Cemetery: KILDARE, Kilteel Churchyard
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Contributed by C.Hunt & Peggy Quinn
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  KILDARE

  Kilteel Churchyard

  [From Lord Walter FitzGerald.]

  Kilteel, in old documents, is written Killheale.  A Commandery for the Knights
  Hospitallers was in existence here in the thirteenth century. The existing
  antiquities consist of a castle in good preservation, the socketed base and
  fragments of a medieval cross, three isolated portions of the ruins of the
  commandery widely scattered, and the churchyard now enclosed by a wall.
   	The shape of the old church can still be traced; it was long, narrow,
   	and consisted of nave and chancel; a portion of the south wall, gapped
   	where there were windows, is all that now stands; a piscina still exists
   	in this wall.
  	The burial-ground is not a large one; nearly all the tombstones are of
  	granite, which makes their inscriptions very difficult to decipher; the
  	following are a few of them.
  	A square granite headstone in the chancel : --
  HERE LYETH THE | BODY OF WILLIAM | PATRICKSON WHO|
  DEPARTED THIS | LIFE JANUARY Ye | 4, 1741 AGED 82 Yrs |
  HIS GRANDSON | JEREMIAH FINIMOR [remainder buried].

  Kildare
  511
  A cross on the south-west side, inscription faint –
  +
  IHS
  In memory of Richard Raymond
  Who Departed This Life October 5
  1855 aged 15 May he rest
  in peace amen
  +
  IHS
  _______
  A square granite headstone on the south side: --
  (A chalice)
  This Stone and
  Burial place belongs
  To Peter Burchall
  He was inter'd here
  Ye 26 of March 1744
  Eaged 56 years
  Also ye Body of Fai=
  thful Burchall
  (remainder buried)
  -----
  A granite headstone on the south side': --
  +
  IHS
  This stone and | Burial Place Be | longeth to Terence
  Sleavin and His | Posterity Ano Do | 1747.

  On the little bridge a few perches to the north of the churchyard;
  there is a small granite tablet built into the wall facing down
  stream. The second line of the inscription is indecipherable; what can be made
  out is : --
  CASTLE BRIDGE
  (?built in the year?)
  1830
  Like all the Commanderies of the Knights Hospitallers, this
  parish is dedicated to St. John the Baptist.


    Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead
    in Ireland
    Vol. IX  (FHL# 1279285)