Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/32

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Conolly
26
Conolly

Office give the probable date of his death, on the authority of Wolff, as 1842. Wolff appears to have afterwards thought this too early; but Kaye, after a careful review of all the evidence attainable, considered that Conolly and Stoddart were most probably executed on 17 June 1842 (Kaye, ii. 139).

Many years after, Conolly's prayer-book, wherein he had entered a last record of his sufferings and aspirations when a prisoner at Bokhara, was left at his sister's house in London by a mysterious foreigner, who simply left word that he came from Russia. The details there furnished are given in full in Kaye's account of Conolly.

Three of Conolly's brothers lost their lives in the Indian service, viz.:—

Conolly, Edward Barry (1808–1840), captain 6th Bengal light cavalry, who at the time of his death was in command of the escort of the British envoy at Cabul. He was killed by a shot from the fort of Tootumdurrah, in the Kohat, north of Cabul, when acting as a volunteer with Sir Robert Sale, in an attack on that place on 29 Sept. 1840 (see Journal Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, vol. ix. pt. i.) The following papers from his pen appeared in the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal;' 'Observations on the Past and Present Condition of Orijein or Uijayana,' vol. vi.; 'Discoveries of Gems from Candahar,' 'Sketch of Physical Geography of Seistan,' 'Notes on the Eusofzye Tribes of Afghanistan,' vol. ix.; 'Journal kept while Travelling in Seistan,' vol. x.; 'On Gems and Coins,' vol. xi.

Conolly, John Balfour (d. 1842), lieutenant 20th Bengal native infantry, a cadet of 1833, was afterwards attached to the Cabul embassy. He died of fever while a hostage in the Bala Hissar, Cabul, on 7 Aug. 1842 (see Lady Sale's Journal, p. 392).

Conolly, Henry Valentine (1806–1865), Madras civil service, was entered at Rugby School in the same year as his brother Arthur, and was appointed a writer on the Madras establishment on 19 May 1824. He became assistant to the principal collector at Bellary in 1826, and after holding various posts—as deputy secretary to the military department, Canarese translator to the government, cashier of the government bank, additional government commissioner for the settlement of Carnatic claims, &c.—he was appointed magistrate and collector at Malabar, a post he held for many years. Conolly, who was married, was murdered in his own house on 11 Sept. 1855, by some Mopla fanatics, in revenge for the active share he had taken in the outlawry of their 'Thungai,' or saint, a religious vagabond who had been deported to Jeddah a few years before on account of his seditious acts. Shortly before his death Conolly was made a provisional member of the council of the Madras government (Overland Bombay Times, 12 Sept. to 5 Oct. 1855). There is a monument to him in the cathedral, Madras, and a scholarship was founded in his memory at the Madras University.

[The most authentic particulars of Arthur Conolly will be found in the biography in Kaye's Lives of Indian Officers, vol. ii., and in Calcutta Review, vol. xv. Much information respecting the military services of Arthur and Edward Barry Conolly is contained in the Service Army Lists kept at the India Office. Accessory information will be found in Rugby School Registers, Annotated (Rugby, 1881); A. Conolly's Journey to Northern India, 2 vols. (London, 1834); in various historical and biographical works bearing on the first Afghan war; in Captain John Grover's Bokhara Victims (London, 1846, 8vo); and in Dr. Joseph Wolff's Mission to Bokhara, 7th ed. (Edinburgh, 1862).]

H. M. C.

CONOLLY, ERSKINE (1796–1843), Scotch poet, was born at Crail, Fifeshire, on 12 June 1796. He was educated at the burgh school of his native town, and afterwards apprenticed to a bookseller at Anstruther. Subsequently he began business on his own account in Colinsburgh, but not succeeding to his satisfaction went to Edinburgh, where, after serving for some time as clerk to a writer to the signet, he obtained a partnership with a solicitor, and after his partner's death succeeded to the whole business. He died at Edinburgh on 7 Jan. 1843. Among the best known of his songs is 'Mary Macneil,' which appeared in the 'Edinburgh Intelligencer,' 23 Dec. 1840. He never made any collection of his poems.

[Conolly's Dictionary of Eminent Men of Fife, p. 126; Charles Roger's Modern Scottish Minstrel, pp. 247–8; Grant-Wilson's Poets and Poetry of Scotland, ii. 175–6.]

T. F. H.

CONOLLY, JOHN (1794–1860), physician, was born at Market Rasen in Lincolnshire on 27 May 1794. His father was a member of a well-known Irish family, the Conollys of Castletown. Readers of Swift will remember the whimsical passage in which the Drapier refers to the proverbial wealth and importance of Squire Conolly. Little if any, of this wealth descended to John Conolly's father, who came to England to seek his fortime, settled in Lincolnshire, and remained without definite profession or calling. He married a lady named Tennyson, cousin-german to George Tennyson, grandfather to the poet laureate. Mrs. Conolly appears to have been a woman of consider-