Cemetery: Kilteel Churchyard

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Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
Kildare Index
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File contributed by: C.Hunt & Peggy Quinn

CEMETERY: 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].

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.

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