The third son of Henry Darley, a stonecutter and quarry owner of Newtownards, County Down, he had moved to Dublin by 1725 where he is recorded as working on buildings at Bachelor's Walk.
Over the course of two centuries, the extended Darley family were particularly heavily involved in the provision of stone and building services to Trinity College Dublin.
[4][5] In the 1750s, Darley is recorded as employing over 100 men on college related building works alone.
[6] He appears to have owned the quarries at Ardbraccan (limestone) for a period as well as at Golden Hill (granite) near the village of Kilbride, County Wicklow.
[7] For a period, Edward Smyth was apprenticed to Darley who recommended him to work with James Gandon.