William James Conolly (died 2 January 1754) was an Irish landowner and Whig politician who sat in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fra ...

from 1727 to 1754 and in the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

from 1734 to 1754.

Early life

Conolly was a nephew of

William Conolly William Conolly (9 April 1662 – 30 October 1729), also known as Speaker Conolly, was an Irish politician, Commissioner of Revenue, lawyer and landowner. Career William Conolly was born the son of an inn-keeper, Patrick Conolly, in Ballysha ...

Speaker of the Irish House of Commons The Speaker of the Irish House of Commons was the presiding officer of the Irish House of Commons until its disestablishment in 1800. In the absence of a government chosen from and answerable to the Commons, the Speaker was the dominant politica ...

from 1715 to 1729, and was the son of Patrick Conolly, originally of

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

, younger brother of William. William and Patrick had fled to England from Ireland in 1688, but while William had returned, Patrick remained and married Frances Hewett, one of the children of Neale Hewett and Mary Halford of

Dunton Bassett Dunton Bassett is a small village in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. It lies between Leicester and Lutterworth, and close to Broughton Astley, Ashby Magna & Leire. It had a population of 795 at the 2001 UK census, falling to ...

, Leicestershire. There were two children, William and his sister, and they grew up at Dunton Bassett until 1713 when their father died, having recently buried their mother.

Career

William became cursitor in the

Court of Chancery (Ireland) The Court of Chancery was a court which exercised equitable jurisdiction in Ireland until its abolition as part of the reform of the court system in 1877. It was the court in which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland presided. Its final sitting plac ...

in 1721. This reference refers to his uncle as Thomas, and states the number of daughters as four, and contains other inaccuracies. He was elected to the

for

Ballyshannon Ballyshannon () is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. It is located at the southern end of the county where the N3 from Dublin ends and the N15 crosses the River Erne. Incorporated in 1613, it is one of the oldest towns in Ireland. Location B ...

at a by-election in 1727, after his uncle who had been elected in the 1727 Irish general election earlier in the year decided to continue sitting for

County Londonderry County Londonderry ( Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry ( ga, Contae Dhoire), is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty two counties of Ireland and one of the nine counties of Ulster. B ...

instead. In 1729, he succeeded to Castletown, the estate of his uncle, who was said to be the richest man in Ireland. He was appointed to the

Irish Privy Council His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

on 3 February 1730. Castletown House - geograph

At the

1734 British general election The 1734 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 8th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Robert Walpole's incr ...

Conolly was returned as Member of Parliament for

Aldeburgh Aldeburgh ( ) is a coastal town in the English county, county of Suffolk, England. Located to the north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the int ...

in the interest of his father-in-law Lord Strafford. Although Strafford was a

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

, Conolly considered himself "an incorrigible Whig". He voted consistently with the Government and was returned for Aldeburgh in

1741 Events January–March * January 13 – Lanesborough, Massachusetts is created as a township. * February 13 – Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, popularizes the term "the balance of power" in a spe ...

. He was classed as Old Whig in 1746. At the

1747 British general election The 1747 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 10th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election saw Henr ...

he changed seats and was returned as MP for

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth a ...

instead.

Marriage and issue

On 28 April 1733, he married Lady Anne Wentworth, daughter of

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, (13 April 1593 ( N.S.)12 May 1641), was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1 ...

and his wife Anne Johnson; and in that year he purchased

Stretton Hall, Staffordshire Stretton Hall is an early 18th-century mansion house at Stretton, South Staffordshire. It is the home of a branch of the Monckton family descended from John Monckton 1st Viscount Galway. It is a privately owned Grade II* listed building, not open ...

as his seat in England, his uncle's great mansion of Castletown in Kildare still being in the hands of his widowed aunt. The couple had a London home in

Grosvenor Square Grosvenor Square is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of London. It is the centrepiece of the Mayfair property of the Duke of Westminster, and takes its name from the duke's surname "Grosvenor". It was developed for fashionable re ...

. He had a son and seven daughters. * Thomas Conolly, who married Lady Louisa Lennox *Frances, who married

William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, KB PC (10 August 172912 July 1814) was a British Army officer who rose to become Commander-in-Chief of British land forces in the Colonies during the American War of Independence. Howe was one of three brot ...

*Katherine, who married

Ralph Gore, 1st Earl of Ross General The Rt Hon. Ralph Gore, 1st Earl of Ross (23 November 1725 – September 1802), known as Sir Ralph Gore, 6th Baronet, from 1746 until 1764, subsequently as The Baron Gore until 1768, and then as The Viscount Belleisle until 1772, was an ...

; *Anne, who married George Byng and was the mother of

John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford Field Marshal John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford (1772 – 3 June 1860) was a British Army officer and politician. After serving as a junior officer during the French Revolutionary Wars and Irish Rebellion of 1798, he became Commanding Officer of ...

*Jane, who married the notoriously eccentric landowner and

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

list

George Robert FitzGerald George Robert Fitzgerald, aka Fighting Fitzgerald (c.1748 – 12 June 1786) was a celebrated Irish eccentric, duellist and landowner, who was hanged for conspiracy to murder in 1786. Biography FitzGerald came from Turlough, near Castlebar, ...

("Fighting FitzGerald") in 1770 and had issue. He was hanged for conspiracy to

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

in 1786; *Lucy, unmarried; *Harriet, who married

John Staples The Rt. Hon. John Staples, M.P. (1 March 1736 – 22 December 1820), was an Irish Member of Parliament from 1765 to 1802. He sat in the Irish House of Commons for Newtown Limavady from 1765 to 1768, for Clogher from 1768 to 1776, for Ba ...

and was grandmother of

Edward Michael Conolly Edward Michael Conolly (23 August 1786 – 4 January 1849) was an Irish Member of Parliament. He was born Edward Michael Pakenham, son of Admiral Sir Thomas Pakenham by his wife Louisa, daughter of John Staples and niece of Thomas Conolly of ...

*Caroline, who married

John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire (17 August 17233 August 1793) was a British nobleman and politician. Biography The son of John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire by his first wife Judith Britiffe, he was educated at Westminster Scho ...

. Conolly died on 2 January 1754 leaving an estate of £15,000 per annum. The widowed Lady Conolly moved to Boyle Street,

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...

, London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connolly, William James Year of birth missing 1754 deaths Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Donegal constituencies Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Irish MPs 1727–1760 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1734–1741 British MPs 1741–1747 British MPs 1747–1754