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.

William Conolly was born the son of an inn-keeper, Patrick Conolly, in Ballyshannon, County Donegal. Patrick Conolly was a native of County Monaghan, and a descendant of the Ó Conghalaigh clan of Airgíalla. Patrick settled in County Donegal, embraced the Anglican Church, and had children William, Patrick, Hugh, Phelim and Thady. He set aside enough money that he was able to send William to Dublin to study law. William Conolly qualified as an attorney in 1685, aged twenty-three.

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 King James II, in the wake of the Glorious Revolution and the accession of William and Mary in 1688-91, known as the "Williamite War in Ireland". About 600,000 Irish acres were confiscated to be sold to pay for the costs of the war, (equivalent to 972,000 statute acres), nearly 5% of the land area of Ireland. Conolly was the largest individual buyer, in particular buying 3,300 acres in County Meath that had been assigned to the Earl of Albemarle.

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