Fremantle, Lord Cottesloe (1798–1890). Charles M‘Neile (1841–1925) The Revd Hector M‘Neile (1843–1922), a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge (1865–1871), the vicar of Bredbury, Cheshire (1893–1900), a missionary of the Church Missionary Society in Bombay (1900–1907) and vicar of Bishop's Sutton, Hampshire (1907–1922). He married Mary Rosa Lush. One of his three sons, the Revd Robert Fergus M‘Neile, and two of his daughters, Annie Hilda M‘Neile and Jessie Margaret M‘Neile, served as missionaries in Egypt and Palestine. His third daughter, Ethel Rhoda M‘Neile (1875–1922), served as a missionary in India. Captain Malcolm M‘Neile (1845–1923), R.N., Governor, Royal Naval Prison at Lewes. Norman Frederick M‘Neile (1846–1929), Known as "the blind vicar", he was born on 14 August 1846 and served at St Peter's Brafferton Parish Church in Helperby, Yorkshire for 50 years. Married to Clara Cecilia Willink (1852–1929) in July 1881. He was completely blind from the age of 12.