William Conolly
William Conolly | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of William Conolly | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 April 1662 Ballyshannon, County Donegal |
| Died | 30 October 1729 Castletown House, Celbridge, County Kildare |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Spouse | Katherine Conyngham |
| Relations | William James Conolly (nephew), Thomas Conolly (great nephew) |
William Conolly (9 April 1662 – 30 October 1729), also known as Speaker Conolly, was an Irish Whig politician, Commissioner of Revenue, lawyer and landowner.[1] He was an influential figure in Irish politics, serving as Speaker of the Irish House of Commons between 1715 and his death.[2]
Career
William Conolly was born the son of an inn-keeper, Patrick Conolly, in
He practised as a lawyer in Dublin and in 1694 he married Katherine Conyngham, daughter of General Sir Albert Conyngham. The Conynghams were an Ulster Scots family who were originally from Mountcharles (pronounced 'Mount-char-liss') in County Donegal. The family later settled at Slane Castle in County Meath in the 1780s, where the Conynghams still reside. They had no children, and on Katherine's death in 1752 the estates were inherited by William James Conolly, his nephew by his brother Patrick.
He made his fortune from land transfers, following the confiscations by the Crown of lands belonging to supporters of
He built the first winged
Conolly was the most important of the "Undertakers", the managers of Government business in the
He was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and a Commissioner of the Revenue from 1715 to his death in 1729. His name was spelt "Conolly", rather than the more familiar Connolly, deriving ultimately from the Gaelic surname "O Conghaile".[5][6]
On his death, Archbishop Boulter estimated Conolly's income in 1729 at £17,000 p.a.[7] His widow Katherine continued to live in style at Castletown until her death in 1752. She built the Wonderful Barn and the Conolly Folly in the 1740s. Then their estates passed briefly to William's nephew William junior, and then on to his great-nephew Tom Conolly M.P., known as "Squire Tom", who was married to Lady Louisa Conolly.
A pub in Celbridge, "The Speaker's Bar", was named in his memory. There is also a pub in Firhouse, Dublin, called "The Speaker Conolly" named after him.
Wealth
Conolly was reputed to be the wealthiest man in Ireland at the date of his death. He paid £32,000 and an annuity of £500 p.a., for his 30,586-acre estate at his birthplace in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, in 1718; £62,000 for his 10,360-acre estate in Rathfarnham, County Dublin, in 1723; and £12,000 for 809 acres including Leixlip, County Kildare, in 1728, together with other properties in Dublin. His 2,300-acre property at Celbridge was bought in 1709 from Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick.[8]
By his death he owned 148,487 acres that yielded a gross income of £14,926 p.a.
The Conolly residence "Cliff House" on the banks of the River Erne between Belleek, County Fermanagh and Ballyshannon County Donegal was demolished as part of the Erne Hydroelectric scheme, which constructed the Cliff and Cathleen's Fall hydroelectric power stations. Cliff hydroelectric power station was constructed on the site of "Cliff House" and was commissioned in 1950.
References
- ISBN 978-1-84383-584-4
- ^ B.H. Blacker, 'Conolly, William (died 1727)', Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900), Vol. 12.
- ^ Walsh P., op cit, p.65
- ^ S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols (S. Lewis & Co., London 1837), I, pp. 319-20 (Google).
- ^ P. McNally, 'Conolly, William (1662-1729), Speaker of the Irish House of Commons', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).
- ^ The Conolly Papers - Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
- ^ Walsh, P., op cit, p.61
- ^ See Walsh P., op cit, p.65 for a list of Conolly's properties.
- Boylan, Lena, The Conollys of Castletown: A Family History, Irish Georgian Society Bulletin, Vol X!.4, Oct – Dec 1968.
- Malcomson A.P.W.; Nathaniel Clements, Government and the Governing Elite in Ireland, 1725–1775, 4 Courts Press,2005, ISBN 1-85182-913-X
- Wilson, Rachel, Elite Women in Ascendancy Ireland, 1690-1745: Imitation and Innovation (Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge, 2015). ISBN 978-1783270392
- Nelson D. Lankford, ed., An Irishman in Dixie: Thomas Conolly's Diary of the Fall of the Confederacy, University of South Carolina Press, 1988
External links
- http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_family/hist_family_conolly.html
- Castletown House at the Wayback Machine (archived August 12, 2007)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
