What is recorded here

Half an acre of St John's cemetery still lies hidden beneath Dublin, perhaps under the Augustinian friary or the houses beside it. John Hamound wanted burial there in 1388, placing St Mary Magdalen's door inside the grave yard itself. The monastery fell, its stones were sold, and the cemetery became empty. Yet the dead did not leave; they simply stopped having a name that could be pointed at.

The precise location of the cemetery belonging to St John's Priory and Hospital (DU018-020062-) has not been identified. In 1388, the Will of John Hamound requested that he be; 'buried in the cemetery of St. John [DU018-020062-], outside the New Gate [DU018-020377-], before the door of the church of St. Mary Magdalen [DU018-020069-], and he bequeaths to that church for masses twenty shillings; for wax, fifty pounds' (CARD Vol. 1, 129). This reference indicates that the church of St Mary Magdalen stood in the cemetery of St. John's Hospital. The location of this cemetery and church has not been precisely identified. The site was probably located on the N side of Thomas Street in the area now occupied by the Augustinian friary of St John and the buildings to the E and W of the friary. In 1540 after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Hospital of St. John Baptist (DU018-020062-) outside the New Gate (DU018-020377-), Dublin was described as follows; 'The church and site. After the dissolution, the church was thrown down, and the stones, tiles, timber, glass, and iron were sold by William Brabazon under-treasurer of Ireland to divers persons of the city of Dublin, whose names, and the sums paid by them, are not known. In the precinct, a house lately the chapel of St. Eligius (Eloi) [DU018-020073-], now occupied by Edmund Redman. A chapel of St. Margaret [DU018-020067-], now unoccupied for want of a tenant and of repairs, and worth nothing at present. A cemetery cont[aining]. about ½ acr., now unoccupied and worth nothing at present' (White 1943, 55-6). In 1609 Thomas Luttrell was granted; 'Two thirds of the site , &c. of the late hospital or priory of St John the Baptist with out Newgate- two - third parts of a house which was the chapel of St Eligius, of a cemetery, and of a house in which are 50 cells for sick, with a small piece of ground adjoining; a kitchen, a bawn, with other necessary buildings, which the prior of the said hospital used to occupy for his own use; of a house called Reverstre within the said church-yard; of 4 more houses, an orchard near the mill there, a garden, 3 water-mills within or near the said site, with the water-course, the whole being divided into three parts' (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 146-7). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 28 June 2023

Medieval Christian cemetery, 14th century. Associated with St John's Priory and Hospital, it reflects the religious and social structures of the period.

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