Galwey, John (1706–81), wine merchant, was born 19 June 1706, the elder of two sons of William Galwey (b. 1656) and his wife, Margaret Galwey (née MacCurtin) of Killelough, Co. Cork. The Galweys were an Old English family with branches in several parts of Munster. Several of John Galwey's kinsmen were active in the cause of James II (qv): his uncle Stephen, a captain in the Jacobite army, died of wounds received at the siege of Cork in 1690, while his father's cousin, also called John Galwey (d. c.1711), of Lota, Co. Cork, a barrister, sat for Cork city in the Irish parliament summoned by James II in 1689; though a catholic, he was elected by protestant votes, according to a certificate in his favour signed in 1690 by protestant dignitaries such as Alan Brodrick (qv), recorder of Cork. The MP's son, William Galwey (1673–1733), of Lota, was married to a great-niece of the 1st duke of Ormond (qv), and used his influence to secure the appointment of John as agent for the Ormond estates. The Ormond mansion at Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, became John Galwey's residence, and he used its enormous cellars to store the wine which he imported for sale in Ireland. He was described in 1775 as a ‘very rich Roman Catholic’, and donated a clock tower to the town of Carrick. He died in November 1781 and was buried at Carrickbeg; his richly ornamented monument survived until c.1949, when it was buried or removed by the town authorities.
He married twice: first, in 1726 at Carrick, Mary O'Madden (d. 1740), daughter of Anthony O'Madden of Carrick and Catherine Power, a relative of the Powers of Curraghmore, Co. Waterford. He married secondly, in 1752, Anstace Mandeville, daughter of Edward Mandeville of Ballydine, Co. Tipperary. There were four children of his first marriage, a daughter and three sons, including Anthony (1728–67), who settled at La Rochelle, and William (1731–72), who was educated at Rome, became a Jesuit priest, and was subsequently catholic dean of Waterford.
The eldest son, John Galwey (1726–97), was born 27 December 1726 at Carrick and settled in Malaga. He was probably engaged in trade with Ireland, and was heir to the fortune of his father, who in 1760 had a genealogy drawn up to assist the admission of his sons to the nobility in Spain and France. John the younger was admitted to the nobility of Spain as a hidalgo (1769) and was made knight grand cross of the Order of Charles III of Spain (1789). He lived in great splendour in Malaga, where he was British consul, and was a confidant of the count of Floridablanca, first minister in Spain from 1776.
He married first, in 1750 at Cadiz, Andrea (d. 1752), daughter of Louis de Gand, a merchant of Cadiz, and secondly, in 1770 at Malaga, Margaret, daughter of Thomas Quilty of Malaga, a merchant of Irish origin; there were three sons from the second marriage. John Galwey the younger died in 1797. His correspondence with Sir Robert Liston, British minister-plenipotentiary at Madrid (1783–8), is in the National Library of Scotland (MSS 5539–5559). The last Spanish descendant bearing the name Galwey died in 1957.