User:Jnestorius/Dalway

The Dalway family was prominent in Carrickfergus, County Antrim from the 17th to the 19th centuries, supported by Irish Presbyterians.

John Dalway (died 1618) arrived in Carrickfergus from Liverpool; Samuel McSkimin said in 1578 as a cornet in the army of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, though Essex had died in 1576. Dalway was granted the túath of Braidisland by the chief of north Clandeboy, Shane son of Brian McPhelim O'Neill. Clandeboy was forfeited to the Crown by O'Neill's participation in Tyrone's Rebellion. Dalway was mayor of Carrickfergus in 1592 and 1600. In 1603 Dalway surrendered and was regranted his lands from James VI and I. His lands, extending inland from Whitehead, were on the 1607 bounds of the county of the town of Carrickfergus. In 1608 he bought Ballynure from James Hamilton, later Viscount Claneboye, and all his lands were made a manor by letters patent. In 1609 he leased Braidisland to William Edmonston, laird of Duntreath. Dalway was member for Bangor in the Irish parliament of 1613–15, and also served as constable of Carrickfergus Castle [? recte Carrickfergus Friary? ]


 * The original John Dalway married first in 1578 Jane O'Byrne, granddaughter of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone and daughter of Shane McBrian O'Neill; they had a daughter Margaret who married John Dobbs, who worked in the Irish Inferior Exchequer; the Dobbses had sons Foulk and Hercules. John Dalway was widowed and remarried Jane Ewer, whom Margaret Dobbs accused of adultery; Jane also accepted a certain Giles Dalway as John's brother, whereas Margaret claimed he was an impostor. Giles's sons and the Dobbses contested the original John Dalway's inheritance in lawsuits after his death; Foulk and John Dobbs were lost in the Irish Sea in 1622 returning from a hearing in London. In 1626 both sides accepted an award by Viscount Claneboye and Henry, Baron Docwra of Culmore which split the land, giving Castle-Dobbs (Margaret's dowry) and Ballynure to Hercules, while Giles's sons (both named John) received most of the rest.
 * The Dobbs family remained prominent locally; Hercules's descendants include Arthur Dobbs, Francis Dobbs, Harriet Dobbs.
 * John Dalway the elder, was High Sheriff of Antrim in 1636. He sold much of his estate to Carrickfergus corporation in 1639. He died in 1665, leaving issue Alexander, Archibald, Henry, and Helen. His widow married James Wallace of Auchens, commander of the Covenanters at the Battle of Rullion Green.
 * Alexander Dalway, son of John Dalway the elder, was High Sheriff of County Antrim in 1662.
 * John Dalway the younger, known as "Captain Dalway" was Mayor of Carrickfergus in 1660, 1661 and 1664. In that capacity his was fined £100 in 1661 for refusing to to burn the Solemn League and Covenant; a fine overturned by the Irish House of Lords when he provided evidence that he had in fact burnt it.
 * Colonel Robert Dalway (d.1699) was MP for Antrim Borough 1696–9.
 * The UJA says this Robert was MP for for Newry in 1721; McSkimin and M'Crum say it was the later Robert; other sources omit both.
 * Alexander Dalway (1669–1718) was MP for Carrickfergus 1715–1718;
 * Robert Dalway was High Sheriff of County Dublin in 1740. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in Carrickfergus in 1741.
 * His reputed son Alexander Dalway (d.1745) was "an officer who had nothing" when he married Margaret Andrews. He was killed in Scotland in the Jacobite rising and died intestate, prompting a courtcase in the Irish Chancery between his widow and their children.
 * Marriot Dalway (c.1725–1795) Irish MP for Carrickfergus 1761–8; "a self-made man who came up through the legal profession" He lost his seat in 1768 and in 1776 he stood unsuccessfully for both Carrickfergus and County Antrim. In 1779 he accepted the command of a corps of Volunteers, which in 1784 became the "Reform Battalion"
 * Noah Dalway MP for Carrickfergus in 1800, and after the Acts of Union was the first MP for Carrickfergus at Westminster 1801–1802. He owned the Dalway harp engraved in Edward Bunting's Irish Melodies. He was mayor in 1806/7, 1809, 1811, and 1816.
 * Marriott Dalway was last mayor of the borough before its abolition under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. He served four terms as one of the two sheriffs of Carrickfergus.
 * His son Marriott Dalway (1832–1914) was was High Sheriff of Carrickfergus in 1859. and MP for Carrickfergus 1868–1880. He lost his seat in the 1880 election, failed to regain it in 1885, and emigrated to Australia in 1886.