County Galway

CO. GALWAY – 95%, [166,249 + Galway town 12,600] c. 700, [c. 13,000 (1815)]
BOROUGH	TYPE	PATRON	ELECTORATE
Athenry	Corporation	John Blakeney	13 burgesses and 2 freemen
Galway	County borough	Denis Daly (1 seat)	569 freemen and freeholders (including 295 admitted in 1783)
		Denis Bowes Daly (1 seat)
		(560 in 1812); 847 voted in 1818
Tuam	Corporation	Bingham family (Clanmorris)	13 burgesses

Co. Galway - Constituency

Co. Galway was a large county, but thinly populated and very poor. In 1785 it was considered to be ‘very extensive and in parts wild. Roman Catholics 40 to 1 … Lord Clanricarde (5009), Mr Daly, Mr Martin, and the Blakes have the chief interest. Mr Kirwin and Mr Martin stood upon the independent interest at the last election.’ They were unsuccessful. In areas such as Iar Connaught the law was unknown. Although the electorate was probably under a thousand for most of the century, the balance of the interests ensured that there would be controverted elections, and there were at least nine in the course of the century.

In 1768 the Co. Galway poll ended in a riot and the return was successfully petitioned against by William Power Keating Trench, who alleged that one of the candidates, Lord Dunkellin, had by expending £1,900 acquired ‘a large and leading interest’ and ‘that many who would otherwise have given their second voices to Mr Trench, were by undue influence, by corruption, by menaces, and when these failed, even by stripes compelled to vote for Lord Dunkellin.’

According to the evidence of a Mr Dennis Kelly, the ‘large and leading interest’ so acquired amounted to 23 votes.

According to Lord Dunkellin the £1,900 was paid to Charles Daly to defray ‘the expenses attending the poll during the election’, for which the candidates were responsible.

This defeat rankled, as on 18 September 1799 Edward Cooke, who was not in the country at the time of the election, wrote to Chief Secretary Castlereagh, who was not born at the time of the election, saying that ‘I enclose a philippic from Lord Clanricarde [Dunkellin]. Lord Kilconnell [Trench] and his Lordship had once a contested election before the Grenville Act [O’Brien-Lucas Act, which was modelled on the British Grenville Act] took place. Lord Clanricarde had the real majority, but Lord Kilconnell beat him through his superior management in Parliament.’ All too often the election was only the first step.

On 14 October 1783 the poll for Co. Galway closed. It had lasted 52 days and the final result was: Denis Daly and William Power Keating Trench 588 votes each, Mr Kirwin 450 and Mr Martin 383. After the death of Denis Daly in 1791 the Martin interest became more dominant, assisted by Catholic enfranchisement and his vast estates, while the Daly interest remained strong in Galway town, which retained one member after the Union.

ID	County	Year	Type	Ref. No.	Name
1	Co. Galway	1692	Election	712	John Eyre
2	Co. Galway	1692	Election	1842	Sir Oliver St George
3	Co. Galway	1695	Election	712	John Eyre
4	Co. Galway	1695	Election	1838	Sir George St George
5	Co. Galway	1703	Election	712	John Eyre
6	Co. Galway	1703	Election	830	John French
7	Co. Galway	1709	By Election	1598	Edward Ormsby
8	Co. Galway	1713	Election	713	John Eyre
9	Co. Galway	1713	Election	832	Patrick French
10	Co. Galway	1715	Election	1598	Edward Ormsby
11	Co. Galway	1715	Election	2107	Frederick Trench
12	Co. Galway	1727	Election	713	John Eyre
13	Co. Galway	1727	Election	2107	Frederick Trench
14	Co. Galway	1745	By Election	122	Thomas Bermingham
15	Co. Galway	1750	By Election	2170	George Warburton
16	Co. Galway	1753	By Election	569	Charles Daly
17	Co. Galway	1753	By Election	834	Robert French
18	Co. Galway	1761	Election	569	Charles Daly
19	Co. Galway	1761	Election	2109	Richard Trench
20	Co. Galway	1768	Election	570	Denis Daly
21	Co. Galway	1768	Election	2111	(Henry De Burgh (Lord Dunkellin) n.d.e.) William Power
22	Co. Galway	1776	Election	570	Denis Daly
23	Co. Galway	1776	Election	2111	William Power Keating Trench
24	Co. Galway	1783	Election	570	Denis Daly
25	Co. Galway	1783	Election	2111	William Power Keating Trench
26	Co. Galway	1790	Election	2111	William Power Keating Trench
27	Co. Galway	1790	Election	570	Denis Daly
28	Co. Galway	1792	By Election	152	Joseph Henry Blake
29	Co. Galway	1797	Election	152	Joseph Henry Blake
30	Co. Galway	1797	Election	2110	Richard (Le Poer-)Trench
31	Co. Galway	1800	By Election	1347	Richard Martin (Aug. 1800)
32	Co. Galway	1801	UK	2110	Richard (Le Poer-)Trench
33	Co. Galway	1801	UK	1347	Richard Martin
34	Co. Galway	1802	Election	1347	Richard Martin
35	Co. Galway	1802	Election	2110	Richard (Le Poer-)Trench (Lord Dunlo)

Co. Galway - Boroughs

Athenry was a very old town with writs with grants and charters going back to at least the reign of Edward II. There is one for 14 October 1310 and there are a number for the reign of Richard II in the 1390s. The corporation comprised a portreeve and an undefined number of burgesses and freemen. In the 1780s there were 13 burgesses and two freemen. The borough appears to have been in the unchallenged possession of the Blakeney family throughout the eighteenth century. Theophilus Blakeney (0158) received the £15,000 compensation for its disfranchisement at the Union.

In Galway town the Daly interest predominated, as it was ‘great both in county and town’. There were at least seven controverted elections in the course of the century. The Eyres, Blakes and Martins usually unsuccessfully contested the Dalys, who represented the town almost solidly in the latter half of the century; earlier the Eyres, who appeared to have died out in the male line, and the Stauntons transferred their political interest to Great Britain.

In 1768 Robert French, who had some influence on his own account, was returned along with Anthony Daly, and Hedges Eyre petitioned against this return on grounds of ‘bribery corruption and undue influence’. This petition was to be heard after the Christmas recess, but it does not appear again in CJ Ire. At the end of December 1769 parliament was prematurely prorogued and it did not reassemble until February 1771; in the intervening period nearly all the election petitions that had not been settled before the prorogation were dropped.

Thomas Staunton (1990) sat for Ipswich in the British parliament from 1757 to 1784, and both his wives were English. Skeffington Smyth was married to a Daly, and George Ponsonby was the brother-in-law of Denis Bowes Daly, who was a leading member of the Ponsonby phalanx.

Before the 1783 election 295 freemen were created to consolidate the Daly interest in the corporation. Including this sudden influx, the electorate in that year numbered approximately 569. Subsequently the Daly interest was unsuccessfully challenged by the Blake family, but it remained intact until – and even after – the Union, when the borough’s representation was reduced to one seat. The Daly interest remained a considerable force.

ID	Borough	Year	Type	Ref. No.	Name
1	Galway	1692	Election	107	Sir Henry Bellasis
2	Galway	1692	Election	652	Nehemiah Donnellan
3	Galway	1695	Election	1605	Robert Ormsby
4	Galway	1695	Election	1844	Richard St George
5	Galway	1703	Election	710	Edward Eyre
6	Galway	1703	Election	1988	John Staunton
7	Galway	1713	Election	715	Samuel Eyre
8	Galway	1713	Election	1988	John Staunton
9	Galway	1715	Election	1905	Robert Shaw
10	Galway	1715	Election	710	(John Staunton (1988) n.d.e.) Edward Eyre (1716)
11	Galway	1727	Election	1989	Thomas Staunton
12	Galway	1727	Election	1988	John Staunton
13	Galway	1732	By Election	1990	Thomas Staunton
14	Galway	1735	By Election	191	Dominick Bourke
15	Galway	1748	By Election	714	(Richard Fitzpatrick (0757) n.d.e.) John Eyre
16	Galway	1761	Election	714	John Eyre
17	Galway	1761	Election	757	Richard Fitzpatrick
18	Galway	1767	By Election	570	Denis Daly
19	Galway	1768	Election	572	James Daly
20	Galway	1768	Election	834	Robert French
21	Galway	1771	By Election	568	Anthony Daly
22	Galway	1776	Election	568	Anthony Daly
23	Galway	1776	Election	571	Denis Bowes Daly
24	Galway	1783	Election	568	Anthony Daly
25	Galway	1783	Election	571	Denis Bowes Daly
26	Galway	1790	Election	570	Denis Daly
27	Galway	1790	Election	1949	Sir Skeffington Edward Smyth
28	Galway	1792	By Election	573	Peter Daly
29	Galway	1797	Election	574	St George Daly
30	Galway	1797	Election	1699	George Ponsonby
31	Galway	1801	UK	574	St George Daly
32	Galway	1801	UK	1703	John Brabazon Ponsonby
33	Galway	1802	Election	571	Denis Bowes Daly

Tuam was incorporated by a 1614 charter of 11 James I. It had the usual pattern of a sovereign, 12 free burgesses and a commonalty. The borough originally belonged to the archbishopric of Tuam. However, the Rt Hon. Henry Bingham (0136) married Anne, daughter of Archbishop Vesey, a Lord Justice in 1714, and the borough, probably through control of the corporation, passed into the hands of the Clanmorris branch of the Bingham family, who either sold or represented the seat throughout the century.

In 1800 Sir Jonah Barrington (0087), as author of the opposition black Union list, declared that ‘The Author of this work was deputed to learn from Mr Bingham (0144) what his expectations from government for his seats were: he proposed to take from the opposition £8,000 for his two seats for Tuam and oppose the Union. Government afterwards added a Peerage and £15,000 for the borough.’However, although he was created Lord Clanmorris on 31 July 1800, he was required to pay his brother-in-law, Walter Yelverton (2269), who had purchased his seat, £1,000 out of the compensation money.

Constituencies and Elections

County Galway

Co. Galway - Constituency

Co. Galway - Boroughs