St Mullins Graveyard, County Carlow - 1

The Abbey Centre at Graiguenamanagh also has some reference books about the locality. There is a series of books recording gravestone inscriptions from the graveyards from the surrounding areas.

The graveyard at St Mullins has six Fitzhenry gravestones. So I went to take a look for myself.
St Mullins is the site of dissolved abbey about 5 miles south of Graigue. St Mullin himself was a local saint who is a patron saint of the area. As you can see on the Wikipedia map, it is on the cusp of three counties: Kilkenny, Carlow and Wexford. It's a lovely area and well worth a visit. One of the most famous people buried in the graveyard is General Thomas Cloney, one of the leaders of the 1798 rebellion.

There were 3 Fitzhenry stones in a row, and 3 others with Fitzhenry "mentions". I'm going to discuss the 3 stones in a row as a group. If you click on the picture, it opens a larger version.

The transcripts are from the book "St Mullins and St Michaels Tombstone Inscriptions" pub St Mullins Muintir na Tir 1988



The oldest stone is on the right as you face them.This was elaborately carved in late 18th century script with religious carvings at the top of the stone.

This stone was erec'd in mem'ry
of Nicholas Fitzhenry dep'd
This Life Sep'ber 12th 1763 ag'd 78 yrs
Also his wife Bridget Byrne dep'd
March 15th 1756 aged 56 yrs
& Edward Fitz'ry dep'd Dec'ber 21
1796 Aged 72 yrs Also the Body
of Nancy Fitzhenery who died
At Lambay in Newfoundland Feb'y
19th 1807 aged 85 yr.

The carving "Lambay in Newfoundland" is quite indistinct and I have relied on the book transcription for this. However, I can only find Lambay as an island off the County Dublin coast. There is no Lambay that I can find in Newfoundland.

Stone 2 on the left is now so covered with lichen that it can't be read. To remove the lichen would damage the stone and what remains of the carving, so I can't confirm the dates, but here is the book transcription.

IHS
In memoriam.
Erected by the Rev. James Fitzhenry (Missionary South Africa) in memory of
James Fitzhenry died in 1847 aged 73 yrs.
Margaret Fitzhenry Nee Gorman died in 1840 aged 65 yrs.
Edward Fitzhenry died 1847 aged 40 yrs.
Patrick Fitzhenry died 1888 aged 84 yrs
Martin Fitzhenry died 1848 aged 46 yrs
Nancy Ryan died 1895 aged 71 yrs
John Ryan died 1879 aged 73 yrs
Judy Ryan died 1852 aged 74 yrs
Edward Ryan died 1891 aged 92 yrs

Stone 3 is in the middle and is very easily read. The last name has been added to the stone since the book was compiled in 1988.

In Sad and loving Memory of
Michael Fitzhenry
Died 4-3-1904 aged 93
Rev James Fitzhenry
Died Grahamstown South Africa
30- 4 -1919 aged 73
Margaret Fitzhenry
Died 6 - 5 -23 aged 73
Martin Fitzhenry
Died 19-4-1927 aged 75
Patrick Fitzhenry
Died 1-11-1931 aged 76
Walter Fitzhenry
Died 14-3-1939 aged 82
(late of Monamolin Rathnure)
Michael Fitzhenry N.T.
Poulpeasty
Died May 17th 1863 aged 28 years

I have featured this family before as I found the Rev. James Fitzhenry in a book about Templeudigan. This now gives us 3 generations of this family and the information that James Fitzhenry himself died out in South Aftrica. As yet I do not know how the Ryans are related, but the Gormans crop up again very soon.

The Michael Fitzhenry added to the stone is the murdered schoolteacher from the Rathgarogue school - I do not know at present how he links in with this family.

And did you notice the Martin Fitzhenry died 1848 aged 46 on the second stone. Could this be our elusive husband of Judith Doyle?

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Ireland Road Trip part 2 - Judith Doyle

The children of Martin Fitzhenry and Judith Doyle were born in Clohasta (Mary, 1838) and Stackley (all the rest 1840-1847).

When I asked Mary in the Abbey Centre where Stackley was, she was very sure of the directions she gave me to the townland, a couple of miles north of Graiguenamanagh, out past Mooneen on one of the minor roads.
When I looked for Stackley on the map, it didn't seem to exist, and neither did it appear when I googled it.

However Mooneen was previously known as Moneen (that led me a merry dance trying to find that in modern Ireland), so I started some creative phonetic searching and found the townland of Stakally. I had noticed the tendency to spell the townlands phonectically in the registers, but as Stackley was spelt consistently the same throughout, I thought this at least was the proper spelling!

In Griffith's Valuations (the register of who owned property and who was renting it in Ireland), in 1850 a Judith Doyle was renting land in Stakally (no buildings attached) from James Brophy, who was sub-letting the land from Sir Josiah C. Coghill, Baronet. Sir Josiah owned all the land in Stakally.

Stakally is the next townland north of Moneen (Mooneen in modern spelling), where a Judith Fitzhenry was renting a house and garden from her joint landlords Anthony Wellman, John Flood, Mrs Rebecca Creane and Mrs Elizabeth Walsh. Again, these four people owned all the land in Moneen.

Were these two women one and the same person? It was common for married women to continue to use their maiden names. What wasn't usual however was for married women to rent property in their own right. It would have expected that if Martin was still part of this family, then the property would have been in his name. Sometime between 1847 and 1850 I expect Martin left the family either through migration, desertion or his death. This was the time of the Irish famine, so the death of a young man would not have been uncommon. This may have also been when Judith's child died.

Nowadays, the old buildings of Moneen and Stakally have gone, but there are what I believe are the remains of an old church at Stakally... in a cow field. Here's the best picture I could get of it. It could of course be just an old cow shed.







Here is a picture of the grand gates leading to the farm at Stakally - they look like they were built after 1850, but these were the landmarks given to me so that I knew that I was in the Stakally townland area. If there's one thing that I found on this trip, it is that townlands aren't signposted in the conventional way... it was more a concept of where you were rather than a marked area.

Here is the excellent Griffith's Valuation website so you can have a look at the entries and see how close the two townlands were, on maps used at the time for the Valuations.
Admiral Sir Josiah C. Coghill, 3rd Baronet Coghill of Coghill, County York, resided in Belvedere, County Dublin.
He owned extensive lands in County Kilkenny.
He died 20 June 1850.
Ref: The Peerage.com and Griffith's valuations


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