James Daly, 1st Baron Dunsandle and Clanconal

James Daly, 1st Baron Dunsandle and Clanconal (1 April 1782 – 7 August 1847) was an Irish politician.

Background

Daly was the eldest son of Denis Daly and Lady Henrietta, daughter of Robert Maxwell, 1st Earl of Farnham. The Right Reverend Robert Daly was his younger brother.

Political career

Daly was elected Member of Parliament for Galway Borough in 1805, a seat he held until 1811. In 1812 he was returned for County Galway, a constituency he represented until 1830 and again from 1832 to 1835. He saw the waning of Daly influence in the political representation of both the borough and county of Galway, at national level. A Tory, he represented the county until 1833 when he lost his seat to Catholic representatives. For his long years of Tory support in 1845 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Dunsandle and Clanconal, of Dunsandle in the County of Galway.

Land-holding

James Daly owned at least three estates in Co Galway by the second decade of the 19th century, known as the Dunsandle, Lismore and Kilconnell estates. Various annuities were charged on the Lismore and Kilconnell estates to repay loans In 1831 he borrowed £42,000 from the Alliance Co to pay off some of his siblings’ younger children portions, created by the terms of his parents’ marriage settlement 1780. However the charges on the Daly estates were still very large in 1841, amounting to a total of £94,539 <ref. Galway: James Hardiman Library: LE13/20, and in 1846 James Daly, by then Baron Dunsandle, borrowed a further £120,000 from the Globe Insurance Co. James Lord Dunsandle died of typhus in 1847.

Family

Lord Dunsandle and Clanconal married Maria Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Skeffington Smyth, 1st Baronet, in 1808. They had several children. He died in August 1847, aged 65, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, Denis. Lady Dunsandle and Clanconal died in November 1866.