Armorial plaque

The National Monuments Service's description

Two stones associated with the memorial of Sir Thomas Cusack dated 1571 (FitzGerald 1917; Hickey 1971, 82-90) are in the chancel area of Trevet church (ME038-013----), but a small armorial stone (ME032-001003-) was moved to Staffordstown church, probably before 1750, where it cannot now be located, and a large side-stone depicting the family is now displayed in the Church of Ireland church at Tara (ME031-033084-) (Hickey 1971, 77-82). The mensa of the tomb (ME038-017003-) is also in the chancel at Trevet.
A broken heraldic stone (dims 2.56m x 1.22m) has a family tree representing the children and some grandchildren of Sir Thomas and his wife, Dame Maud (nee Darcy), depicted as shields springing from a central stem. The arms of three sons are on the dexter (left as viewed and reading from the bottom) side, and the crests of the husbands of seven daughters are on the sinister side. From the crests depicted Hickey concludes that it was commissioned c. 1604-09 by Sir Abrose Forthe, who held the tithes of Trevet and was married to a granddaughter of Sir Thomas, (ibid. 82-4). There were multiple alliances with the Aylmer family of Lyons, Co. Kildare (KD015-005----), but other families represented were Tuite, Bellew, Talbot, Cruise, Handcocke, Butler, Cowley, and Morrogh O’Brien, 4th Baron Inchequin, the first husband of Margaret.

See the attached PDF document for a description of the stone by Hickey (1971, 82-6) and the attached JPG for a drawing of the stone.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 19 March, 2015