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 III and
Mary II 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. He built the first winged
Palladian house in Ireland,
Castletown House in
Celbridge,
County Kildare, starting in 1722, and specified that every part of it had to be made from Irish materials. His Dublin town house was on Capel Street, then the most fashionable part of the city. He also commissioned the
Old Custom House and the
Irish Houses of Parliament, the world's first building specifically designed as a
bicameral parliament. Conolly was the most important of the "Undertakers", the managers of Government business in the
Irish House of Commons, in the early 18th century. He was associated with the moderate faction of
Whigs and was opposed by the
Brodrick faction from
Cork. He was a
Member of Parliament for
Donegal Borough from 1692 to 1703 and subsequently for
County Londonderry until his death in 1729. In 1703 and 1713, he was also elected for
Newtown Limavady and in 1727 for
Ballyshannon, but chose each time not to sit. 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". On his death,
Archbishop Boulter estimated Conolly's income in 1729 at £17,000 p.a. 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==