What is recorded here

Coll Mathias Everard died in 1714 and his brother Christopher obeyed his final command, burying the new limestone slab over an older defaced stone where generations of Everards already slept. The chamber now sits inside the entrance porch of St Patrick’s Church at Donaghpatrick, pulling the dead into every living doorway. A closed helmet, a pelican and three stars watch above the warning MEMENTO MORI, turning ordinary entry into a reminder that flesh must end.

Set upright inside the entrance porch to St Patrick’s Church of Ireland church at Donaghpatrick (ME017-034006-) at the centre of the E wall. This limestone slab (dims 2.05m x 0.86m) was recorded by Isaac Butler c. 1740 (1892, 127) as being at the E end of the ruined medieval church. The Everard crest of two stars above and one below a wave is surmounted by a helmet with a closed visor that has a pelican above it. The inscription in false relief reads: COLL. MATHIAS EVERARD DEPARTED / THIS LIFE THE 12th DAY OF MARCH / 1714 AND BY HIS WILL DIRECTED / HIS BROTHER CHRISTOPHEER / EVERARD OF RANDALSTOWN ESQ. / TO LAY THIS TOMBE STONE IN Ye / ROOME OF AN OLD ONE THAT WAS / DEFACED IN THIS CHURCH OF DONAGHPATRICK BY TIME WHERE / MANY OF THEIR ANCESTORS ARE / INTERRED FOR Ye SAID CHRISTOPHER / AND HIS POSTERITY / REQUSEAT IN PACE Beneath is a skull and cross-bones and: MEMENTO MORI Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 15 April, 2019

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