Hugh Cuffe was an English-born merchant, soldier and landowner in Ireland. Along with his brother he took part in the Plantation of Munster in the 1580s that followed the defeat of the Desmond Rebellion. Cuffe was assigned lands at in northern County Cork. Cuffe was one of the landowners who lost territory due to legal challenges from local Old English inhabitants who successfully claimed that the land belonged to them. This was a common occurrence at the time as people were able to show they had land wrongly confiscated from them although they had not taken part in the rebellion. The loss of this land led Cuffe to abandon plans to settle large numbers of Dutch settlers on part of his estate.