Mary Stuart O’Donnell (died post-1639)
MARY STUART O’Donnell (dp 1639), heiress, was born in England c1607, the daughter of Ruaidhrí O’Donnell, earl of Tyrconnell, and Bridget Fitzgerald, daughter of Henry Fitzgerald, 12th earl of Kildare, and Frances Howard.
Her life was largely shaped by the decision of her father to flee Ireland prior to her birth. Tyrconnell did not have enough time to bring his pregnant wife with him on his flight; he appears to have assumed she would follow him. However, Bridget was furious with her husband for apparently abandoning her and travelled to the royal court at London to deny all knowledge of her husband’s intentions.
With the help of her grandfather Charles Howard, earl of Nottingham and lord high admiral of England, Bridget charmed King James I, who granted her a pension of £200 a year from her husband’s estates.
In 1609 Bridget returned to her family’s estates in Kildare and raised Mary a Catholic. Mary returned to England in 1619 to live with the Howards, and received a pension and a generous dowry from the king. However, the pension was often not paid on time and Mary struggled financially.
To the consternation of her mother and grandparents she started associating with young and disaffected Irish Catholics based in London. She began a relationship with Dudley (Dualtach) O’Gallagher. The Howards attempted to arrange her marriage to an English Protestant, but she refused.
Then, in the summer of 1626, Mary and some friends forced their way into a London jail and freed Caffar O’Donnell and Hugh O’Rourke. Following an investigation, she was summoned to appear before the royal council, but instead she went into hiding, before escaping from England in disguise with OGallagher at the end of 1626. Her arrival in Brussels in January 1627 caused a great stir.
Meanwhile, Florence Conry, archbishop of Tuam, arranged for her marriage to John O’Neill, earl of Tyrone but Mary, who had kept her relationship with O’Gallagher secret, refused once again to be forced into a marriage. About 1629–30, her relationship with O’Gallagher was exposed when she became pregnant.
The couple fled Brussels in disgrace and were married at Rome. O’Gallagher, who became a captain in the imperial army in 1635, was killed soon afterwards. In 1639 Mary was living in Rome, married to a poor Irish captain, after which nothing more is known of her life.
Adapted from the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography. See dib.ie
