Vereker

Family title

Viscount Gort

Estate(s)

Name	Description
Vereker (Viscount Gort)	Lough Cutra or Lough Cooter was originally O'Shaughnessy land which was granted to Thomas Prendergast at the end of the 17th century. Lord Gort is described as a resident proprietor in county Galway in 1824. It passed through the Prendergasts to the Verekers in the 19th century. J.P Vereker, of Roxboro, Limerick, was the proprietor of some townlands in the parish of Beagh in the 1830s and the agent for these was P. Kelly. James Slator and James Lahiff of Gort are also recorded as agents for Lord Gort and W. Forster as a middleman. Lord Gort sold his county Galway estate in the Encumbered Estates' Court in the early 1850s. In 1852 the Freeman's Journal reported that Lough Cooter was purchased by James Caulfield, in trust for Mrs. Ball, superioress of the Loretto Convent, Rathfarnham. Vicesimus Knox was the purchaser of several other lots at the same sale. At the time of Griffith's Valuation Lord Gort held land in the parish of Caheravally, barony of Clanwilliam, county Limerick. This estate was comprised of 940 acres in the 1870s. His brother the Honourable John Vereker owned 1,482 acres in county Limerick in the 1870s.
Gough	The Goughs were a Wiltshire family members of whom settled in the south of Ireland in the 1620s. Sir Hugh Gough purchased the Lough Cutra estate in the late 1840s. Major extensions were made to the castle in the 1850s. In the mid 19th century Lord Gough also held land in the parish of Ballysheehan, barony of Middlethird, county Tipperary. In the 1870s Viscount Gough is recorded as the owner of over 6000 acres in county Galway in addition to property in Dublin, Queen's County and 893 acres in county Tipperary. In 1906 Lord Gough held over 850 acres of untenanted demesne land in the townland of Loughcooter demesne as well as lands in other neighbouring townlands.
Prendergast (Gort)	The Prendergast family were granted lands which had belonged to the O'Shaughnessys including the area which was to become the Lough Cutra estate. Sir Thomas Prendergast 2nd Baronet died in 1760 and was succeeded by his nephew John Prendergast Smyth, the son of his sister Elizabeth and Charles Smyth, Member of Parliament for Limerick city 1731-1776. John Prendergast Smyth was created Baron Kiltarton in 1810 and Viscount Gort in 1816. He was succeeded by his nephew Charles Vereker as 2nd Viscount. The 2nd Viscount built Lough Cutra Castle and his son the 3rd Viscount sold the Gort estate in 1851.
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.