Sir Richard Carney, Limner
(d. 1692)
Limner
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was son of Edward Carney, tailor, of Dublin. In 1652 he was appointed a herald, and in 1655, during the Commonwealth, was made "Principal Herald of Arms of the whole Dominion of Ireland," an office he held until August, 1660. After the Restoration he was appointed, in 1661, Athlone Herald, was made Ulster King of Arms in 1683 and was knighted on 6th April, 1684. Heraldic work by him is preserved in Ulster's Office, Dublin Castle. Carney appears to have been a portrait painter as well as a herald. In December, 1656, "Richard Carney, Limner," was admitted to the franchise of the City of Dublin "by special grace and for the fine that he doe free the cittie of all claymes and demands hee hath against the said cittie for worke done by him to this cittie."
It is recorded that he gilded the seven Dials and the figure of St. John in St. John's Church, Dublin, in 1681. He was one of the first two Wardens of the Corporation of Cutlers and Painter-Stayners, the Guild of St. Luke, in 1671 after its foundation by charter, and was Master in 1686. He died in 1692. By his wife Lettice, daughter of Thomas Tallis, he was father of Richard Carney, who was Athlone Herald in 1672, Ulster King of Arms in 1692, and died in 1698, and was buried at St. Werburgh's. This Richard was father by his wife, Elizabeth Golburn, of a third Richard Carney, Athlone Herald in 1683, who died in 1700. Sir Richard's grand-daughter, Lettice Martin, was wife of Joseph Moland, Athlone Herald, and another granddaughter, Lettice Ridgate, was wife of William Hawkins, Ulster King of Arms, 1698.