John Lionel Darby (20 November 1831 – 5 November 1919) was Dean of Chester in the last decades of the 19th century and the first two of the 20th.
[1] Born in County Kilkenny, Ireland into an ecclesiastical family as the youngest son of Christopher Darby, sometime Rector of Kells, County Kilkenny[2] on 20 November 1831, he was educated at St Columba's College[3] and Trinity College Dublin[4] and ordained in 1857.
He began his career with curacies at Winwick and Mells.
Later he was Diocesan Inspector for the Diocese of Chester and Rector of St Bridget's, Chester.
[5] He was Archdeacon of Chester from 1877 until 1886 and his elevation to the Deanery.