heath, Cambridgeshire. The fine, however, was remitted. He married first, Frances, daughter of William Thornton, and secondly, Mary, daughter of Edward Allington.
Dalton was living in 1648, and was then commissioner of sequestrations for the county of Cambridge. He probably died between that date and 1655, when an edition of ‘The Countrey Justice’ was published with a commendatory note by the printer. On the title-page of this edition he is for the first time described as ‘one of the masters of the chancery.’ His name does not occur in the list of masters in chancery edited by Sir Duffus Hardy. The Dalton mentioned by Strype as a member of parliament and a staunch episcopalian is another person. Michael Dalton never had a seat in the house.
Dalton published: 1. ‘The Countrey Justice,’ London, 1618, fol., a treatise on the jurisdiction of justices of the peace out of session. The idea was not altogether novel, as FitzHerbert (‘L'Office et Auctoritee de Justices de Peace,’ 1514, English translation 1538) and Lambarde (‘Eirenarcha,’ 1610) had already devoted substantive treatises to the duties of justices. Dalton's book differed from these in the limitation of its scope and the fulness of its detail. A second edition appeared in 1619 (London, fol.), prefaced by commendatory Latin verses by John Richardson, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, William Burton, regius professor of medicine in the same university, Isaac Barrow, quaintly described as ‘affinis,’ and William de Lisle. A third edition appeared in 1630, and a fourth (probably posthumous) in 1655. In 1666 the work was edited by a certain T. M., of whom nothing is known except that he was a member of Lincoln's Inn, who added a treatise on the jurisdiction in sessions, and much new matter besides. Subsequent editions appeared in 1682, 1690, and 1742. Besides this work Dalton published ‘Officium Vicecomitum, or the Office and Authoritie of Sheriffs,’ London, 1623, fol. An abridgment appeared in 1628, London, 8vo. The last edition of this book was published in 1700. There exists in the British Museum a manuscript in a seventeenth century hand (Sloane MS. 4359) entitled ‘A Breviary of the Roman or Western Church and Empire, containing the decay of True Religion and the rise of the Papacy, from the time of our Lord, the Saviour Jesus Christ, until Martin Luther, gathered by Michael Dalton of Lincoln's Inn, Esq. … A.D. 1642.’ It is an abstract of events in chronological sequence from the foundation of christianity to ‘the discovery of anti-christ’ in the sixteenth century, and consists of 230 closely written 8vo pages.
[Cole MSS. xi. 17; Cal. State Papers (Dom. 1631–3), pp. 41, 62, 91, 102, 108 (Dom. 1635–1636), p. 497; Add. MS. 5494, f. 62; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
DALY or O'DALY, DANIEL or DOMINIC (1595–1662), ecclesiastic and author, a native of Kerry, born in 1595, was member of a branch of an Irish sept which took its name from an ancestor, Dalach, in the twelfth century. His family were among the adherents of the Earl of Desmond, who was attainted for having opposed the government of Queen Elizabeth in Ireland, and was killed there in 1583. Daly, while a youth, entered the Dominican order at Lugo, Galicia, assuming in religion the name of Dominic de Rosario; studied at Burgos in Old Castile; passed through a course of philosophy and theology at Bordeaux, and, returning to Ireland, remained for a time at Tralee, in his native county. Thence he was sent as professor to the college newly established for Irish Dominicans at Louvain, where he distinguished himself by his devotion, learning, and energy. He was despatched on college business to the court at Madrid, and was received with consideration by Philip IV, then king of Spain and Portugal. Daly at this time undertook to establish a college at Lisbon for Dominicans of Irish birth, as the harsh laws in force in Ireland proscribed education in or the practice of the catholic religion. In conjunction with three members of his order, and favoured by Da Cunha, archbishop of Lisbon, Daly was enabled to purchase a small building in that city, not far from the royal palace, and there established an Irish Dominican college, of which he was appointed rector in 1634. At Lisbon Daly was held in high esteem, and was much favoured by Margaret, dowager duchess of Mantua, cousin of Philip IV, and administratrix of the government of Portugal. For the benefit of Irish catholic ladies, who suffered much under penal legislation, Daly projected a convent in Portugal for Irish nuns of the order of St. Dominic. This undertaking was for a time impeded by want of funds and the difficulty of obtaining the requisite royal permission in Spain. The first obstacle was partly removed by the munificence of some Portuguese ladies of rank, the chief of whom was Dona Iria de Brito, dowager countess of Atalaya and Feira. To procure the royal license Daly proceeded to Madrid, with letters of recommendation from eminent personages, and obtained access to the king, who received him courteously, but stipulated, as a condition, that he should enlist in Ireland a body of soldiers for the service of Spain in the Netherlands. Daly sailed promptly to Lime-
