[1] He was the son of John Staunton of Galway, Ireland, who was MP for Galway Borough and held the office of Serjeant-at-law (Ireland), and Bridget Donnellan, daughter of Edmund Donnellan, and was educated at Trinity College Dublin from 1723.
[citation needed] He was elected to represent Galway Borough (his father's old constituency) in the Irish Parliament, sitting from 1732 to 1761.
[citation needed] He married twice; firstly Jane, the daughter of Gilbert Vane, 2nd Baron Barnard and Mary Randyll (Mary was reputed to be a woman of "scandalous life"), and sister of Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington and Anne Vane, mistress of Frederick, Prince of Wales.
He married secondly Catherine, the daughter of Thomas Thurston of Holbrook Hall, Suffolk and the widow of William Peck of Little Sampford, Essex (died 1742), who had been a first cousin of Jane Staunton.
[citation needed] He was considered a fine Parliamentary orator, but after 1761 there is no record of his speaking in the House.