Wall monument — effigial in Unknown Townland

Multi-tiered wall monument of the Boyle family, located at the west end of the south wall of St Patrick’s Cathedral (DU018-020269-) that was erected in 1632 by Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork and made by Edmond Tingham, a stonecutter from Chapelizod, Co. Dublin and designed by Alban Leverett, Athlone Pursuivant-at-Arms who was paid 30 shillings for his design (Fenton 2012, 23-7).  An entry in Richard Boyle's diary dated 3rd of June 1630 recorded that; ‘I this day perfected my covenants with Edmond Tingham of Chapple Isolde, stone-cutter, for erecting a Tombe for myself, my wife, her father and mother, her grandfather and grandmother, in St Patrick’s Church in Dublin, for which I am to be of no other charges for all materials, carvings, painting and gilding, and finishing thereof by 24th July 1631 than the payment of £300 sterling' (ibid.).  Originally located behind the Boyle family burial vault at the east end of the Cathedral located behind the altar between the choir and the Lady Chapel, it was moved in 1634 to the south wall of the nave, the monument was later repaired by Dean Swift when some figures and members of the family were removed and in 1863 it was moved to the west end of the Cathedral, where it stands today (ibid.).   Monument described in the Urban Survey of Dublin City (Bradley and King 1988, Vol. 1, 89-92) as a; ‘Magnificent five storey altar tomb containing life-sized effigies of Richard and his family in both kneeling and reclining positions. Each storey is supported by composite columns and the figures are depicted within round-arched recesses. There is an inscription in Roman letters attached to each storey. The first storey rests on a low plinth and consists of two semi-circular arcaded recesses with cherubs in the spandrels. The recesses have six women in kneeling positions. The central support has a round headed niche with the figure of a young boy. Inscription: AN DOMINI  THE ISSUE OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE RICHARD LORD BOYLE EARLE OF CORKE AND THE LADIE KATHERYNE HIS WYFE WITH THE ARMES OF SUCH OF THEIR DAUGHTERs HUSBANDS AS ARE MARRIED 1631.  The second storey is tripartite. The central division is the largest and has curtains drawn back by angels to reveal the reclining figures of the earl of Cork and his wife on a sarcophagus. In the smaller recesses are four kneeling male figures. Inscription : THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED FOR THE RIGHT HONORABLE S. RICHARD BOYLE K. LORD BOYLE BARON OF YOUGHAL VISCOUNT OF DUNGARVAN EARL OF CORKE LORD HIGH TREASURER OF IRELAND OF THE KINGS PRIVY COUNSELL OF THIS REALM AND ONE OF THE LORDES IUSTICES FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS KINGDOM IN MEMORIE OF HIS MOST DEAR VERTUOUS AND RELIGIOUS WIFE THE LADIE KATEERINE COUNTESS OF CORKE AND THEIR POSTERITY AS ALSO OF HER GRANDFATHER Dr ROBERT WESTON SOMETIME LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND AND ONE OF THE LORD IUSTICES FOR THE GOVERNMENT THEREOF WHOSE DAUGHTER ALICE WESTON WAS MARRIED TO sr GEOFFRAY FENTON Kt PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE IN THIS REALM AND THEY HAD ISSUE THE SAID LADIE KATHERINE COUNTESS DF CORKE WHO LIETH HERE INTEREED HER SAID FATHER AND GRANDFATHER WHOSE VERTUES SHE INHERITED ON EARTH AND LIETH HERE TNTOMBED WITH THEM ALL EXPECTING A IOYFULL RESSURRECTION QUAE OBIIT DECIMO SEXTO FEBRUARII 1629. The third storey is bipartite and is divided by six paired Corinthian columns, which also support a frieze and the fourth storey. The two round arched recesses each contain a figure, kneeling at a prie-dieu [prayer-desk], with a shield suspended from the arch above their heads. These are Sir Geoffrey Fenton and his wife. Inscription: IN MEMORIE OF THE HONORABLE AND VERTUOUS LADIE THE LADIE ALICE FENTON WIFE TO sr GEOFFRAY AND MOTHER TO THE LADIE KATHERINE COUNTESS OF CORKE WHOSE RELIGIOUS AND CHARITABLE COURTEOUS LIFE WAS AN EXAMPLE TO HER SEX SHE DECEASED' THE 29 OF MAY 161 []  BUT WILL EVER LIVE IN THE HAPPY REMEMBRANCE OF ALL POSTERITY HERE LIETH INTOMBED THE BODY OF THE TWICE HONORABLE SIR GEOFFRAY FENTON Kt SECRETARY' AND PRIVY COUNSELLOR TO QUEEN ELIZABETH AND KING IAMES OF BLESSED MEMORIE FOR THE AFFAIRS OF IRELAND AND WHICH IMPLOYMENT HE PERFORMED WITH GREAT JUSTICE HE WAS FATHER TO THE LADIE KATHERINE COUNTESS OF CORKE AND DEPARTD LIFE THE 24 OF OCTOBER WHOSE WORKS AND VERTUES WILL NEVER DIE The fourth storey consists of pedestal supporting a rectangular sarcophagus bearing the reclining figure of Dr. Robert Weston. Inscription: HERE LYETH INTERRED THE BODY OF THAT REVEREND HONORABLE GENTLEMAN RO' BERT WESTON ESQ. DOCTOR OF THE CIVIL AND CANNON LAWES GRANDFATHER TO THE LADIE KATEERINE COUNTESS OF CORKE BEING SOMETIMES ONE OF THE LORDS JUSTICES OF IRELAND AND FOR SIX YEARES CHANCELLOR OF THIS REALM WHO WAS SO LEARNED IUDICIOUS AND UPRIGHT IN THE COURSE OF UDICATURE AS IN ALL THE TIME OF THAT EMPLOYMENT HE NEVER MADE ORDER OR DECREE THAT WAS  QUESTIONED OR REVERSED HE CHANGED THIS MORTALL FOR AN ETERNALL LIFE THE 20th OF MAY 1573 WHOSE HONORABLE MEMORIE NO TIME SHALL EXTINGUISH The fifth storey consists  of a rectangular pedestal with a square dome and small figure above.  The pedestal has a shield with three coats of arms and the motto: GODS PROVIDENCE IS OUR INHERITANCE. The sculptor was Edward Tingham’ (Mason 1820, liii, liv; Bernard 1906, 69-71). The Dictionary of Irish Biography recorded the following details about Robert Weston, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral who died in 1573; 'lord chancellor of Ireland, was the third son of John Weston of Lichfield, Staffordshire, and his wife Cecilia, who was a sister to Ralph Neville, 4th earl of Westmorland. Educated at Oxford, he was a fellow of All Souls college in 1536, and became dean of law two years later; he received his BCL on 17 February 1538 and the DCL on 20 July 1556. In May 1546 he was appointed deputy reader in civil law at Oxford, and in 1550 became regius professor of civil law. He also served as principal of Broadgates Hall for three years (1546–9). Early in life, he gained a reputation for learning and piety and became a successful ecclesiastical lawyer and administrator, being chancellor of Exeter diocese in 1551–3, chancellor of Lichfield diocese by 1564, and dean of the arches from 1559 or 1560 to 1567. He sat as MP for Exeter in 1553 and as MP for Lichfield in 1558 and 1559. His performance in these posts and other commissions led to his being considered in 1566 for the position of lord chancellor of Ireland, to which he was formally appointed on 10 June 1567. As it was recognised that his official salary was inadequate, the queen also made him dean of St Patrick's cathedral in Dublin and in 1570 dean of Wells in England. He arrived at Dublin in early August 1567 and was sworn a member of the Irish privy council before being appointed lord justice along with Sir William Fitzwilliam just two months later on 9 October during the absence of the lord deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, in England. Despite being a layman, he became the effective leader of the Church of Ireland. He opposed efforts to coerce the Irish laity into becoming protestants, believing that the government should instead focus its reforms on creating a qualified and dedicated cadre of protestant clergy. Initially, he enthusiastically supported proposals by the Irish parliament in 1569 to establish a university in Dublin, envisaging that such an institution would produce trained protestant clergymen.  Weston married Alice, eldest daughter of Richard Jennings (Jenyns) of Great Barr, Staffordshire, with whom he had a son, John (b. 1551/2), and three daughters. He died 20 May 1573, survived by his wife, and was buried at St Patrick's cathedral, where a monument bearing his effigy was erected by his granddaughter's husband Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork' (McCormack & Clavin 2009). The Dictionary of Irish Biography recorded the following details about Sir Geoffrey Fenton (1539-1608); 'secretary of state for Ireland, was the son of Henry Fenton of Fenton, Nottinghamshire, England, and his wife Cecily, daughter of John Beaumont of Coleorton, Leicestershire, and may have been related to both the Dudleys and the Cecils. In 1580 he left his literary career to take up the office of joint secretary of state for Ireland on the appointment of Sir Arthur Grey, Baron Grey de Wilton as lord deputy in July. The secretaryship, which was confirmed to Fenton alone on 14 November 1581, after Chaloner's death, conferred membership of the privy council and Fenton played an active part in its proceedings. Fenton, died on 19 October 1608 in Dublin, where he was buried in St Patrick's in the same tomb as his father-in-law, Dr Robert Weston, formerly lord chancellor of Ireland, whose daughter Alice he had married after the death of her first husband, Dr Hugh Brady, bishop of Meath, in 1584. They had one son, Sir William Fenton, and one daughter, Catherine, who married Richard Boyle, afterwards 1st earl of Cork' (Barry 2009).    The Dictionary of Irish Biography recorded the following details about Richard Boyle (1566-1643): '1st earl of Cork, landowner and politician, was born 13 October 1566 in Kent, second son of Roger Boyle, a native of Herefordshire, and his wife Joan Naylor of Canterbury, who had made their home in Preston outside Faversham in the vicinity of Canterbury. Nothing is known of the family's livelihood, but while the eldest son, John, attended King's School, Canterbury, Richard was educated locally at Faversham, possibly because his father had died in 1576. Then both Richard and John matriculated together in 1583 at Bene't Hall (latterly Corpus Christi College), Cambridge, but there is no record of Richard Boyle graduating from Cambridge. However, he seems to have acquired some legal and secretarial experience in London before 1588, when he sought employment in Ireland. By 1590 Boyle was deputy escheator in Ireland with responsibility to uphold crown claims to land in the provinces of Connacht and Munster. The system in which he was employed was notoriously corrupt, and Boyle proved himself a cooperative colleague by working assiduously with officials in Dublin to dispossess whatever Irish landowners did not have good legal title to their estates. By such stratagems Richard Boyle acquired considerable land, principally in the province of Connacht and Co. Clare, and he augmented this in 1595 when he married Joan Apsley, a woman of Old English descent who had become co-heiress to a significant property in Co. Limerick after her brother Edward Apsley had died. In 1598 he became outright owner of all of his Munster acquisitions when his wife, Joan, died while giving birth to a stillborn son. Also through the good offices of Carew, Boyle was able to marry Catherine, the daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, the secretary of state for Ireland. Then, as part of the plan, Boyle used Catherine's dowry of £1,000 to purchase from Sir Walter Ralegh the vast estate that Ralegh had been granted in the Munster plantation, and which Ralegh had augmented with church property, principally in the vicinity of Youghal, Co. Cork. This purchase by Boyle of the Ralegh lands proved astute and became the foundation of Boyle's future wealth and greatness. As Boyle began to enjoy a liberal income from rent, he invested much of the returns in developing inland towns; some of them, like Bandon, recently constructed, others, like Lismore, ancient foundations. He then rented out house lots within the towns, and farms in their vicinity, to the artisan-tenants who had been induced to settle there, either by himself or his tenants-in-chief, or by the previous English owners of the property. The years down to 1620 therefore also marked Boyle's assembly of the largest estate in Ireland. This included properties that extended from the vicinity of Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, westwards to Dingle, Co. Kerry, and from Carrigaline, Co. Cork, northwards to Co. Limerick, while he retained his lands in Connacht and Clare and acquired an urban residence in Dublin and a country seat in nearby Co. Kildare. Then also Boyle used his wealth, and the political connections that accrued from it, to negotiate an elevation in his social position to a level that would be commensurate with his prosperity. Thus in July 1603 he became Sir Richard Boyle, in March 1607 he sat on the provincial council of Munster, in February 1613 he was elevated to membership of the Irish privy council, in September 1616 he became Baron Boyle in the Irish peerage, and in October 1620 he was created 1st earl of Cork. Although his first marriage failed to produce an heir, his second wife, Catherine, became the mother of fifteen children and suffered some miscarriages besides. Eleven of the entire fifteen, including five sons, were still alive when his countess died in 1629. Richard Boyle was all the more convinced, as he approached his own death from natural causes (15 September 1643), that this was but a trial sent by God which would lead to an ultimate victory, proving the truth of his family motto that God's Providence was indeed his inheritance' (Canny 2009).   Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien