Laois - Maryborough The Ridge

***********************************************
Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
Laois Index
Copyright

************************************************

File contributed by: C. Hunt

MARYBOROUGH, THE RIDGE 
[From Lord Walter FitzGerald.] 

'The Ridge Cemetery  is situated on a peculiar hillock, very 
narrow, and steep at the sides, lying on the east side of 
the town. It is now closed against interments, since the new 
ccemetery was laid out; it contains no remains of a chapel, 
nor is there any history attached to it. Probably it is not 
of any great age, as the earliest slabs appear not to be 
much older than the middle of the eighteenth century. 
Maryborough itself only came into existence in the middle of 
the sixteenth century on the erection of a fort called "The 
Protector," and by the Irish "Campa" and "Port-Leix." The 
castle was later on known as the Fort of Maryborough, the 
town which rose around it being so called in honour of Queen 
Mary. 'Catholics alone were interred on " the Ridge." 

'Among the older slabs and headstones these inscriptions occur. 
Flat slab':-

HERE LYETH THE BODY OF 
MR IOHN FITZGERALD WHO 
DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 
2th [sic] DAY OF DECEMBER THE 
YEAR OF OUR LORD GOD 1762 
AGED 26 YEARS. 
HERE LYETH THE BODY OF 
IOHN AND LAVINIA GREAVES 
(John and Lavinia Greaves)
_____

Flat slab':-
HERE LYETH THE BODY | OF TIMOTHY 
DOWL | ING WHO DEPARTED | THIS LIFE THE 
10 th OF | AUGUST IN THE YEAR | 1746 AGED 
35 YEARS. 
_____

Here lyeth the Body | of MARY DOWLING who | Depd this 
life May, 7 | 1783 agd 21 yrs Lord have | Mercy on her 
Soul 

'Faint inscription on a low table-tomb, standing across the 
path on the summit':- 

Here Lyeth the Body 
of 
MARY LESLIE 
wife of 
Major CHARLES LESLIE, 
Kings Royal Rifles 
who 
Departed this Life 
30th (?) September, 1832 
Aged 
- years. 

-452-

'On a headstone near the above ':-
+ 
I H S | Here lieth the Body of Denis Dealy who Departed this 
Life in y e | year 17-17 Aged 35 yrs _____

'On the western slope of the ridge, at the southern end, is 
a table-tomb bearing a very faint inscription facing the 
west, and commencing thus':- 

[A cross and chalice] 
To the memory of the 
Revd JAMES O'NEILL, A.M. 
who after having for some years preached the Gospel 
in France, returned to Ireland, and lived upwards 
of 40 years Parish Priest of Maryboro' 
where he died on the 25 th Decr 1829 
at the advanced age of 96 years 

[Then follow seventeen lines, more or less illegible, when 
the inscription continues':- 

This Monument has been Erected by his Grand Nephew 
Mr JAMES Mc CREA 
of Dublin, in token of his love and veneration 
_____

'At the summit of the Ridge, and at its southern end, is a 
flat slab with its inscription also facing the east. It 
reads':- 

IHS 
This Stone was Placed 
over the Body of the Revd 
JAMES BARON Parish 
Priest of M[ary]boro for 
30 years, by [his] Affectionate 
Parishioners [He d] eparted 
this Life the 25 [of Mar]ch 1789 
Aged 69 years. 
Requiescant [sic] in pace 

_____

'BISHOP COMERFORD in his "History of the Dioceses of Kildare 
and Leighlin" (vol. iii, p. 275) states that a third parish 
priest of Maryborough was interred here, and adds that the 
following inscription is to be read on his slab ':- 
+
I H S Here lyes y e Body of ye Revd DARBY MALONE who 
departed this Life J____ 8th 1723, aged 76 years. 


SOURCE:
Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the 
Memorials of the Dead in Ireland.  Vol vii, FHL# 1279254