Cemetery:  Wicklow Church and Churchyard

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Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
Wicklow Index
Copyright

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File contributed by: C. Hunt

WICKLOW CHURCH AND CHURCHYARD. 
    [From the Rev. R. S. Maffett, b.a.] 

'At the head of the north aisle of the church, in the 
flagging, there is a flat stone corresponding to the "Baker 
slab in the south aisle (see page 218). The lettering is of 
capitals two inches high and the names are sloped, the three 
"T's "in them having the heads of written characters ': - 

HERE LYETH THE BO 
DY OF CAP T THOMA [S] 
WALTON, OF Ye HONR^ 
COLL THOMAS CHUD- 
[-] LEIGHS REGIMt OF F-T ; 
WHO DEPARTED THIS 
LIFE IN THE 38th YEAR 
OF HIS AGE THE 27th 
DAY OF SEPT 1718.- 


'High up on the wall of the vestibule of the church, on the 
left- hand side as you enter, is a white marble slab inside 
a gray marble frame. On the upper part of the framework, 
which is wider than the rest, there is some carving 
(sacramental vessels, &c). On the white slab is the 
following inscription in two lines ': - 
    This Steeple was Erected by 
    the EATON Familey [sic] 1777 

'At the east end of the north gallery is the monument to 
members of this family which is shown by the plate opposite 
page 516 of volume v. The inscription on page 516 has some 
slight inaccuracies which I may perhaps be allowed to note 
in the case of this "very handsome monument."The letterpress 
makes the inscription to be one of eight lines instead of 
six, only two of its seven "down-strokes "being correctly 
placed, as indeed may be seen from the plate itself, which 
shows accurately the ends of the lines. "Memory"and 
"monument"should not have initial capitals, but "son"and 
"erected" ought. In neither place is and"given in letters on 
the memorial. "Sep" ought to have an "r"above the line, and 
"departed" an apostrophe instead of "e "before the last 
letter. The plate shows the names to be in small italics or 
written characters, but a curious point should be noted, 
viz., that before "THOMAS"and "MARTHA" are spaces (compare 
plate) where the marble has been hollowed, "Mr. "and "Mrs. 
"having been presumably carved here at first; after "Tannat 
EATON "there is also a hollowed space somewhat longer than 
before "MARTHA,"from which some form of "Esquire"has been 
probably obliterated. I was told (June, 1909) that the 
repre- sentative of the EATON family was then at Wicklow 
from England, and was getting photographs taken of this 
monument. The inscriptions in this paper were copied in 
1907-8. 
_____

'A flat stone, broken away at the right-hand side, lying to 
the south-east of the "WOOLLEY and TRUELL"monument (see page 
347, vol. iv). The lettering is in capitals, with small 
letters of abbrevia- tion, and the two final letters of the 
"the's" conjoined' : - 

HERE : LYETH : THE B . . . 
OF Mr : IOHN : MARTIN W . . 
DEPARTED : THIS : LIF . 
SEPTEMBER : THE : 10 th 
: 1715 : 
_____

'In the same large plot of ground to the west of an upright 
stone to the "Rev. EDWARD CONDELL,"is a headstone fallen and 
broken. It lies lengthwise, close to the head of the grave 
it belongs 
to ': - 
  Erected by HARRIOT [sic] SHEER= | MAN in Memory of 
  her father | WILLIAM DAVIS Gentleman | of the Citty [sic] 
  of Kilkenny; who | died the lst augst, [sic] 1815 
  aged 59 yrs. 

'Along the east side of the churchyard there is a steep 
declivity down which, I was told, some of the tombstones, 
together with part of the bank and ground of the churchyard, 
had tumbled some time ago into the water. Some dead pigs 
were afterwards washed ashore here and buried, and one of 
the tombstones was fished up and put over the pigs. This was 
done by a sailor. It would have been more seemly to have 
recovered the tombstones in order to replace them in the 
churchyard. 

'There is at the rectory a small vessel of apparently some 
sort of limestone. It stands 9 inches high, and the top 
forms a square of 10 inches each way, the bottom, which is 
flat, not being quite so large, I think. The inside is 
round, 7 inches in depth and 7 1/2 in diameter, and has no 
aperture. On one side there is carved the date as below, 
with R, in perpendicular line, between it and an outlined 
heart, to the left-hand side of which latter is C, and to 
the right M, both being of the same height as the heart. The 
"ones" in the date (the second of which is imperfect at the 
top) have strokes across the middle and curved instead of 
straight lines at top and bottom, the M being somewhat 
similarly ornamented and much wider at the bottom than the 
top ; the C approaches the written type of the letter. The 
date is of course post-Reformation, but as to whether the 
vessel was for secular or sacred purposes I cannot offer an 
opinion. It is now employed for the former in the yard of 
the rectory. It would, till its original purpose at least 
was ascertained, be a not unpleasing receptacle for a 
flower-pot. The present rector was not aware where this 
stone vessel came from, and was desirous of ascertaining its 
original purpose': - 

1701 
R 
C (Heart) M



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