JOSEPH FRANCIS DALY 
 By E.J.McGuire 
 
 U.S •Oath. Hist. Society 
 Hist. Records & Studies 
 Vol.10. May, 1917 
 
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NECROLOGY 199 
 
 Joseph Francis Daly 
 
 Former Supreme Court Justice Joseph Francis Daly who had 
 been a member of the United States Catholic Historical Society 
 for more than thirty years died at his country home, Roanoke, 
 Yonkers, New York, on August 6, 1916. His house was named 
 after the river on which lies Plymouth, North Carolina, where he 
 was born on December 3, 1840. His father Denis Daly 
 was a sea captain and had courted his mother Elizabeth Duffey, 
 daughter of Lieutenant John Duffey of the English army, while 
 she with her widowed mother was voyaging in his ship from 
 Montego Bay, Jamaica, West Indies, to New York. The young 
 people were married in New York in 1834 shortly after the 
 voyage ended. 
 
 Captain Daly engaged in the lumbering business at Plymouth, 
 shortly afterwards. His first child, Catherine, died when she was 
 about two years old. His son Augustin Daly, the famous 
 theatrical manager and playwright, and his son Joseph were 
 both born there. When Joseph was scarcely a year old his 
 father died on his ship, at sea, and his young widow with her 
 two little boys having adjusted his affairs as well as she was 
 able, with very small means at her command moved to Norfolk, 
 Virginia. In 1849 she came to New York where her half sister, 
 Mrs. Woodgate, and her husband, had previously arrived from 
 Jamaica. They settled in St. Mary's parish and lived for many 
 years at 447 Grand Street. The parish priest at Norfolk gave 
 Joseph a highly complimentary letter when he went away in 
 which he praised particularly his knowledge of the Catechism. 
 Poverty lingered with the Dalys. Both the boys had short 
 school days. When twelve years old Joseph went to work as 
 an office boy for a wool broker in Pine Street. The site is now 
 occupied by the Down Town Association. Mercantile business 
 did not appeal to the boy. A few months later he told his com- 
 rade, John H. V. Arnold, later Surrogate of New York County, 
 some of the things that he disliked, whereupon young Arnold 
 said that if he wanted to go into an honest business he could 
 be an office boy in Mr. Roosevelt's law office where there was a 
 vacancy. At this early age Joseph began his career with Robert 
 B. Roosevelt and Silas Weir Roosevelt, the uncles of Theodore 
 
 K 
 
200 
 
 NECROLOGY 
 
 Roosevelt. For nearly twenty years he was associated with them 
 as office boy, managing clerk and successor to their practice in 
 the firm of Daly, Henry & Olin. He was elected a Justice of 
 the Court of Common Pleas in 1870 and served for twenty- 
 eight years, having been re-elected in 1884. He became Chief 
 Justice of the Court in 1890. In 1895 the Court of Common 
 Pleas was consolidated with the Supreme Court by virtue of the 
 Constitution of 1894 and he became a Justice of the Supreme 
 Court. In 1898 he was defeated for re-election and immediately 
 returned to the Bar. At the age of fifty-eight when most men 
 are looking forward to retirement or greater leisure he took up 
 an active practice which he continued for eighteen years without 
 intermission and in which he won for himself great distinction 
 and increased honors. 
 
 He married in 1873 Emma Robinson Barker, the step- 
 daughter of Judge Hamilton W. Robinson of the Court of Com- 
 mon Pleas. Three children were born of his marriage, Elizabeth 
 T. Daly, Edward Hamilton Daly and Wilfrid Daly. On the 
 death of his first wife he married Mary Louise Smith, in 1890, 
 who, with all his children survives him. In June, 1916, he was 
 appointed an official referee by the Appellate Division of the 
 First Department. 
 
 He was a collaborator with Augustin Daly in his playwriting. 
 The larger part of the literary work on the famous Daly plays 
 was done by Judge Daly. His modesty and brotherly affection 
 kept this fact concealed until after his brother died. He had 
 great literary gifts. The old-fashioned law office was an ex- 
 cellent academy when it could cultivate its office boys into men 
 of learning and literary charm. Some of the ablest and most 
 cultured men in the history of the Bar of New York grew up 
 with no other advantages than those their law offices furnished 
 them. The Chrysostom Society of St. Mary's Church was also 
 a factor in the cultivation of the Daly boys. Some of their 
 contemporaries had pleasant reminiscences of their beginnings 
 in the writing and production of plays and other literary efforts 
 there. 
 
 Judge Daly from his early years was active in political work. 
 In 1865 he was one of the counsel to the Municipal Reform 
 Association. He was a member of the Committee of the Bar 
 
NECROLOGY 
 
 201 
 
 that before the days of the Bar Association, met to place checks 
 on the political bosses of that day. He was an upright, learned, 
 revered and respected judge who had the full confidence of the 
 Bar and of all the suitors in his Court. He held the scales of 
 justice evenly and walked his course without fear or favor. 
 Beginning his judicial work in his youth he came after twenty- 
 eight years still in the maturity of his powers to the day of his 
 second re-election . The circumstances of his defeat created bit- 
 ter feelings and are probably too recent to be commented on here. 
 
 After he left the bench on January 1, 1899 Judge Daly served 
 as chairman of the Federal Commission to Revise the Laws of 
 Porto Rico. He was one of the New York Committee of Re- 
 vision of the Education Law appointed by Governor Roosevelt. 
 He was counsel to the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum until 
 his death; President of the Catholic Club for five years; a trus- 
 tee and valued adviser both of St. Vincent's Hospital, New 
 York; Trinity College for Women, Washington and the New 
 York County Lawyers' Association ; a member of the New York 
 Law Institute and many other similar bodies. He was given 
 the degree of LL.D. by Fordham and Villanova. He was for a 
 generation a member of St. Vincent Ferrer's parish, New York 
 City, and a devoted friend of the Dominican Fathers who con- 
 duct it. 
 
 He hated sham and pretence in public speaking. His graceful 
 addresses of great strength and dignity made on many occasions 
 are well remembered. He was sought as a representative speaker 
 up to the end of his days. His vigor was remarkable. He kept 
 the elasticity and humor of his youth always. He was a man of 
 dignity and yet gracious ; a delightful companion to those whom 
 he admitted to his intimacy. 
 
 He was a founder of the Players' Club and was its vice- 
 president when he died. He was fond of the Catholic Club and 
 was at his best in his relations with its members both young and 
 old. In May, 1916, he was made a Knight Commander of the 
 Order of St. Gregory by Pope Benedict XV. He was an active 
 member of the Xavier Alumni Sodality. He was to all who 
 knew him always the Catholic gentleman loyal and devoted to 
 his Faith and exemplary in its practice. 
 
 Edward J. McGuire. 
 
UNITED STATES HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Honorary President, 
 His Eminence John Cardinal Farley. 
 
 President, 
 
 Vice-President, 
 Stephen Farrelly. 
 
 Treasurer, 
 Richard S. Treacy, A.M. 
 
 Corresponding Secretary, 
 Joseph H. Fargis, LL.D. 
 
 Recording Secretary, 
 James M. Tully. 
 
 Librarian, 
 Rev. Joseph F. Delany, D.D. 
 
 Trustees 
 
 Rt. Rev. Mgr. Joseph F. Mooney, V.G. 
 Rt. Rev. Mgr. James H. McGean, D.D. 
 
 Rt. Rev. Mgr. John F. Kearney. 
 Rt. Rev. Mgr. Henry A. Brann, D.D. 
 Thomas S. O'Brien, LL.D. Peter Condon, A.M. 
 
 Thomas F. Meehan, A.M. 
 
 Councillors 
 
 Rev. Thomas J. Campbell, S.J. William J, Amend. / 
 Edward J. McGuire, LL.D. J. Vincent Crowne, Ph.D. 
 William R. King. Arthur F. J. Remy. 
 
 202 
 
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 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/josephfrancisdalOOmcgu