Coote, Charles, Earl of Bellamont (1738 -1800)

Joseph McDonnell claims that this stamp was more than likely commissioned by Charles Coote, Earl of Bellamont (1738-1800). As it seems only to have been used before 1762, before he was made a Knight of the Bath, or inherited a peerage, it is a possible attribution. In Ireland most members of a family bear the arms without distinction for cadency. He married Emily Fitzgerald, daughter of the Duke of Leinster, and they had a son the following year who died before his father. As he was a Frenchified fop who addressed the House of Lords of Ireland in French, it seems odd that the only French books known with these arms are in English translation. Clements attributes the stamp to Robert Coote, of Ash Hill, in the County of Limerick, who was the eldest son of the Reverend Chidley Coote, D.D., of Ash Hill, and Jane, daughter of George Evans, of Bulgadden Hall, County Limerick, and sister of George, 1st Lord Carbery. He married, in February 1730, Anne daughter and coheir of Bartholomew Purdon, of Ballyclough, County Cork. Their eldest son Chidley married firstly 26 October 1752 Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Coote and sister of the Earl of Bellamont. She died in 1780. He married again, 31 August 1790, Elizabeth Anne, daughter of the Reverend Ralph Carr. Their eldest son, Charles Henry Coote, inherited the family baronetcy from his kinsman the 7th and last Earl of Mountrath and 8th Baronet 2 January 1794.