Ballybrennan inscriptions - Edward and Ann Fitzhenry

I transcribed what I could read from the gravestones at Ballybrennan graveyard, knowing that I already had a version of the transcriptions from these stones on my database. The lovely local history group from Bree parish had already put them on their website and I had found them some time ago. They are an invaluable addition to what I could read (or not!) but there were some minor errors in their transcriptions which had an important bearing on some people's dates. And it was really exciting to know that these people were the kin of Jeremiah Fitzhenry and that I had made another link.

The stones of Edward Fitzhenry and Ann Fitzhenry were the oldest stones of the Fitzhenry group in Ballybrennan graveyard. They are very rough hewn, the carving is quite basic and the mason (it seems like the same mason for both stones) had decided that if you reach the edge of the stone when you are only half way through a word.... you just continue that word on the next line.

Here's what on the stones as the words are written (slightly different to how they appear on the Bree parish website)

IHS
HERE LYETH Y BODY
OF ANN FITZHE
NRY ALS ROCH
WHO DEPARED
THIS LIFE AUG Y
25 1753 AGED 43

There's two interpretations of this - she was either Ann Fitzhenry who married a chap called Roch, or she was Ann Roch who married a Fitzhenry. Either could be true - she could be the wife of Edward, hence the similar gravestones and buried in proximity, or she could be perhaps a relative of Edward who married a Roch but was brought home after death to be buried in her own family plot.
Either way she was born around 1710.
And Roch was probably spelt Roche.

IHS
HERE LYETH Y BODY
OF EDWARD FITZHE
NRY WHO DEPART
THIS LIFE JUNE Y 27
17** AGED **

Edward is a bit more straightforward for his family origins. He's a Fitzhenry.
But the year of his death was virtually illegible, as was his age which looked to me very much like 22.
I expect that the year is somewhere around 1750 (assuming that this is the same mason and allowing for the fact that these two deaths have happened within the mason's working life).
If he was aged 22 at death he could have been Ann's son, a very younger brother or her husband that she lost early in their marriage.

These two are "orphans" in my Wexford Fitzhenry family group (not linked to anyone at all), so if anyone has any information as to who I can link them to, this would be very gratefully received.

Tomorrow: The many Fitzhenrys of the "Long Flat Stone"

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