Armorial plaque

The National Monuments Service's description

An armorial plaque on the street façade of the house (KK019-026062-) formerly of Henry Shee which occupies nos. 91-3 High Street. The rectangular limestone plaque bears the coat of arms, in high relief within a shield at the top of the plaque, of Henry Shee, impaling that of this first wife, Frances Crisp. An inscription in raised lettering in three horizontal lines occupies the lower portion of the plaque. Graves (1849-50, 43) describes the plaque as being, 'sculptured with an achievement of ten quarterings together with the letters H. S. and the following inscription:- Henry Shee of Kilkeni, gentleman, & Frances Crisp, his wife's, arms. The upper portion of this stone is unfortunately broken off, and lost, but I have been informed that it bore the date of 1580'.
Crotty (2009, 200-203) discusses the heraldry in some detail and notes that the upper portion of the plaque is damaged, with both upper corners being replaced with concrete.

See attached photograph:
KK019-026081-_01 https://kilkennyarchaeologicalsociety.ie/the-ten-civic-families-of-kilkenny/; accessed 23 March 2022
KK019-026081-_02 Google Earth street view, imagery date September 2019
KK019-026081-_03 Illustration of Henry Shee house in 1850 from Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 22

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 23 March 2022

References

Crotty, G. 2009 A guide to the heraldry of the civic families of Kilkenny in Elizabethan and early Stuart times. In J. Bradley and M. O'Dwyer (eds.), Kilkenny through the centuries: chapters in the history of an Irish city, 140-217. Kilkenny. Kilkenny Borough Council.

Graves, J. and Prim, J.G.A. 1859 The History, Architecture and Antiquities of the City of Kilkenny’, Transactions of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society 5 (part 2), 322-331.

Kenealy, C. J. 1952 Armorial slabs on old Kilkenny houses. Old Kilkenny Review 5, 44-54.