Tomb - chest tomb

The National Monuments Service's description

Within the graveyard (ME018-022001-) and E of Kilberry parish church (ME018-022----). A limestone chest-tomb has a covering slab (L 2.2m; Wth 0.9m; T 0.15m) that is supported on one side-stone and an end panel (Wth 0.84m; H 0.76m) with a raised crucifixion that has foreshortened legs. The covering slab has a crest at the head, a skull and cross-bones at the feet, and an inscription commemorating Mathius Everard, who died in 1714 or 1715. The tomb was erected by his brother and is probably the tomb described by Butler (1892, 127), writing c. 1740, as being in the graveyard (ME017-034001-) at Donaghpatrick, but the transcription is probably more accurate that that of Lett (1921-25).
According to Butler the inscription reads: Mathis Everard departed / this life, 12th day of March / 1714 (15) And by his Will directed / his Brother Christopher / Everard of Randalstown Esqr. / to lay this tomb stone in the / Roome of an Old one that was / defaced in this Church of / Donagh Patrick by time, where / Many of their Ancestors are / interred, for the said Christopher / and his Posterity. Requiescant in Pace.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of uplaod: 15 December, 2014

References

Butler, I. 1892 A journey to Lough Derg (circa. 1749). Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 22, 13-24, 126-36.

Lett, M. 1921-25 Killberry Churchyard. Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, in Ireland, vol. 11, 312-3.