The Honourable James O'Neill (1819–1882) was born in Manorhamilton, County Leitrim, Ireland.
[3] 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.
He resigned his Legislative Council seat in 1872 and returned to the British Isles where he died at Southsea, England, in 1882 aged 65