Graveslab in Roosky (monaghan By., Monaghan Par.)

The Ancketill graveslab was recovered c. 1830 from the foundations of the present Church of Ireland church of St Patrick (Shirley 1879, 310), which is in the graveyard of the seventeenth century parish church (MO009-060012-). The memorial is now preserved in the porch of the present church at the base of its tower. It is a sandstone slab (L 1.88m; Wth 0.85m) set upright into a wall and it is illustrated by Shirley (ibid. 155). The four corners are cut away in the original design and the inscription in false relief is within a slight moulded border and beneath the Ancketill crest. Oliver Ancketill was the first of the family to come to Ireland from Dorsetshire, and he was the father of Mathew Ancketill, whose graveslab (MO007-014006-) is preserved in St Saviour's Church of Ireland church at Glaslough. The family were prominent in Donagh parish into the nineteenth century (Lewis 1837, vol. 1, 464-5). The inscription reads: HERE LYETH THE BO / DY OF OLIVER ANCKE / TILL OF ANCKETILLS G / ROVE ESQVIRE DESCEND / ED OF THE ANIENT FA / MILY OF SHAWSTONE / IN DORSET SHIRE IN / ENGLAND, WHO DYE / D AT ARD MAGH A / ND WAS BURIED A / T MONAGHAN THE / 28th DAY OF / JVNE 1666. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 16 November, 2016

A 17th-century Christian graveslab; significant for its historical association with the parish church and early church foundations in the area.