Tomb - effigial

The National Monuments Service's description

Now located in S transept of Kildare Cathedral (KD022-029005-). The County Kildare Archaeological Society were responsible for removing the Walter Wellesley Tomb from Great Connell Abbey (KD023-016---) to Kildare Cathedral for safekeeping in 1971. The tomb was re-erected in S transept of Kildare Cathedral on 17 July 1971. Prior to this move the effigial tomb had been broken up into several fragments that had been inserted into the S face of the W wall of the graveyard either side of the entrance gate. Photographs taken by Edwin Rae show the fragments incorporated into the W wall of the abbey graveyard (KD023-016001-) ( http://hdl.handle.net/2262/34868).
The Urban Survey of Kildare (Bradley et. al. 1986 vol. 3, 228-9 Fig. 104) described the effigial tomb as following; 'Of limestone, the end panels are complete but the side panels only survive in fragmentary sections (L 1.9m; Wth 0.98m; H 0.94m). The Bishop is depicted under a pinnacled and crocketed canopy which is supported by two angels carrying shields emblazoned with crosses, the arms of Wellesley. He wears an amice or neck-scarf, a chasuble decorated with a central panel of fine embroidery, a fringed dalmatic, an alb and a girdle. His manipled left hand holds a foliated, in-turned crozier and the gloved right hand is raised in blessing. The feet rest against a socle decorated with foliage. The lower edge of the slab has a concave chamfer decorated in relief with sprays of foliage, three face masks with foliage springing from the mouths (‘green men’), two grotesques, one figure blowing two trumpets and a sheila-na-gig (KD023-016002-). A marginal inscription in incised Gothic lettering reads:
‘HIC JACET FRATER WALTERUS WELLYSL[E]Y QUODAM EPUS DAREN AC HUJ DOMUS/ COMMENDATARIUS CUIUS AIE PPICIETUR DEUS Q OBI[T] ANNO DOM[]NI MCCC (unfinished).
Translation: ‘Here lies brother Walter Wellesley, formerly bishop of Kildare and commendatory prior of this house, on whose soul God have mercy, who died in the year of the Lord 15[39].’
The reconstructed tomb panels consist of a number of fragments which appear to have been carved by different hands, and the E side panel did not belong to this tomb originally. The head end-panel bears an ‘Ecce Homo’; the foot end-panel bears a crucifixion; the W side-panel, in two parts, depicts SS John the Evangelist, Patrick and Peter; the E side panel depicts SS Andrew, Thaddeus and Matthias'. Cross-referenced with KD022-029034-. (Hunt 1974, 163)

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 24 April 2019

References

Hunt, J. 1974 Irish medieval figure sculpture 1200-1600, 2 vols. Dublin. Irish University Press.

Bradley, J., Halpin, A., and King, H.A. 1986 Urban Archaeological Survey - County Kildare (4 vols.). Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.