Saturday, 31 October 2009

Ballybrennan inscriptions - Bryan Fitzhenry and Mary King


This stone lay on the ground adjacent to the Long Flat Stone and is of the same length. I expect it originally was also designed to mark a family grave, but the inscription only took up about the top third as it only commemorated two people. It was broken across the writing but this was easily readable and here's a photo.

Underneath lieth the body of
Mr Bryan Fitzhenry of Ballymack'y
who died August 16th 1770 aged 71 years

Also the body of Mrs Fitzhenry
alias Mary King who died Feby 27 1779
aged 87

May they rest in peace
Given these dates, Bryan was born in 1693 and Mary in 1692.
Ballymack'y is an abbreviation of Ballymackessy.

So why didn't they have the rest of the family buried with them? Bryan and Mary were the parents of William "Billy" Fitzhenry and grandparents of Jeremiah. These two men are buried (with others) under the stone surrounded by the iron railings. Perhaps the elevated status of the Fitzhenry family at this time led to them having a more up-market grave. Here's more about this family from a previous posting. The gravestone of Bryan and Mary lies at the head of the railings and their relative postions can be seen here.

Next post: The grave of Jeremiah Fitzhenry

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