Michael MacNamara

Michael MacNamara was an Irish-born politician in Colonial Maryland, who served 3 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.

Originally from Ireland MacNamara held a number of Proprietary appointments in colonial Maryland and, politically, was a Loyalist. He was Mayor of Annapolis on three occasions, from 1746–1747, 1753–1754, and 1760–1761.

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).

Samuel Chase, signer of the 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".