Michael MacNamara

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Mayor of Annapolis, Maryland (died 1767)

title: "Michael MacNamara" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["mayors-of-annapolis,-maryland", "american-loyalists-from-maryland", "date-of-birth-missing", "1767-deaths", "american-people-of-irish-descent", "18th-century-mayors-of-places-in-maryland", "18th-century-maryland-politicians", "lawyers-from-colonial-maryland"] description: "Mayor of Annapolis, Maryland (died 1767)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_MacNamara" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Mayor of Annapolis, Maryland (died 1767) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Michael MacNamara
office	Mayor of Annapolis
term_start	1746
term_end	1747
predecessor	Robert Gordon
successor	Benjamin Tasker, Sr.
office2	Mayor of Annapolis
term_start2	1753
term_end2	1754
predecessor2	Benjamin Tasker, Sr.
successor2	Benjamin Tasker, Jr.
office3	Mayor of Annapolis
term_start3	1760
term_end3	1761
predecessor3	George Hume Steuart
successor3	Stephen Bordley
birth_place	Annapolis, Province of Maryland
death_date	November 4, 1767
death_place	Annapolis, Province of Maryland
occupation	Plantation owner, politician
::

Michael MacNamara (died November 4, 1767) was an Irish-American lawyer and politician in Colonial Maryland, who had three terms as mayor of Annapolis. He was a Loyalist, his interests aligned with those of the ruling Calvert family, the Barons Baltimore, whose rule was overthrown following the American Revolution.

Biography

MacNamara was born in Annapolis, province of Maryland, the son of Thomas MacNamara, who emigrated from County Galway, Kingdom of Ireland. His mother was born Margaret Carroll.

A clerk and a lawyer, MacNamara was admitted to the Provincial Court of Maryland in May 1726. He held a number of Proprietary appointments in colonial Maryland. He was clerk of the Maryland Lower House of Assembly on three occasions (1728–44, 1746–60, and 1763–66). He was also clerk of the Paper Currency Office (1734–) and clerk of the Prerogative Office (1752–60). He was Mayor of Annapolis on three occasions, from 1746 to 1747, 1753–1754, and 1760–1761.

Politically, was a Loyalist. Maryland politics could evidently be rancorous. Court records show that MacNamara and his predecessor as Annapolis mayor, the physician George Steuart (1700–1784), were both required "to post a bond to keep the peace...especially with each other".

Contemporary records show that in 1754, MacNamara was the Deputy Commissioner of Anne Arundel County, hearing a claim by Henrietta Maria Dulany seeking to overturn the will of her late husband, the planter and politician Daniel Dulany the Elder (1685–1753).

MacNamara's loyalty to England and the Calverts was not repaid. He died in debtors' prison in 1767, owing His Lordship's Patronage.

Coming of revolution

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Samuel_Chase_(by_John_Beale_Bordley;_1836).jpg" caption="Declaration of Independence]] and MacNamara's implacable opponent."] ::

In 1766, MacNamara became embroiled in a war of words Samuel Chase, a vocal opponent of the Stamp Act and later a signer of the American Declaration of Independence. In an open letter dated July 18, 1766, Chase attacked MacNamara, John Brice, Walter Dulany, George Steuart, and others for publishing an article in the Maryland Gazette Extraordinary of June 19, 1766, in which Chase had been accused of being: "a busy, reckless incendiary, a ringleader of mobs, a foul-mouthed and inflaming son of discord and faction, a common disturber of the public tranquility".

In his response, Chase accused MacNamara and the others of "vanity...pride and arrogance", and of being brought to power by "proprietary influence, court favour, and the wealth and influence of the tools and favourites who infest this city."

In particular Chase accused MacNamara, in highly personal terms, of having been "reduced to a servile dependency" by "the consequences of a bad life", and accused him of having allowed his children to be "reduced to beggary by your continued round of vice and folly, drunkenness and debauchery".

References

(December 1989). "Additions and Corrections to Baltimore County Families, 1659–1759". Baltimore County Genealogical Society.
(October 23, 2002). "Michael MacNamara, MSA SC 3520-13894". Maryland State Archives.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=jJX672KW8TMC&dq=george+stuart+keep+peace&pg=PA313 Yentsch, Anne E, p.313, ''A Chesapeake Family and their Slaves: a Study in Historical Archaeology'', Cambridge University Press (1994)] Retrieved Jan 2010
[https://books.google.com/books?id=EraSyeJoDpoC&dq=Michael+MacNamara+maryland&pg=PA8 Wright, Edward F., p.8, ''Maryland Calendar of Wills, Volume 11: 1753–1760''] Retrieved November 2010
[https://books.google.com/books?id=3qTukW8wzJkC&dq=george+steuart&pg=PA363 Sanderson, John J, p.67, ''Biography of the Signers To the Declaration of Independence'', Volume 5, published by R W Pomery (1823).] Retrieved January 21, 2010

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