The Waddy family of Clougheast Castle in the south-east of County Wexford traced their lineage back to Edmond Waddy (d. June 1684), a cornet in the New Model Army who took part in the 1649–1653 Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, and who received a grant of Clougheast and other Wexford lands.
[1] He entered the army by purchasing a commission as an ensign in the 60th Regiment of Foot in 1800,[2] later serving as a lieutenant in the 46th, a captain in the 15th,[3] then transferring to the 69th and the 89th in 1804.
[5] He first stood as a Repeal Association candidate for the Wexford constituency in the 1832 United Kingdom general election, but was unsuccessful, receiving no votes.
Waddy stood in the ensuing 1834 County Wexford by-election, on 3 July 1834,[6] against one William Hervey, winning a narrow victory of 1,003 to 933 votes.
In 1827, he was sued by the mistress of the boarding school where they had been sent, claiming that since 1816 he had failed to make payments for their maintenance, including their clothes and medical care.