The introduction of thousands of English and Scottish settlers to Ulster in the seventeenth century was of immense economic, political and social significance. These settlers brought their own cultures with them. These were manifested in a number of ways, such as dress, houses and agricultural practices. The settlers also brought with them their practice of erecting inscribed gravestones often with highly decorative carvings.
This essay will look at a selection of the memorials, gravestones and headstones that were erected in the course of the 17th century in counties Donegal, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone and see what they tell us about the people who erected them.
Image: Granger stone, Grange, Co. Tyrone
The most interesting of all the seventeenth century church monuments in west Ulster is undoubtedly that to Sir Richard Hansard in Clonleigh Church of Ireland church in Lifford, County Donegal. The monument consists of two sculpted figures kneeling on either side of a prayer stool. The figures are presumably meant to represent Sir Richard and his wife Dame Anne. Both are dressed in contemporary costume. Sir Richard is wearing his military armour, while his wife is wearing a long dress and a veil.
The inscription is the most detailed of any in west Ulster in the seventeenth century and contains a great deal of information about Sir Richard. He was born in Biskerthorpe in Lincolne (Lincolnshire), England. He was educated at Cambridge after which he became a soldier. He served in Ireland in a number of places during the Nine Years War (1594-1603) and was governor of Lifford during the latter stages of the war and also during the rebellion of Sir Cahir O’Dogherty in 1608. As a reward for his services he was granted Lifford and the surrounding lands by James I and given permission to found a corporate town at Lifford.
The inscription goes on to describe how Hansard had appointed Sir John Vaughan, Sir George Merbury and Thomas Perkins Esq. as the executors of his will and how these men had carried out the instructions in that will. These included building a church, school and school house and setting aside money from his lands to pay for a schoolmaster and other officials in the town. Sir Richard Hansard died on 5 October 1619. The inscription finishes by pointing out that the executors of his will had been forced to buy the lands from Hansard’s brother for £1,500 so that the instructions in his will could be fully carried out. The inscription is therefore not simply a record of Hansard’s achievements, but also of those of his executors.
This memorial is set into the wall of the south aisle of Desertcreat Church of Ireland church, near Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. Prior to this it had been in the floor of the church immediately in front of the chancel steps. It commemorates Alexander Sandirson who died on 8 December 1633. Sandirson or Sanderson was one of the most interesting men to have settled in west Ulster in the seventeenth century. The inscription, which runs around the edge of the stone, states that Sandirson had been born in Scotland. He had then embarked on a military career fighting as a soldier in Belgium before becoming a commander of both cavalry and foot soldiers in Poland. He then moved to Ireland where he was a justice of the peace and served as high sheriff of County Tyrone. The carvings on the memorial consist of a coat of arms flanked by a curious looking human figure and what appears to be a horse. Below this is a skull carved as if one is looking directly down on it from above, and beneath this are faintly incised crossed bones.
Of Sandirson early life we know nothing. However, we can assume that he was born into a gentry family and on becoming an adult went to the continent where he fought as a soldier of fortune for whoever would hire him. Following his military career he came to Ulster, probably in the 1610s, and acquired the estate of Tullylagan in east Tyrone. Tullylagan was a nominally 1000 acre estate in the precinct of Mountjoy that had been granted to Scottish settlers as part of the Ulster Plantation scheme.
He was not the original grantee of Tullylagan – that was George Crawford – but he was certainly its owner by 1618 when he was given responsibility for mustering the British settlers in his area. The following year it was noted that Sandirson had built a ‘good bawn of clay and stone, rough cast with lime, having two flankers and a very good house of lime and stone, himself and his wife and family now dwelling there. And about him some number of houses inhabited with British families’. In 1630 Sandirson received a grant of denization, giving him the same rights as English citizens, and his lands were erected into the ‘Manor of Sanderson’. The descendants of Alexander Sandirson acquired an estate in County Cavan and moved there. The most famous member of the family was Colonel Edward Saunderson MP, the leader of the Unionists at Westminster during the first two Home Rule crises.
The Elvin/Tomkins monument was erected in St Columb’s cathedral in Derry in 1678 and consists of a three part inscription above which are the coats of arms of the two families. Flanking this are two spiral columns set on bases depicting bucrania separated by hanging garlands, decorated with interlace patterns, or guilloche.Above this is an ogee-shaped pediment within which is a winged head. To either side of the pediment are obelisks with impaled heads.
It commemorates John Elvin who had been involved in the municipal government of the city, serving as an alderman and as mayor. The inscription records that he had moved to the city in the early stages of the Plantation. He died on 29 December 1676 in his 102nd year. The monument also commemorates Alexander Tompkins who died on 18 February 1642 (1643 according to the present system of dating). The connection between the two men was that John Elvin had married the widow of Alexander Tompkins.
Coincidentally this gravestone is in Grange graveyard, the site of a former Augustinian abbey. This Robert Granger was probably the same as the man who was listed as a tenant in the manor of Dunnalong owned by the Earl of Abercorn in a document drawn up in 1622. The gravestone is now broken in two and one corner is worn away completely. The inscription is carved in false relief and runs around the edge of the stone. In the centre of the stone a shield featuring three stags’ heads has been carved. This was obviously an attempt to indicate the status of the deceased. Whether this was merited or not is another matter.
The Plantation has frequently been presented as an exclusively Protestant settlement. A remarkable stone built into a bridge in the village of Artigarvan near Strabane is a powerful piece of evidence that this was not actually the case. The stone is built into the north side of the Malison Bridge in the village of Artigarvan. It cannot be seen from the road and must be viewed after a fairly precarious climb down a steep bank and a walk along the larger rocks in the Glenmornan River. Sadly this has not prevented the stone from being vandalised in recent years. The stone bears the inscription ‘AD DEI GLORIAM ROBERTUS ALGEO 2 MAII 1626’.
It bears a scene of the crucifixion, a common emblem of the Counter-Reformation. Although Algeo sounds Italian, it is in fact a Scottish name, mainly found in Renfrewshire, the home area of the Hamiltons. Robert Algeo was an important figure in the Scottish settlement in Strabane barony in the early seventeenth century. He was steward to Sir George Hamilton and therefore one of his closest followers. The symbolism on the stone can be explained by the fact that Sir George Hamilton was a Catholic and had introduced a significant number of Catholics to his estates near Strabane, including Robert Algeo. In a letter written in 1629 by George Downham, bishop of Derry, the names of the prominent Catholics in Strabane barony were listed and among them a Robert Anger (probably a corruption of Algeo) and his brother Claude, the latter being described a ‘lewde psewdo-Catholique’.
How the stone found its way to its present location is something of a mystery. It is also unclear what the stone actually represents. It may be a gravestone, in which case 2 May 1625 is presumably Algeo’s date of death. At the same time a Robert Algeo is mentioned in 1629 as a patron of Catholicism in Strabane. Algeo is, however, known to have had a son called Robert and the letter of 1629 may in fact refer to Robert Algeo junior.
The oldest memorial in a graveyard in west Ulster is that to John Maghee in the burial ground at Old Leckpatrick. The inscription running around the edge of the stone reads: ‘Here is the buriall place of John Maghee who deseased 26 February 1617 and his family’. Under the present system of dating 1617 should be 1618 (until 1752 the new year began on 25 March). In the centre of the gravestone is a heraldic shield topped by a hand holding a sword. Above this is a Celtic cross.
The Maghees or McGhees were an important family in the Strabane area in the seventeenth century. A David McGhee, probably John’s son, was agent to the Hamiltons, the principal landowners in Strabane, for over 50 years. He was a Roman catholic and in the Civil Survey of 1654-6 was described as a ‘Scottish Papist’. he leased the townland of Ballyburny in the parish of Leckpatrick from Sir George Hamilton of Greenlaw. On his death c.1678 this passed to his son George. In 1683 George sold this townland, also known as Hollyhill, to the Reverend John Sinclair, rector of the parishes of Camus-juxta-Mourne and Leckpatrick. For more about the Sinclairs see John Dooher’s case study on Old Leckpatrick graveyard.
In the early seventeenth century a new Protestant church for the parish of Ardstraw was built in the town of Newtownstewart. It was probably started by Sir Robert Newcomen and finished by his son-in-law Sir William Stewart (after whom the town was named). Sir William’s daughter Katherine married Sir James Montgomery of Greyabbey. When she died in 1634 a monument was erected in the new church in Ardstraw. This was destroyed, apart from an inscribed marble slab, in the 1641 rebellion. Fortunately a description of this monument has survived on her husband’s tomb at Greyabbey, County Down. The inscription on this records how Katherine Stewart was:
‘embalmed and kept two months, was put in a black marble coffin and laid five foot above ground in the middle of her monument, which as curious and sumptuous, of divers colours, all polish’d marble, inscribed with mottos and verses of his own composure, and gilded in every fit place, which standing in Newtown Stewart Church was with it burned and demolished by the Irish, ann.1641. Behold its pourfile on a board near this’.
The gravestones to James Galbraith, died 1673, and his wife Elizabeth, died 1670, in Aghalurcher graveyard near Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh, are almost identical and can be ascribed to the same mason. On both a richly carved coat of arms is found at the top of the stone while at the base are carved the mortality symbols, consisting of a skull, crossed bones, bell, coffin and hourglass. The skulls on these stones have been carved with pronounced cheekbones, a feature that can also been seen on the Forster Stone in Tydavnet, County Monaghan. The same mason may have been responsible for the gravestones at both sites.
The name Galbraith was fairly common in west Ulster in this period, though this James Galbraith would appear to be the only son of Robert Galbraith who had settled in Donegal in the first half of the seventeenth century. The family first came to Aghalurcher as agents to James Spottiswood, bishop of Clogher, some ten to fifteen years after the plantation. James Galbraith was M.P. for St. Johnstown in 1661 and in 1665 he was fined £10 for non attendance. The Galbraith home was at Rathmoran and ruins of the house are still traceable. James Galbraith’s will, which is dated 1 April 1673, would seem to indicate that he was a man of fairly considerable means for it lists, among other things, lands in his possession in counties Leitrim and Longford which he bequeathed to his children.
The monument inside the parish church in Benburb is dedicated to Captain James Hamilton, son to William Hamilton, Esquire, and brother to the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Claneboy, who was killed at the Battle of Benburb on 5 June 1646. It consists of an aedicule of sandstone surmounted by an open pediment within which is an antique urn-like shield displaying the Hamilton arms. The pilasters are richly carved with military and other symbols. The Hamilton Manuscripts record a tradition that James Hamilton met his death while trying to escape at Tullyrean (now Tullylearn) lying between Benburb and Blackwatertown. His body, as well as that of Lord Blaney, was interred in Benburb church the following day by order of Owen Roe O’Neill, the victorious Irish general, although subsequent to this Lord Blaney’s body was exhumed and removed for burial in Castleblaney.
The monument to Elizabeth Dodington in Coleraine Church of Ireland church is possibly the earliest of its type in west Ulster. It consists of a slate tablet, containing the inscription, set between pilasters decorated with arabesques. This is surmounted by a cartouche containing an heraldic achievement. The inscription is in Latin and records that Elizabeth Dodington was the daughter of Lord George Powlett, the governor of Derry, who was killed there in O’Dogherty’s rebellion in 1608. She was the wife of Edward Dodington, who, according to the inscription, was the commander of the king’s fort in Dungiven in the county of Coleraine (the old name for County Londonderry) and who was the first to build there in the English style. Elizabeth Dodington died on 4 June 1610 aged 24.
The earliest of these, which also happens to be the earliest C17 memorial in west Ulster, is to Elizabeth Dodington, the wife of Edward Dodington, who died in 1610 (Ph.O1). The inscription records that she was the daughter of Lord George Pawlett who had been the governor of Derry and was killed in the rising of Sir Cahir O’Doharty in 1608.
Edward Dodington was a captain in the king’s army in Ireland in the early seventeenth century and was given command of the fort at Dungiven in 1606 with award of fourteen men. Here he was to build a castle with a grant of £200 from the king while he contributed £300 towards the costs. In 1610-1 he was forced to surrender his lands to the Skinners’ Company although he was retained by the company as their first farmer. His connection with the town of Coleraine was firmly established when he became one of its first aldermen in 1613. Dodington also seems to have been a burgess at Limavady and was involved with the lands of the Ironmongers Company for a short time. He died in 1618.
In Coleraine parish church is the monument to John Rowley who died in 1617. The inscription, now virtually illegible, is inscribed on a slate tablet, now largely illegible, set within an alabaster frame. The carving is of a quite high standard with the skulls at the base of the pilasters being very anatomically sound. However, it is thought that the monument was incorrectly reassembled when the church was rebuilt in 1884. Rowley was involved with the Londonderry Plantation from an early stage and acted as the Irish Society’s chief agent as well as being an alderman and the first mayor of the city of Derry. He engaged in activities that were contrary to the rules of the plantation for his own personal betterment and was indicted for this in 1613.
The monument to Ann Munro, died 1647, in Coleraine parish church is of a very rare design. The inscription is contained on a slate tablet set within an alabaster frame and is surmounted by a semi-circular pediment upon which stands a putto, obviously damaged since it lacks a head. At either side of the pediment stand two more putti, the one to the right resting one foot upon a skull. The Munro monument is of a high standard and probably derives from an English source. The portrayal of the cherub with one foot resting on a skull has comparisons in the rest of Ireland and also in England.
Ann Munro was the daughter of General Major Robert Munro and wife of Colonel George Munro. These two men, though especially the former, played an important role in Ireland during the turbulent 1640s. Robert Munro was a veteran of warfare on the continent of Europe having served with Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, in Germany in the Thirty Years War. His army of Scots, which he brought to Ireland in 1642, was defeated by the forces of Owen Roe O’Neill at the Battle of Benburb in 1646, a battle in which his son-in-law, Col. George Munro also fought. George Munro’s troops were stationed at Coleraine for six years in the 1640s which explains why his wife should be buried here.
A second large seventeenth-century monument in St Columb’s cathedral is dedicated to members of the Edwards family and was erected in 1675. The Latin inscription is flanked on both sides by triple-shafted columns which taper, leading one critic to describe them as looking like the trunks of palm trees. The entablature consists of a richly carved coat of arms flanked by scrolls At the base of the monument is a large tablet containing carvings of mortality symbols. At either side of the tablet there is a winged cherub holding in its mouth what appear to be ornamental leaves. This part of the carving appears to be rather out of context with what the rest of the tablet is trying to convey, that of the inevitability of death. The other symbols consist of two skulls, one set of crossed bones, a bell, a coffin, two spades, and an open book. Hugo (or Hugh) Edwards was M.P. for Derry in 1661. This man also gained forfeited land in the baronies of Kennaght and Dungannon in the 1660s, and in 1669 was high sheriff of Tyrone. He died in 1672.
A monument to a cleric’s wife is found within Leckpatrick parish church. This monument, to Isabella Sinclair, died 1673, consists of an inscription above which is a richly carved coat of arms. This is flanked by triple-shafted columns with composite capitals, surmounted by two obelisks. In some ways it is similar to the monuments inside the cathedral in Derry and may have been the work of the same mason. This woman’s husband was the Reverend John Sinclair who was originally of West Brimes, Scotland and probably educated at Glasgow university. He first appeared in west Ulster in 1665 when he was appointed curate of Urney parish, but soon after this was appointed rector of Leckpatrick, combining this with Camus-juxta-Mourne in 1669. In 1683 he purchased Hollyhill from Captain George McGhee where his family became established until the twentieth century. His own monument (he died in 1702) stands next to that of Isabella and was erected by his second wife, Anna, who was the daughter of James Galbraith of Rathmoran (whose gravestone can be seen at Aghalurcher.
The monument to Thomas Newbrugh, died 1695, is positioned in the main aisle towards the front where, from being continually walked over, it has become rather worn, particularly with regard to the decoration. Above the inscription mortality symbols have been carved consisting of a skull over crossed bones below which is a coffin. To the left of this is a bell, while whatever was to the right has been obliterated. Above this is a coat of arms topped by a curious looking head and flanked by two winged heads, the one to the right being rather damaged. When probate was taken out on his will he was described as being ‘of Castlefyn’. He was presumably the son of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Newbrugh of Lifford, who was a governor of Derry in the 1650s, and in 1656 was elected M.P. for counties Londonderry, Donegal and Tyrone.
The monument to Gilbert Eccles, died 1694, within the ruined church at Fintona, consists of an aedicule with Corinthian columns, above each of which is a winged head, flanking the inscription. Above this is an open pediment and at the base of the memorial is carved a skull below which are crossed bones. The words memento mori have been inscribed above the mortality symbols. The Eccles family came from Kildonan in Ayrshire and Gilbert was probably a younger son of John Eccles of that place. He is described as ‘of Shanock’ which refers to the estate in Co. Fermanagh which he purchased from Henry Gilbert in 1656. He served as high sheriff of Fermanagh in 1665 and presumably some time before he became high sheriff of Tyrone in 1673 he acquired the ‘Manor of Fentonagh’.
The gravestone to Edward Wood, died 1673, at Aghaloo parish churchyard, Caledon, features an extravagant coat of arms below which are carved the mortality symbols. These consist of a skull and crossed bones to the left of which is a coffin and to the right is a rectangular depression which may be taken to represent a grave. Below the grave is an open book and to the left of this is an hourglass. There is a strong case for believing that the decoration was a later addition to the stone for it appears that in carving the coat of arms and mortality symbols part of the inscription was removed. How long after 1673 this was done is not known but if it was before 1700 this is the only recorded instance of a grave being featured on a C17 memorial.
In Killyman parish churchyard the gravestone to Thomas Goodlatt, died 1624, features a coat of arms, below which is incised what is presumably a badly defaced skull, although rather curiously it has ears, clenching a bone in its teeth. In an arc around this are the words memento mori. This is the earliest recorded instance of the mortality symbols on an outdoor memorial in west Ulster.
At Strabane a monument within the parish church, commemorates a man who played an important role in the government of the early town. This was William Hamilton who died in 1640 and whose memorial records that he was ‘sometyme provost of Strabane,’ and also mentions that he bequeathed to the poor in the town a yearly sum to help them in their need. This man was also a merchant in Strabane who received a fee-farm from the Earl of Abercorn and had a stone house on his lands by 1622.
A broken slab at the west end of the church commemorates the Reverend John Hart who was Presbyterian minister of Taughboyne from 1655 until his death in 1687. He was a native of Hamilton in Scotland and according to the inscription on his tombstone, which is in Latin, was illustrisso, ‘of noble birth.’ When first appointed it was under the Cromwellian commonwealth regime and he would have preached in the parish church of Taughboyne. However, with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he refused to conform to the episcopalian form of worship and was ejected from the church. Mentioned on his gravestone are many ‘sufferings’ endured and these refer to the persecution he was subjected to by the bishop of Raphoe, which resulted in him spending a total of seven years in Lifford gaol. He would appear to have been highly regarded for in 1658 he was invited by Cromwell to attend a conference in Dublin intended to settle the religious differences of the people of Ireland.
