Wall monument in Unknown Townland

16th-century wall-memorial (H 0.59m x Wth 0.45m) of Robert Sutton, Archdeacon of Dublin (1498-1508) and Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral (1527-8), who died on the 1st of April in 1528.  Originally buried near the altar on the north side of the choir inside St Patrick's Cathedral (Fenton 2015, 23).  Memorial moved in 1863 and now located inside the south choir aisle of the cathedral (DU018-020269-) (ibid.).  Described in the Urban Survey of Dublin City (Bradley and King 1988, Vol. 1, 82-3) as a; ‘Wall memorial brass in south choir aisle. Rectangular plaque depicting a kneeling cleric and a defaced Trinity in the top right-hand corner (Roe 1979, 132). Inscription in Gothic letters with Lombardic capitals: ORATE PRO ANIMA MAGISTRI ROBERTI SUTTON HUI ECCLESIE - CATHEDRALIS NON IMMERITO DECANI QUI HUI NOSTRE -  ORTALITATIS DIEM CLAUSIT EXTREMU ANO DOMINI - ICARNACIONIS MILLESIMO, QUIGENTESIM: xxvlllo AC MENSIS - APRILIS DIE PRIMO + SEPULTUS EST SUB HOC MAGNO MARMOREO - LAPIDE CORAM DIVI PATRICII IMAGINE INSECUNDO GRADU - ASUMMO ALTARI SITUATO: CUIUS ANIME PROPICIETUR DEUS: AMEN - The prayer label has the following contracted inscription : IN TE DNE SPERAVI NO CONFUDAR I ETERNM’ (Mason 1820, 145; NLI, PD 1975 TX 12 (39c)). Brass memorial plaque described by Helen Roe (1979, 132-3) as a 'Rectangular brass wall-plate, lower part filled by Latin inscription in blackletter commemorating Robert Sutton "not unworthy dean of this Cathedral" who died in 1528 (Mason 1820,145: Bernard 1906, vol. 6, 528-9). The field of the upper part is powdered with stars and on either side of the figure of the Dean is his monogram R.S. nicely incised, the letters entwined by tasselled cords. Bareheaded and wearing choir robes with the furred almuce or cape (proper for a Doctor of Divinity) about his shoulders, the Dean is shown kneeling in prayer. From between his clasped hands a long scroll floats upward. This is inscribed in blackletter contracted Latin with the phrase from the Te Deum: In Thee O Lord have I trusted; let me never be confounded. Originally the Dean offered his prayer to the Holy Trinity shown as the Throne of Grace and set high in the sinister top corner of the brass. Presumably regarded as a "scandalous picture" and one smacking of idolatry an attempt was made to obliterate it although at what period is not now known. As already observed the damage had already been made by the middle of the 17th century, a time when the Cathedral suffered considerable injury and desecration. As a result of the defacement all that can now be clearly distinguished is the throne, high-backed with railed arms and turned supports; the cloaked figure of the Father is covered by heavily scratched lines while his head has been transformed into a circle framing a six petalled flower. The crucifix has been scraped away and the space filled by another monogram R.S. in massive letters, inlaid in black round which the tasselled cord has been ingeniously looped to blot out the underlying details of the original. Nevertheless on close examination may be discerned God's right hand upheld in blessing the ends of the transom of the cross; and within the topmost loop of the cord, a hair-thin line or two suggest the wing and body of the Dove of the Holy Spirit. Heavily foliate work scored over the Father's feet fails to conceal the fact that the shaft of the cross was here shown surmounting the globe of the world after a style well-known in English versions though as yet not otherwise noted among the surviving Irish instances. The Sutton brass is almost certainly an English import. Similar rectangular plates with lengthy inscriptions and a depiction of the deceased (plus wife and family where applicable) kneeling before some sacred image or other in an oratory or small private chapel are widely distributed in England from the 16th century on. It is interesting to note that a closely similar brass to Dean Sutton's was imported for his successor, Dean Geoffry Fyche (ob. 1537), on which the latter kneels before an altar of the Virgin's Pity a subject which, curiously enough, has escaped the iconoclast's destructive burin and remains remarkably clear in detail'.  According to King (1994, 116, 128) the; '1528 brass to Dean Sutton in St Patrick's Cathedral and the 1537 brass [DU018-506----] close by dedicated to the memory of Dean Fyche are very similar to the Tudor brasses of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in England England (Macklin 1928, 216-38). Macklin actually compares the Honywode brass, 1522, in Windsor Chapel (ibid., 218-19) with these two brasses in St Patrick's. In all instances the entire surface of the brass is engraved and all three depict a cleric dressed in surplice and almuce, kneeling at a prie-dieu [prayer-desk] with a prayer label issuing from the hands. Each plaque has a religious depiction in one corner before which the cleric is praying. This brass is also from the London workshops and belongs in the 'G' series (Norris 1977, 157-61).'.   Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien