Stackallan House, Navan, County Meath – previously 482 

Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.

“(Hamilton-Russell, Boyne, V/PB; Burke/LG1965) One of the few surviving grand Irish country houses of the beginning  of C18; built ca 1716 for Gustavus Hamilton, 1^st Viscount Boyne, one of William III’s generals. Of three storeys, with two adjoining pedimented fronts, one of nine bays and one of seven bays. Good quoins and window surrounds; continuous entablatures over windows’ bold string-courses; high-pitched and wide-eaved sprocketed roof on modillion cornice. The home of Mrs Anthony Burke, whose late husband was the grandson of Sir Henry Farnham Burke, Garter Principal King of Arms, and the great-grandson of Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms; two generations of the dynasty that edited Burke’s series of genealogical publications.” 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/14401801/stackallan-house-stackallan-co-meath

Stackallan House, STACKALLAN, County Meath 

Detached three-story over basement country house built c.1715. Built largely on a square plan. Principal façades to the west and south with nine and seven bays respectively. Central three-bay of both these facades marked by the presence of a slightly projecting breakfront with pediment. Projecting cornice with dentils to both principal facades. Built of rendered limestone with quoins to corners and to breakfronts. Steeply pitched natural slate roof of late seventeenth-century French fashion with two rendered chimneystacks. Flat-headed window openings with moulded stone surrounds and moulded stone sills. Replacement timber sash windows of fifteen panes on all floors of the principal facades, with the top floor being reduced to nine panes. Stone string courses between floors. A range of outbuildings, built around an open courtyard, located to the north of the house. Gate lodge and gateway to south of main house. 

Appraisal 

Stackallan House is one of the very few surviving classical Irish country houses from the early eighteenth century. The architectural design and detailing of this house are immediately apparent, particularly on the two principal facades. The architectural form of the house is enhanced by many original features and materials, such as the slate roof, moulded window surrounds and string courses. The house forms an interesting group with the surviving related outbuildings and entrance gates. The house has important historical connections with Gustavus Hamilton a noted Protestant politician in Irish affairs during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Hamilton commanded a regiment of Williamite soldiers at the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and later rose to become a Major General in the English Army and fought against Louis XIV of France. 

https://archiseek.com/2015/1712-stackallan-house-co-meath

1712 – Stackallan House, Co. Meath 

Stackallan House is one of the very few surviving classical Irish country houses from the early eighteenth century. The principal façades to the west and south have nine and seven bays, with the central three-bays of both projecting with a pediment.  

Built in 1715 by Gustavus Hamilton (b. 1639), first Viscount Boyne, the estate consisted of forfeited lands beside the River Boyne which were granted to then General Hamilton for heroism at the Battle of the Boyne, the Siege of Derry, and the capture of Athlone. Another Williamite soldier, Thomas Burgh is sometimes credited with the design. 

Described by Lewis: “Stackallen House is the handsome residence of Viscount Boyne, whose ancestor, Gustavus, first Viscount, commanded a regiment in King William’s army in the battle of the Boyne: he was interred in the church of Stackallen in 1723, as have also been many other branches of the family. The mansion is a spacious structure, and stands in a fine, well-planted demesne”. 

The classical garden front of Stackallen House dates from the early 18th century and was completely restored in the 1990s, Stackallan, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI25_06 

The Staircase Hall is decorated with Ionic columns at the foot of the stairs and an impressive plasterwork ceiling, Stackallan, County Meath, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI25_09 

featured in Great Irish Houses. Forewards by Desmond FitgGerald, Desmond Guinness. IMAGE Publications, 2008. 

p. 258. “Stackallan, a magnificent three-storey house that stands as one of the very finest examples of Queen Anne residences to be found in Ireland, has been lovingly restored by the present owners. To gain an insight into this grand and fascinating house, you need look no further than the historic river Boyne, which once meandered alongside the estate in its heyday. Indeed, Stackallan was initially called Boyne House by Gustavus Hamilton, the first Viscount Boyne, who built it in 1716 after fighting alongside William of Orange. 

The river, which would also provide the energy to drive the mill at Stackallan and an income from customs on good that passed through the port of the river at Drogheda, is one of the few constants in the history of a house that has experienced many changes of ownership. Lord Boyne purchased a castle and a 17^th century manor house built in the 15^th century by the Anglo-Norman Barnewall family. By 1712 it had been transformed into a substantial new dwelling. 

There is some dispute as to the architect behind the present day façade. While it undoubtedly pays its respects to the classical tradition, there is also a discernible northern European influence that is more akin to Beaulieu, further to the east. John Curle and Thomas Burgh have both been linked to the property; Curle, given his involvement at Beaulieu, is a likely candidate. 

The entrance that faces east has a seven-bay façade with pedimented centrepieces and moulded windowsills, while the garden front entrance is a more elaborate nine-bay affair. This may originally have been the entrance, and the sculpted arms of the Hamilton and Brooke families appear on the pediment, dated 1712. Stackallan was almost certainly built in stages rather than during one focused period. As author and UCD academic, Dr Christine Casey, has observed: “The growth of country houses from tower houses to manor houses to Georgian mansion is a familiar feature of the Irish countryside. AT Stackallan, the several building phases have been so well integrated as to defy distinction.” 

Undisputedly though, STackallan began a new lease of life in 1992 when Martin and Carmel Naughton, the current owners, purchased the property from Elizabeth Bourke. The pair launched an extensive renovation of the hosue and grounds and hired David Sheehan of Sheehan and Barry architects to lead the project. They set out their stall by returning the entrance to its 18^th century origins, replacing the modest forecourt with a tree-lined avenue and an enlarged entrance. The new entrance and forecourt work well, allowing the visitor more time to take in the imposing house upon entering. 

The restoration of the property was approached with care and a real appreciation of  its lineage. This is especially evident in the entrance hall, with its original scagliola pillars, wonderful furnishings and a period Irish harp. The 18^th century fireplace is new, and came, like many of the light fittings, from trawls through auction rooms in the south of England. Under the stairs, a former owner had blocked out the natural light by installing an bar and this process has been reversed. Now a family piano sits under the stairs. A large Irish table, possibly from Castletown, stands on the new tile flooring which is simple and elegant. One of the owner’s children was given the task of bidding for the table when it came up for auction in Southampton. He was late but was so eager not to miss the auction that he parked on double yellow lines and was clamped. “Every time he comes into the house now,” recalls his mother, with a smile, “he says the table cost him £100!” 

[p. 263] The stair hall is dominated by a long central flight of stairs which rise to join a timber gallery decorated by paired banisters and carved ornaments all offset by Georgian yellow on the walls. The 18^th century ceiling, which is one of the most important surviving early relics in the house, required extensive renovation and care. David Sheehan noticed it was lagging in the middle, where the coat of arms of Hamilton and Brooke offset various weapons and musical instruments, and so they commenced a restoration process that saved the feature. A sky blue colour on the ceiling has been replaced by a subtle shade of beige. It is thought the entrance and stairs may have been changed at an earlier time as some of the banister uprights are uneven; had they been designed in situ there would perhaps have been a greater consistency. 

To the left of the hall is the drawing room, which eschews the Georgian yellow in favour of an emerald green that would benefit the extensive collection of 18^th century art. The new rococo ceiling in the drawing room is the work of a young craftsman called Seamas O hEacha, from County Galway, and resembles a design found at 86 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. The white chimneypiece, which was brought in and matches one in the dining room, is the work of Benjamin Carter, who made the pieces in 1761 for the 8^th Earl of Thanet’s house in Grosvenor Square, London. They were later the property of Sir Thomas and Lady Beecham, who, on moving out, had them packed up. When war broke out, they were stored and forgotten about until bought by the current owners. Legend has it that Mozart played in front of one of the fireplaces. Robert Adam designed an overmantel for the Earl of Thanet’s chimneypiece in the dining room at Stackallan. 

The saloon, which lies between the drawing and dining room, contains a wonderful Pietro Bossi chimneypiece which came from 6 Merrion Square, Dublin. In the restoration several uses were contemplated for this room – it had previously been a library, containing rows of leather bound copies of Burke’s Peerage – and at one time the owners thought of turning it into a music or print room. Once it had been redecorated under the careful eye of Michael Dillon and two Russian artists, however, they found it acted as a fine overspill room when they entertain. The superb oak tree and acorn pattern, fantastical birds and figures of industry and commerce all greatly enhance the room. A 17^th century chair, which came from Castletown, and [p. 265] three copies provide the central furnishings of the room. 

Two large double doors lead to the garden where Jim Reyolds of Butterstream Gardens, Trim, has led the restored canal and added a formal parterre. A stream garden has been created to the south west and this includes an herbaceous border created by head gardener Lorraine Lightholder. Careful planting has begun to overturn the losses of the early 20^th century. 

In the neighbouring dining room, impressive silk hanging decorate the walls. The large formal dining table came from Gordon Nichol and the chairs, 23 in all, came from the Friendly Brothers Club, which once operated near St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Curtains came from GC Faulkner and Sons in Dublin and the ceiling, which is Victorian, was preserved. A silverware collection, dated from the early 1800s, bears the Stackallan crest. Clearly commissioned for the property, the owners bought the collection in New York after they purchased the house. Indeed, much of the original furniture lost over the years came up in a sale attended by the Naughtons. They had not intended to buy the house at that time and came away with just a wellhead and a stool. Two weeks later they purchased the house. 

The owners spend most of their time in the family living room and the kitchen/breakfast room to the right of the entrance hall, where modern conveniences such as the television are well hidden. In 1992, a new family dining and moring room was added that basks in sunlight and this is where they also gather when they have small and informal get-togethers. 

[p. 267] A library on the first floor displays a wonderful craftsmanship, working with Dutch pine brought in from the UK for the shelving. In the blue room, where guests stay, the grey and white chimneypiece, originally from the hallway, has found a new home. The top floor of the house, which was once broken up into dormitories, now contains newly decorated bedrooms with all modern conveniences. Boardroom and conference facilities show how the house has changed to meet modern demands while the cellars host a cinema and Irish bar. Oak beams have been left exposed to preserve the fabric of the house, but the manner in which the basement has adapted offers a lesson in 21^st century country house living. 

While the use of Stackallan has changed widely over the centuries, from stud and farm to soldiers’ barracks and one-time boarding school to family home, it has been wonderfully restored. That it has lost none of what makes it aesthetically appealing in the process, is a testament to the vision and thoroughness of the current owners. They have undoubtedly preserved, for the next generation, a rich and historic architectural legacy.” 

Houses r-z

Stackallan House is located between Navan and Slane. Erected by Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Viscount Boyne, Stackallan has two formal fronts and is three storeys high with wide eaves. The house was originally known as Boyne House and is generally dated to 1716 making it one of the first of the grand mansions of the eighteenth century. Stackallan is of an older design and so is possibly older again. The house may have been erected in the 1690s.  It is a rare example of a pre-Palladian style house. Built largely on a square plan, the house is said to have been designed by Thomas Burgh and John Curle. The interior of Stackallan is dominated by one of the largest staircases in Ireland – one broad long flight of stairs. The staircase ceiling depicts the Hamilton coat of arms surrounded by military trophies. In the 1830s there were two fish ponds and a pigeon house in the grounds.  In recent years the house and gardens have been restored and a classical folly and canal have been constructed in the gardens. 

Stackallan belonged to the Barnewalls in medieval times and they erected a castle. The lands became the property of John Osborne of London in 1666. John Osborne of Stackallan was M.P. for Meath in 1692. In 1704 the widow of John Osborne sold much of the estate to Gustavus Hamilton and the remainder to Henry Osborne of Dardistown. 

The Hamilton family gave their name to the town of Manorhamilton in Co. Leitrim. The Christian name, Gustavus, entered the family in honour of the Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus whom Sir Frederick Hamilton served during the Thirty Years War. Born about 1642, Gustavus Hamilton, was the youngest son of Sir Frederick Hamilton and grandson of 1^st Lord Paisley. Gustavus, was the privy councillor to king James II but changed sides to William. He defended Enniskillen and Coleraine against the forces of James in 1689 and also defended Derry. He commanded a regiment at the Boyne where his horse was shot out from under him. He waded across the river Shannon to attack Athlone and became governor of the town. He fought at the Battle of Aughrim.  He rose to the rank of Privy Chancellor and Major General. From 1692 to 1713 Hamilton served as M.P. for County Donegal. In 1715 Gustavus was created Baron Hamilton of Stackallan and in 1717 raised to the title Viscount of Boyne. He served as a privy counsellor to Queen Anne and then to George I. He died aged 84 in 1723 and was buried at Stackallan. He was succeeded by his grandson, Gustavus, son of Frederick Hamilton who had died before his father.  

Gustavus Hamilton, was the oldest son of Frederick Hamilton, eldest son of Gustavus Hamilton, 1^st Viscount Boyne.  He was a Privy Councillor for Ireland, M.P. for Newport (Isle of Wight) and commissioner of the Irish Revenue. He died unmarried and was succeeded by his cousin, Frederick Hamilton. When Frederick died he was succeeded by his brother, Richard, 4^th Viscount, who  married Georgina, heiress to Charles Moore, Earl of Charleville and Baron Tullamore. Richard served as M.P. for Navan from 1755 to 1761. He was High Sheriff of County Meath in 1766.  Richard and Georgina had seventeen children and their son, Gustavus, became the 5^th Viscount. In 1773 Gustavus married Martha-Matilda, only daughter of Sir Quaile Somerville of Somerville. Their son, Gustavus, succeeded at Stackallan in 1789. 

In the 1830s the house was uninhabited but was described as a spacious mansion in a fine well planted demesne. The demesne was described as being in bad order. One surveyor said that the house was badly situated on low ground. A countryman remarked “I wonder, sir, they should build a house there; it looks quite drowned.” 

St. Columba’s College was founded in 1843 by the Rev. William Sewell, the Lord Primate of Ireland, the Earl of Dunraven and others. They took a seven year lease of Stackallan House. Six years later the school moved to south county Dublin where it continues to this day. 

In 1850 the seventh Viscount assumed the additional surname of Russell, from his father-in-law. In 1866 he was created Baron Brancepeth, of Brancepeth in the County of Durham. The family resided at Brancepeth Castle, Durham and also held lands in Shropshire. In 1883 Lord Boyne held 2,739 acres in Meath with his overall estates in England and Ireland amounted to 30,205 acres. 

The house remained in the Hamilton family until 1920 when it was sold to Daniel O’Mahoney Leahy. During the Second World War the Irish army was based at Stackallen House. 

Stackallen was purchased by Major Anthony and Mrs. Elizabeth Burke in 1953. Major Burke’s family edited the series of genealogical books. In 1964 Major Burke was killed when a horse collapsed on top of him while hunting with the Ward Union. Mrs. Burke opened a stud farm at Stackallen in 1960. The house was sold in 1992 by Mrs. Burke who moved to a former rectory in Beauparc. . 

In June 1992 Margaret Heffernan of Dunnes Stores agreed to purchase Stackallen House  for £1.65 million but decided not to move to the house later that year and so the house was put back on the market. She decided that the house was too much for her and she calculated that the restoration and running costs of the house were too expensive for her. 

In November 1992 Stackallen House was purchased by Martin Naughton. He is the owner of Glen Dimplex which is the world’s leading manufacturer of electrical heating products and also produces a wide range of other appliances. 

 
Also in Great Houses of Ireland. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes. Laurence King Publishing, London, 1999. 

p. 101. “If the formal gardens at Killruddery are the oldest surviving in Ireland, the one installed in 1998 at Stackallen for its owners, Mr and Mrs Martin Naughton, must be the newest – and no less striking for that. The story is simply told: the Naughtons took the splendidly bold move of buying ‘lock, stock and barrel’ a gold-medal winning Chelsea Flower Show garden called Bosquet de Chanel. 

This elaborate cabinet de verdure encompassed by high beech hedges designed by Tom Stuart-Smith for the couturiers Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel, was duly dismantled after the show and shipped to Meath, where it was recast and substantially enlarged by Stuart-Smith in collaboration with Todd Longstaffe-Gowan of the Landscape Agency, a new company specialising in all aspects of landscape restoration, conservation and design. It was refashioned to fit into a former paddock north of the house. The garden took a mere six weeks to assemble and hey presto, there is was – an adornment that, quite understandably, gave immediate gratification to the Naughtons. 

The ‘instant garden’ is only one of a highly impressive range of improvements made by the Naughtons at Stackallen during a thorough and sympathetic restoration of the house and its demesne. The leading Irish garden designer Jim Reynolds has also been busy here; and there is an exotic new Painted Room by the muralist Michael Dillon [the youngest son of the 20^th Viscount Dillon. He did murals in the Painted Room]. The exterior of the house has been handsomely repointed and the interior immaculately renovated under the direction of David Sheehan of the Dublin practice Sheehan & Barry. It forms a fine setting for the important collection of Irish 20^th century art imaginatively assembled by the Naughtons in recent years. Carmel Naughton is a connoisseur of paintings and chairman of the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, where her husband, Martin, the founder in 1973 of Glen Dimplex group in Newry, is also actively involved in the creation of the stylish new Georgian townhouse hotel the Merrion, in Merrion Square. 

[p. 102] All this enthusiastic rejuvenation is tremendously encouraging for everyone who cares about Ireland’s heritage beign a living, breathing entity. It is particularly exciting that it should have happened to such an important building as Stackallen, an exceptionally early great house, indeed one of the very few surviving grand Classical Irish country houses of the 18^th century. 

Until recently it was usually assumed that Stackallen was built circa 1716, the year after its builder, General Gustavus Hamilton, who had distinguished himself at the Battle of the Boyne nearby (where his horse was shot under him) and at the storming of Athlone, was created a peer as Baron Hamilton of Stackallen. But this, as Christine Casey and Alistair Rowan have pointed out in their authoritative North Leinster volume in The Buildings if Ireland series, is to miss several points. 

[picture credit: The Staircase Hall, dominated by one of the largest and grandest staircases in Ireland, which rises in one broad, long flight under an elaborate plaster ceiling. 

[the ceiling of the Staircase Hall, with its swaggering armorial achievement in the central panel displaying the coat of arms of General Gustavus Hamilton impaling those of his wife, Elizabeth Brooke of Brookeborough [Co Fermanagh]. The Ionic columns at the foot of the stairs were installed in the early 19^th century, when the new entrance was created.] 

p. 104. “First, the General would have been approaching his mid-seventies by this time (rather late in the day to be building a triumphal pile). Secondly, the style of the building also suggests an earlier date. And thirdly, it is surely significant that neither the coat of arms in the oculus of the pediment on the south façade (now the garden front but originally the entrance front) nor the amazingly elaborate one on the ceiling of the staircase hall incorporates a nobleman’s coronet, whether that of a baronet or Viscount (Hamilton was advanced to the Viscountcy of Boyne in 1717). Casey and Rowan conclude that these armorial adornments would seem to have been put in place and the house completed before Hamilton’s elevation to the peerage – ‘and since a dated gutter head of 1712 has been found, the years 1710-1712 seem the most likely date.’ 

Certainly, on stylistic evidence, Stackallen belongs to the culmination of that delectable type of 17^th century country house which flourished from the Restoration of King Charles II right up to the Age of Queen Anne and which we joyfully encountered at Beaulieu, just twenty miles away. As Casey and Rowan observe, the arrangement of the windows in such houses differ significantly from buildings of the Georgian period and is marked by the fact tha the gournd floor and first-floor windows are of equal height. At STackallen they are all sash windows with 15 panes of glass, and only the top floor reduces in size to sashes of nine panes. There are nine bays on the present garden front, seven on the present entrance front; this and the fact that the window surrounds are more elaborate on the former confirm that the south façade was the ‘show’ side. 

Hamilton, who had received a substantial grant of forfeited lands beside the River Boyne in the 1690s, would doubtless have wanted to make a splash with his new house. A scion of the illustrious Ulster House of Hamilton, Earls (and later Dukes) of Abercorn, he derived his exotic Christian name from his father Sir Frederick Hamilton’s military service with King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Before joining the army himself, young Gustavus matriculated at Trinity College Dublin, where, in 1712, was laid the foundation stone of the library designed by the military engineer and architect Thomas Burgh of Oldtown, Co Kildare, to whom Desmond Guineess, in his Great Irish Houses and Castles, attributes the architecture of Stackallen. 

Burgh, like Hamilton, had been a Williamite soldier. Hamilton, who had estates in Co Fermanagh and married into another prominent Ulster dynasy, the Brookes of Brookeborough, first came to prominence in 1688 as the Protestant Governor of Enniskillen. [p. 106] The next year, as Colonel of the 20^th Foot, he was to the fore in the defence of Coleraine and Derry against Jacobite attack. The story goes that at the successful storming of Athlone he waded through the Shannon at the head of his troops.” 

“Garlanded with honours, he rose to be a Privy Councillor under Queen Anne before finally retiring to enjoy his new estates in Co Meath. The interior of his elegant new house at Stackallen was to be dominated by one of the largest staircases in the whole of Ireland, a broad, long flight under a spectacular plasterwork ceiling of oak-leaf borders, military trophies, flowers and musical instruments. And there, swaggering in the centre, is General Hamilto’ns coat of arms impaled with those of his wife. 

The proud old couple were not, though, to enjoy the splendours of Stackallen for long. Elizabeth died there at Christmas 1721, the General two years later, in his 84^th year. It is probable that their full plans for Stackallen were never finished for as Casey and Rowan expertly note, the house ‘reads’ as a great cube and, as built, lacks a full range of rooms on its east side. 

p. 107. The general was succeeded in the Viscountcy of Boyne by his bachelor grandson who, in turn, was followed by a cousin embroiled in marital difficulties. It was never clear whether his first marriage, to a blacksmith’s daughter from Tullamore, had been valid or not; in any event, his children by his second wife, the eldest of whom assumed the title of Viscount Boyne, were regarded as illegitimate. So it may have been his brother, the 4^th Viscount Boyne, who was responsible for making various improvements to Stackallen later in the 18^th century, including the stables (similar, when built, to those by Capability Brown nearby at Slane, seat of the Conynghams) and the reworking of the staircase. 

Further, more radical, alterations occurred in the early 19^th century. A painting by Henry Brocas, senior, of circa 1820 shows the house and the stables before the entrance was moved from the south front, so the switch-round must have happened shortly after that date. At the same time a pair of Ionic columns were introduced by way of a screen to open up the new hall directly into the Staircase Hall. 

This would have been in the time of the 6^th Viscount Boyne, who married Harriet Baugh, the heiress of Burwarton House in Shropshire (which, rebuilt by Anthony Salvin in the 1870s as a sprawling Italianate pile, was eventually to become the Boynes’s principal residence). The 7^th Viscount married an even more prosperous heiress in the form of Emma Maria Russell of Brancepeth Castle, Co Durham, which also passed into the Hamilton family, causing them to assume the additional surname of Russell. Miss Russell’s mother was a Tennyson of Bayons Manor, Lincolnshire, and thus an aunt of the poet Alfred, and of her paternal grandfather, William Russell, we read that he was a merchant who acquired immense wealth. 

So wrote John Burke in his Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland (1833/5). And by a nice coincidence it was Burke’s descendant, Major Anthony Burke, MFH, who eventually came to live at Stackallen in the second half of the 20^th century. This was after various vicissitudes, including a spell when the Boynes let the house out in the 19^th century as a school, which subsequently developed into ST Columba’s College, near Dublin. 

The Burkes are celebrated as a dynasty of heralds and genealogists: Tony Burke’s grandfather Sir Henry Farnham Burke was Garter King of Arms, and his great-grandfather Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King at Arms, was a leading populariser of pedigrees through such work as Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage, and Burke’s Landed Gentry. Tony and his second wife, Elizabeth, formerly Lady Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington, were more concerned with equine pedigrees; they ran Stackallen as a successful stud farm and the house became legendary in the world of horse-racing for its hospitality.  

After Tony was killed in the hunting field in 1964, as his first wife had been before him, Elizabeth Burke lived on at Stackallen into the 1990s, when the Naughtons arrived to give the old house an invigorating new life.”  

http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2018/04/stackallan-house.html

THE VISCOUNTS BOYNE OWNED 2,739 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY MEATH 

This is a branch of the ducal house of ABERCORN; CLAUD HAMILTON, created 1st Baron Paisley, 1587, being the common ancestor of both. 

The grandson of that nobleman, 

GUSTAVUS HAMILTON (1642-1723), son of the Hon Sir Frederick Hamilton, by Sidney, daughter and heir of Sir John Vaughan, having abandoned the fortunes of JAMES II, to whom he was a privy counsellor, and distinguished himself as a military officer in the service of WILLIAM III, particularly at the battle of the Boyne, and the siege of Londonderry, was sworn of the Privy Council of the latter monarch, appointed Brigadier-General of his armies, and further rewarded with a grant of forfeited lands. 

General Hamilton was MP for County Donegal, 1692-1713, and MP for Strabane, 1713-15. 

In the reign of QUEEN ANNE he was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant-General; and by Her Majesty’s successor, GEORGE I, elevated to the peerage, 1715, as Baron Hamilton of Stackallan, County Meath. 

His lordship was advanced to a viscountcy, in 1717, as VISCOUNT BOYNE. 

He married Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Henry Brooke Bt, of Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, and had issue, 

FREDERICK (c1663-1715), father of GUSTAVUS, 2nd Viscount; 
Gustavus, father of 3rd and 4th Viscounts; 
Henry, MP for Donegal, 1725-43; 
Elizabeth. 

His lordship was succeeded by his grandson, 

GUSTAVUS, 2nd Viscount (1710-46); at whose decease, unmarried, the honours devolved upon his cousin, 

FREDERICK, 3rd Viscount (1718-72), who wedded, in 1737, Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Hodley; but dying without issue, was succeeded by his brother, 

RICHARD, 4th Viscount (1724-89), who espoused Georgiana, second daughter of William Bury, by whom he had issue, seventeen children, including, 

GUSTAVUS, his successor; 
Charles; 
Richard; 
Catherine; Mary; Barbara; Sophia; Anne. 

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son, 

GUSTAVUS, 5th Viscount (1749-1816), who married, in 1773, Martha Matilda, only daughter of Sir Quaile Somerville Bt, of Somerville, County Meath, and had issue, 

GUSTAVUS, his successor; 
Richard Somerville, Royal Navy; 
Sarah; Georgiana. 

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son, 

GUSTAVUS, 6th Viscount (1777-1855), who wedded, in 1796, Harriet, only daughter of Benjamin Baugh, of Burwarton House, Shropshire, and had issue, 

• Gustavus Frederick Hamilton-Russell, 7th Viscount (1798–1872); 

• Gustavus Russell Hamilton-Russell, 8th Viscount (1830–1907); 

• Gustavus William Hamilton-Russell, 9th Viscount (1864–1942); 

• Gustavus Michael George Hamilton-Russell, 10th Viscount (1931–95); 

• Gustavus Michael Stucley Hamilton-Russell, 11th Viscount (b 1965). 

The heir apparent is the present holder’s eldest twin son, the Hon Gustavus Archie Edward Hamilton-Russell (b 1999). 

STACKALLAN HOUSE, near Navan, County Meath (originally called Boyne House) was built ca 1716 for Gustavus Hamilton, afterwards 1st Viscount Boyne. 

It has been attributed to Colonel Thomas de Burgh, the military engineer, architect and MP. 

It comprises three storeys and two adjoining pedimented fronts, one of nine bays and the other, seven bays. 

The house has bold quoins and and distinctive window surrounds. 

The roof is high-pitched with a modillion cornice. 

The staircase is adorned with the Hamilton coat-of-arms surrounded by various military trophies, enclosed in a stucco wreath. 

After the 2nd World War Stackallan became the residence of Mrs Anthony Burke, whose late husband was the grandson of Sir Henry Farnham Burke KCVO CB, Garter Principal King of Arms. 

It is believed that Stackallan is now the property of Mr Martin Lawrence Naughton KBE. 

In 2015 Mr Naughton, CBE, was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) for services to the Northern Ireland economy, art and philanthropic causes.