Graveslab

The National Monuments Service's description

There is a 17th century graveslab (dims 2.3m x 1.15m; T 13cm) of James Talbot in the graveyard (ME029-023012-) of St James' church (ME029-023003-), although the inscription (FitzGerald 1908-09, 420) is no longer legible. FitzGerald describes it as:

Close to the path on the south side of the burial-ground is a large slab resting on masonry, on which an inscription in raised Roman capitals is traceable, running along its length. Unfortunately only the first three lines can, with great difficulty, be deciphered. In all there were about nine lines and a half, and at the foot is a sunk square containing an animal (a Talbot dog) on all fours on a wreath, in relief. The inscription commences:
[HERE] VNDER LIETH THE BODY OF IAM[ES T]ALBOT OF ATHBOY [BURG]AES AND ONE OF THE HOUSE OF DARDISTON AND WAS BORNE [ ] IN ATHBOY IN THE YEAR OF OVR LORD GOD ON ….DESESED IN THE YEAR…
Some three or four lines follow, and then the inscription ends with the words: GOD BE [MERCIFVLL]
According to ‘Burke’s Peerage’, the Talbots of Dardistown, in the County Meath, were sprung from John, a younger son of Thomas Talbot, Lord of Malahide, who died in 1487. The slab on which the above inscription is cut belongs to the seventeenth century. Some of the letters are conjoined.

Date of upload: 2 January, 2014

References

FitzGerald, Lord W. 1908-09 Athboy Churchyard. Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead, Ireland, 7, 418-24