Mausoleum in Kilbarron

Situated on a NW-facing slope of rising ground overlooking the shores of Lough Derg to the W. Kilbarron medieval church is listed in the ecclesiastical taxation of the Diocese of Killaloe in 1302 (CDI, vol. 5, 302). The Royal Visitation of 1615 described the building as a 'church and chancell in ruin' (Murphy and Ormond 1914, 220). In centre of a rectangular graveyard (TN009-003002) are the ruins of the nave and chancel parish church (TN009-003001) built with roughly coursed sandstone and limestone rubble with an angle buttress at the NE. A seventeenth-century mausoleum built with some reused fabric of the medieval church stands in the NE angle of the chancel has a memorial slab on top with an inscription which reads 'GULIELLMUS CLEBURNE DE BALLICULLATAN ARMIGER OBVT VICESSIMO SECUNDO DIE MENSIS OCTOBRIS ANNO DOM 1684'. A memorial stone dated 1682 has been inserted into the W face of the 17th century mausoleum belonging to the Cleburne family of Ballycolliton Castle (TN009-042-----) located 2.9km to the SSE. O'Hart (1892, 113-15) recorded the following details about the Cleburne family of Ballycolliton; 'William Ciallmhar (or "Wise William") of St. John's Manor, co. Wexford (third son of Thomas, of Cliburne-Hall and Killerby, 14th Lord of the Manor of Cliburne), came into Ireland with his uncle, Sir Gerard Lowther, and settled in the "City of Kilkenny." He held the Manor of St. John, Enniscorthy, co. Wexford, of Sir Gerard Lowther (Lord Chief Justice of Ireland), which manor the said Gerard bequeathed to his nephew, Lowther Parsons. In 1677, he purchased from Capt. Solomon Cambie "the castles, towns and lands of Ballycollitan, the villadge and lands of Bunnadubber [Bunnabober] and of Killinboy or Knock, Ballycullatan; also that part of Annagh from the Castle of Annagh [TN009-036----] to the ditch of Kilbulloir [Kilbiller], together with all the profits and emoluments from the said castles, towns, villadges and lands," as by a Deed enrolled in the Public Record Office, Dublin, dated 20th July, 1677. William of Ballycollitan Castle, eldest son of "William the Wise," was born 14th September, 1642, died 22nd October, 1684. (Will proved, 5th February, 1684-5, Pub. Rec. Off. Dublin.) Though a firm believer in the "Divine right of Kings," he married the daughter of a Cromwellian officer, Elizabeth Cambie of Annagh Castle, county Tipperary, by whom he had one child, a daughter Elizabeth, born 22nd May, 1682, and died 4th June, 1682. Having no male issue, all his landed estate in Wexford and Tipperary passed to his nephew William, son of his brother Richard of Bunadubber, with the proviso that, "in default of heir's male of their bodies, all his property was to descend to the heirs general of the said William and Richard. In his will he directs that "my body shall be buried in the Church of Kilbarron, covering my grave with a plaine marble stone, ingraving thereon my name and coate of Armes. The inscription on the tomb-stone on the vault of Sir William Clebburne, as he is called, is (under a shield of his arms Argent 3 chevronels braced, a chief sable). William, son and heir of Richard of Bunadubber, succeeded to the "castles, towns, and lands of Ballycolitan, Bunnadubber, Knockballycolitan, and part of Annagh, in accordance with the will of his uncle William". There is an early eighteenth-century grave-slab in the SE angle of the chancel dated 1706 which is dedicated to a local priest Donatus O'Kennedy. Visit https://skfb.ly/ownGT to see a 3D model of the 1682 memorial stone. Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of revised upload: 13 July 2022