Parliament for Donegal Borough from 1692 to 1703 and subsequently for Londonderry County 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 Conolly was reputed to be the wealthiest man in Ireland at the date of his death. He paid £32,000 and an annuity of £500 p.a., for his 30,586-acre estate at his birthplace in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, in 1718; £62,000 for his 10,360-acre estate in Rathfarnham, County Dublin, in 1723; and £12,000 for 809 acres including Leixlip, County Kildare, in 1728, together with other properties in Dublin. His 2,300-acre property at Celbridge was bought in 1709 from Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick. By his death he owned 148,487 acres that yielded a gross income of £14,926 p.a. The Conolly residence "Cliff House" on the banks of the River Erne between Belleek, County Fermanagh and Ballyshannon County Donegal was demolished as part of the Erne Hydroelectric scheme, which constructed the Cliff and Cathleen's Fall hydroelectric power stations. Cliff hydroelectric power station was constructed on the site of "Cliff House" and was commissioned in 1950. References Boylan, Lena, The Conollys of Castletown: A Family History, Irish Georgian Society Bulletin, Vol X!.4, Oct – Dec 1968. Malcomson A.P.W.; Nathaniel Clements, Government and the Governing Elite in Ireland, 1725–1775, 4 Courts Press,2005, Wilson, Rachel, Elite Women in Ascendancy Ireland, 1690-1745: Imitation and Innovation (Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge, 2015). Nelson D. Lankford, ed., ''An Irishman in Dixie: Thomas Conolly's Diary of the Fall of the