Robert MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry

Newfoundland colonial leader (1698–1769)

HMS Solebay
HMS Hampshire
HMS Adventure
HMS Romney
Newfoundland Command

Spouse(s)

Joanna Player (1693–1759)
Elizabeth Farnelly (d. 1790)

Robert MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry (1698 – 19 September 1769) was an Irish officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. He belonged to the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty.

Muskerry was the son of Donough MacCarty, 4th Earl of Clancarty, and Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland. He was educated at St Paul's School. His father was attainted in 1691 after serving in the Jacobite Irish Army of the Catholic James II, with his titles forfeited, and Muskerry was never allowed to succeed in the earldom.^[1] However, he continued to be known under his courtesy title Viscount Muskerry. From 1733 to 1734, he served as Commodore Governor of Newfoundland, becoming the first Irishman to hold this post.^[2]

In 1741 he resigned his commission in order to join the Jacobites and moved to the exiled Stuart court at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. As a result, he was excepted from the Indemnity Act 1747, which pardoned many Jacobites.^[1] He was granted a pension of 1,000 livres per year by Louis XV.

Muskerry married Joanna, daughter of Henry Player, in 1722 firstly. They had no children, and she died in 1759. He married his second wife, Elizabeth Farnelly. They had one daughter. Lord Muskerry died in Boulogne, France, in September 1769.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Robert MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
^ "Robert MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry". The Governorship of Newfoundland and Labrador. Retrieved 26 November 2016.