Wall monument

The National Monuments Service's description

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. Renaissance wall monument, composed of fossiliferous limestone, to Elias Shee (d. 1613) and Margaret Archer built into the S wall of the medieval chancel of the church (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 99; Cockerham 2009, 354; Ó Drisceoil et al. 2015, 24-5; Ó Drisceoil et al. 2016, 19.). It consists of three tiers (H 2.86m; Wth 2.27m), namely an altar-tomb, plain apart from an incised cross on the front panel, beneath a half-tester and entablature. A crown or pediment may be missing. The entablature was badly damaged by vandalism in the late 1990s but has since been rebuilt (Ó Drisceoil et al. 2015, 24-5). A frieze occupies a rectangular panel engraved in false-relief with an inscription in Latin Roman capitals that reads:
HELIAE. SHEE. ARMIGERO. MVLTIS.
NATVRAE. DOTIBVS. AC. MVLTIPLICIC.
DOCTRINAE. ORNAMENTIS. CONSPICVO.
CONJVGI. SVAVISSIMO. CHARISSIMA. VXOR.
MARGARETA. ARCHER. MAESTA. POVIT.
OBIIT. DIE. 27. JVLII. ANNO. DOMINI
.1613
The central and main tier of the tomb is the canopy/half-tester, which has had its arches rebuilt. The back of the canopy is occupied by one long inscribed panel at the base below two smaller panels above. The inscriptions are in false-relief, Latin Roman capitals:
HELIAE. SHEE. ARMIGERO. MVLTIS.
NATVRAE. DOTIBVS. AC. MVLTIPLICIC.
DOCTRINAE. ORNAMENTIS. CONSPICVO.
CONJVGI. SVAVISSIMO. CHARISSIMA. VXOR.
MARGARETA. ARCHER. MAESTA. POVIT.
OBIIT. DIE. 27. JVLII. ANNO. DOMINI
.1613

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 4 January 2023

References

Cockerham, P. 2009 My body to be buried in my owne monument: the social and religious context of Co. Kilkenny funeral monuments, 1600-1700. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 109C, 239-365.

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.