Constituency : Cork City 1847-51 (Irish Repeal) , 1852-9
William was a wealthy Catholic merchant and an acolyte of Daniel O' Connell who became Mayor of Cork in 1844 and entered Parliament as a Repeal Association MP in 1847. In the same year he published his biography The Life and Times of Daniel O'Connell. While in Parliament he introduced bills relating to life assurance policies , small debts and the vexed question of church rates in Ireland. In 1851 he resigned the seat in order to become a Commissioner of Insolvency but was back again for the 1852 election where he stood as an Independent Whig pledged to form an Independent Irish Opposition party. This proved unachievable over the next five years so he stood as a mainstream Whig in 1857 and 1859.
He died 10 days after the 1859 election aged 58.
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