Callaghan MacCarty, 3rd Earl of Clancarty (died 1676) was the second son of Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty. Callaghan was destined for a Catholic religious career and entered a seminary in France where his family was in exile during Cromwell's rule. When his elder brother died in the Battle of Lowestoft, and the 2nd Earl, his nephew, died in infancy, he unexpectedly left his religious institution, returned to Ireland, and assumed the title. He became a Protestant and married a Protestant wife. Late in life he converted back to Catholicism.
While Callaghan was a child, his father, Lord Muskerry, in March 1642 joined the Confederates[17] to defend the Catholic faith and, as he thought, the King.[18] Muskerry commanded the Confederates' Munster army in the Irish Confederate Wars. In October 1645 Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, the papal nuncio arrived in Ireland and visited Macroom Castle where Callaghan and his family were living.[19] Muskerry disagreed with Rinuccini's policies and resigned early in August 1647 from his command.[20]
In May 1647 Muskerry sent Callaghan's elder brother, Cormac, with a regiment to France to serve Louis XIV.[21] After Rinuccini had left Ireland on 23 February 1649,[22] Muskerry took up arms again to resist the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland. He fought to the bitter end and surrendered Ross Castle near Killarney to Edmund Ludlow on 27 June 1652, disbanding his 5000-strong army.[23][24]
To guarantee his compliance with the terms, Muskerry gave one of his sons to Ludlow as hostage.[25] This must have been Callaghan, aged about 14, as his eldest, Cormac, was away with his regiment in France[21] and Justin, aged 9, was probably with his mother in exile, also in France.
Some time before the fall of Ross Castle, Muskerry had sent his wife, Callaghan's mother, to safety in France. She was probably accompanied by Callaghan's youngest brother, Justin, and his sisters. His mother lived with her sister Mary Butler, Lady Hamilton, in the convent of the Feuillantines in Paris.[29] In the late 1650s Callaghan entered a seminary in France.[30]
On 27 November 1658 his father was created Earl of Clancarty by Charles II in Brussels, where the King was then in exile.[31] By this advancement the title of Viscount of Muskerry became a subsidiary title of the family, which was given as a courtesy title to the Earl's heir apparent. Callaghan's elder brother Charles (or Cormac) was from there on styled Lord Muskerry.[32]
Restoration
At the Restoration, Callaghan, aged about 13, and his elder brother, Cormac, stayed behind in France, while his parents, his younger brother, Justin, and his sisters returned to the British Isles. Cormac stayed behind in Dunkirk with his regiment, whereas Callaghan continued to prepare for the priesthood in a French seminary,[33][34][c] In 1662 his father, Earl Clancarty, recovered his estates in the Act of Settlement. By 1664 Callaghan was a student at the Irish College in Toulouse.[30] This was a small school with historic links to Munster. It never had more than 12 students.[36]
Earl of Clancarty
On 4 March 1665, the Second Anglo-Dutch War broke out. Three months into the war, on 3 June 1665 O.S., his brother Charles, Lord Muskerry, was killed on the flagship, the Royal Charles, in the Battle of Lowestoft, the first major naval engagement of the war and an English victory.[37] His brother had an infant son, also named Charles, who succeeded him as heir apparent and Viscount of Muskerry. However, their father, the 1st Earl, died two months later, on 4 August 1665,[38] and the younger Charles succeeded as the 2nd Earl of Clancarty. The 2nd Earl died about a year later, on 22 September 1666, still an infant.[39][d]
At this point Justin, the third son, expected to succeed as 3rd Earl, as Callaghan, being in holy orders, would be passed over, but Callaghan hearing of the opening of the succession decided to claim the title. He left his college at Toulouse and returned to Ireland, where he conformed to the established religion, leaving the Catholic Church and joining the Protestant Church of Ireland. He therefore succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Clancarty.[35]
Marriage and children
In 1667 Lord Clancarty, as he was now, married Elizabeth FitzGerald, sixth and youngest daughter of George FitzGerald, 16th Earl of Kildare and his wife Lady Joan Boyle.[41][42] The FitzGeralds were an Old English family whose ancestor came to Ireland during the Norman invasion of that country. His wife has been described as "a fierce Protestant isolated in a Catholic family".[43]
Callaghan and Elizabeth had one son:
Donough (1668–1734), became the 4th and last Earl of Clancarty[44]
—and four daughters of whom three are known by name:[45]
Clancarty died of a stroke ("Apoplexy") on 21 November 1676 in Dublin, aged about 38.[49][50] He died "out of the community of the Church of England" and seemed to have returned to his original Catholic religion some time after his marriage.[51] He was buried in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.[52] He was succeeded by his only son Donough, aged eight at the time. His widow remarried to Sir William Davys, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and died in 1698.[42]
Timeline
As his birth date is uncertain, so are all his ages.
^Callaghan's year of birth is bracketed between 1633 or 1634, the birth of his older brother,[2] and about 1643, the birth of his younger brother.[3]
^This family tree is based on a two graphic trees[11][12] and on written genealogies of the Earls of Clancarty,[13][14] the MacCarthy of Muskerry family,[15] and the Earls of Ormond.[16] Also see the list of children in the text.
^Cokayne 1913 maintains he was a monk but this seems to be wrong.[35]
^The 2nd Earl's date of death seems to be in dispute. This text follows the more recent publication, Cokayne (1913), which gives 22 September 1666,[39] whereas Burke (1866) gives 1668.[40]
^For the needs of the timeline, Callaghan's birth year is assumed to be 1638, as his older brother was born in 1633 or 1634[2] and his younger brother was born about 1643.[3]
Citations
^Creighton 2009, 1st paragraph. "... born in Ireland in the late 1630s ..."
^ abLainé 1836, p. 76, line 1. "... dans un combat naval livré aux Hollandais, le 13 juin 1665 [N.S.] à l'âge de trente-et-un ans."
^ abMurphy 1959, p. 49. "I have been unable to determine the precise date of his [Justin's] birth: the year 1643 is an approximation arrived at ..."
^Ohlmeyer 2004, p. 107, left column, line 26. "Blarney Castle, just north of Cork City and 'a place of great strength' was the family's principal residence."
^O'Hart 1892, p. 122. "Cormac MacCarty Mor, Prince of Desmond (see the MacCarty Mór Stem, No. 115,) had a second son, Dermod Mór, of Muscry (now Muskerry) who was the ancestor of MacCarthy, lords of Muscry and earls of Clan Carthy."
^Lodge 1789b, p. 39, line 33. "Daughter Ellen [Eleanor], married to Donogh, Earl of Clancarthy, and dying in April 1682, AEt. 70, was buried 24 in the Chancel of St. Michan's church."
^Debrett 1828, p. 640. "Theobald le Boteler on whom that office [Chief Butler of Ireland] was conferred by King Henry II., 1177 ..."
^Ohlmeyer 2004, p. 107, left column. "... Donough MacCarthy had married by 1641 Eleanor (or Ellen; 1612–1682), the eldest daughter of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles, and sister of James, later Duke of Ormond."
^M'Enery 1904, p. 172. "Lord Muskerry joined the insurgents early in March [1642]."
^Ohlmeyer 2004, p. 107, right column, line 2. "on the grounds that the rebellion was the only means of preserving Catholicism, the king's prerogative and the 'antient privileges of the poore Kingdom of Ireland ...'"
^ abMeehan 1882, p. 136. "At the great gate of Macroom Castle he was received by the Lady Helena Butler, sister to Lord Ormond and wife of Lord Muskerry, who was then in Dublin."
^Coffey 1914, p. 194. "Early in August 1647 Muskerry laid down his command."
^ abCarte 1851, p. 305. "... [Donough] had sent over a regiment under his eldest son Cormac MacCarty, then a youth but thirteen years old, who continued to serve abroad until the restoration. M. du Talon set sail on May 15 [1647] from Waterford with that regiment on board five ships that he had brought from Rochelle."
^ abO'Sullivan 1983, p. 278. "... the San Pietro, the vessel which had brought him to Ireland and on which he now proposed to depart ... on the morning of the 23rd February 1649, Rinuccini quitted 'the place of his refuge' and went on board."
^ abOhlmeyer 2004, p. 107, right column. "he fought on before finally surrendering at Ross Castle (27 June 1652) and fleeing to the continent."
^Firth 1894, p. 320, line 10. "Ross in Kerry; where the Lord Muskerry made his principal rendezvous, and which was the only place of strength the Irish had left, except the woods, bogs and mountains ..."
^Firth 1894, p. 322, line 4. "... his son together with Daniel Obryan were delivered to me as hostages ..."
^D'Alton 1910, p. 345. "... a long list of distinguished men, more than a hundred in number, were proscribed by name, and excluded from all mercy, among whom were the Lords Ormond, Clanricarde, Castlehaven, Inchiquin, Muskerry ..."
^Clark 1921, p. 8. "... his [Anthony Hamilton's] mother and his aunt, Lady Muskerry, had apartments at the couvent des Feuillantines in Paris ..."
^ abCreighton 2009, 2nd paragraph. "He entered a seminary in the late 1650s ... and by 1664 he was a student at the Irish college at Toulouse."
^ abCokayne 1913, p. 215, line 2. "As reward for his services he was by patent dat. at Brussels 27 Nov., 1658, cr. [created] Earl of Clancarty, co. Cork [I. [Ireland]]"
^Burke & Burke 1915, p. 6. "... such eldest sons of Peers ... as enjoy a plurality of titles, take and use the secondary one by courtesy."
^Murphy 1959, p. 3. "... the second son Callaghan was probably studying for the priesthood in France."
^O'Hart 1892, p. 124"This Ceallaghan, who died in 1676, was being educated in France, for Holy Orders, but when the news of his brother's death reached him, he quitted his monastery, became a Protestant, and married."
^ abCokayne 1913, p. 216, line 7b. "He was formerly monk in France, but, on his accession to the title, conformed to the established religion ..."
^Boyle 1910, p. 161. "At Toulouse the number of students never exceeded ten or twelve and chiefly natives of the Province of Munster."
^ abCokayne 1913, p. 215, line 13. "He [Charles (Cormac)] d. v.p. [predeceased his father] being slain on board 'the Royal Charles' in a sea-fight against the Dutch, 3, and was bur. [buried] 22 June 1665 in Westm. [Westminster] Abbey."
^ abBurke 1866, p. 344, right column, line 42. "Charles, 2nd earl, who d. [died] a child, in 1668, and was s. [succeeded] by his uncle Callaghan, 3rd Earl."
^ abcLodge 1789a, p. 104. "Lady Elizabeth, first married to Callaghan, Earl of Clancarthy, who died 21 November 1676; and secondly to Sir William Davis, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and died in July, 1698, having no issue by him, who died 24 September, 1687."
^Kenyon 1958, p. 102, line 8. "His [the 4th earl's mother] mother, a fierce Protestant isolated in a Catholic family ..."
^Burke 1866, p. 344, right column, line 56"The son and heir Donogh McCarty, fourth earl of Clancarty, forfeited on account of his adhesion to James II, the immense estates of the family ..."
^McCarthy 1922, p. 202. "and by her had issue one son Donogh and four daughters ..."
^Cokayne 1893, p. 390, line 33. "... having m. [married] Catherine, da. [daughter] of Callaghan (MacCarty), 3rd Earl of Clancarty [I. [Ireland]], by Elizabeth, da. of George (FitzGerald), Earl of Kildare [I. [Ireland]] ..."
Lainé, P. Louis (1836). "Mac-Carthy". Archives généalogiques et historiques de la noblesse de France [Genealogical and Historical Archives of the Nobility of France] (in French). Vol. Tome cinquième. Paris: Imprimerie de Bethune et Plon. pp. 1–102. OCLC865941166.
