Darley, Frederick (1764–1841), builder, alderman, and police magistrate, born in Dublin and baptised on 6 July 1764, was one of the many children of Henry Darley (1721?–1798), a wealthy public works contractor, and his first wife, Mary (née Steele; d. 1770). Henry's grandfather, also Henry (d. 1728?), owned a quarry at Newtownards, Co. Down, and the Darleys were well known in Dublin as stonemasons and builders. Frederick Darley attended the school conducted by Sisson Darling (qv) in Mabbott Street, Dublin, where a fellow pupil was Theobald Wolfe Tone (qv). He is listed in the Dublin directories for the 1790s as a ‘stone cutter’ of 88 Lower Abbey Street, a description that understates his economic and social position. Among his undertakings was the contract for stonework for the Carlisle Bridge (1791–4). As a member of the merchants’ guild he entered Dublin municipal politics: he was joint sheriff (1798–9), alderman (from 1800), and lord mayor (1808–9). In 1808 also he became a police magistrate and in 1812 chief police magistrate. From 1824 until 1836 (when the Irish police forces were reorganised) his authority extended to Co. Dublin.
An Orangeman from the formation of the first Dublin lodge (June 1796), he caused offence at a civic dinner in honour of George IV by proposing a toast ‘to the glorious memory’, despite the objection of the presiding alderman (August 1821); he was criticised by some for the alleged laxness of the police in dealing with a riot at a theatrical performance attended by the lord lieutenant (December 1822), though he was thanked by the lord mayor and aldermen ‘for his active exertions’. Notwithstanding his own allegiance, at the parliamentary elections held in August 1830 he was one of several Dublin aldermen who asked George Robert Dawson (qv), formerly an opponent of catholic emancipation but now a conspicuous supporter, to stand in Dublin city. Frederick Darley died on 29 June 1841 aged ‘upwards of 78’. He married (1785) Elizabeth (1762–1847), eldest daughter of the first Arthur Guinness (qv), and had at least seven sons, including Frederick (1798–1872), an architect, John (1799?–1836), briefly a fellow of TCD, Henry (1800?–1883), a clerk in the court of chancery who received over £100,000 in pensions, William Frederick (1806–98), a county court judge, and Benjamin Guinness (1808?–1886), a medical doctor. The poet George Darley (qv) was a distant relative.