Landed Estates
University of Galway

Stamer (Carnelly)

William Stamer, a member of an old English Protestant family from Essex, England, moved to county Kildare in the 1630s. A grandson George Stamer settled in county Clare after the Cromwellian settlement and was leasing Carnelly/Carrownanelly and Carhugar by the early 1670s from the Earl of Thomond. By the 1680s he was in possession of the castle of Clare and about 1,700 aces and held other lands from Viscount Clare in the barony of Moyarta and in County Limerick. However he lost much of his property during the Jacobite War but this was subsequently restored. When he died in 1708 he left all his estates to his son William, High Sheriff of Clare in 1717. William Stamer married Anna Bindon of Clooney, sister of the architect Francis Bindon who designed Carnelly house. Carnelly was built in the Queen Anne style sometime between 1730 and 1740. Succeeding generations of Stamers were High Sheriffs of Clare but seemed to die young. The male line died out in 1819 with the death of Lieutenant Colonel George William Stamer. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation his wife Mary J. Stamer held Carrownanelly in the parish of Clareabbey. His daughter married Savory, Duke de Rovigo in 1839 but the Duchess returned from France to live with her mother at Carnelly circa 1850. She had one daughter Marie de Rovigo who married Francis N. Burton of Carrigaholt, parish and barony of Moyarta, in 1866. Following their marriage they lived at Carnelly and the Duchess and her mother went to live at Stamer Park, Ennis. The Browns of Limerick appear to have been agent for this estate in the 1850s. The Burtons had no children and when Marie died in 1890 Carnelly passed to Guillamore O’Grady (1879-1952) a great great grandson of William Stamer of Carnelly (1750-1785) and after his death to the Vereker family Viscounts Gort. The family of Stamer baronets descend from the county Clare family.

Associated Families

Houses

Name Townland Civil Parish PLU DED Barony County Map Ref  
Carnelly Carrownanelly Clareabbey Ennis Doora 32 Islands Clare OSI Ref: R365 735
OS Sheet: 42
Discovery map: 58 		Photo of Carnelly
Stamer Park Clonroad Beg Drumcliff Ennis Ennis Rural 26 Islands Clare OSI Ref: R341 777
OS Sheet: 33
Discovery map: 58 		Photo of Stamer Park

Archival sources

  • Pedigree of Stamer Bts of Ennis, Co Clare, c 1750-1809. GO MS 168: 87; National Library of Ireland
  • Landed Estates’ Court Rentals (Dunboyne), Stamer, 10 June 1864, Vol 26, 65-68 (note re purchaser) ; James Hardiman Library, University of Galway
  • Landed Estates’ Court Rentals (O’Brien), Stamer, 10 June 1864, Vol 73 (13), MRGS 39/036, (microfilm copy in NUIG) ; National Archives of Ireland
  • WESTROPP, T.J. Notes on Clare families. 3 A 40, 63; Royal Irish Academy Library
  • Field Notebook from 1881 of Thomas Johnson Westropp, antiquary, containing family trees & other genealogical information re the different branches of the Westropp family. Incldes information re the Stamer family. PP/2; Clare County Archives
  • Notes on the Stamer & Westropp families. Microfilm P3661; National Library of Ireland
  • Brown Papers, ledger connected with the Stamer/de Rovigo estate, 1854-1863. MS 9289; National Library of Ireland
  • Copy of confirmation of arms, O’Grady quartering Stamer, to descendants of Edward Smyth O’Grady, fourth son of Darby O’Grady of Mount Prospect, Co Limerick & his wife Mary Stamer, daughter & heir of William Stamer of Carnelly, 9 Nov 1910. GO MS 111a:46; National Library of Ireland

Contemporary printed sources

Modern printed sources