What is recorded here

Half a century after Thomas Wilson died in 1653, his nephew Richard followed him into the same green soil, and Margery Wilson came later still, all crowded onto one fractured slab beside St Patrick’s Cathedral. The Vicar’s Bawn kept that small family together long after Dublin stopped laying the dead there in 1868. Today the names wear thin, but the chamber of stones still holds their ages, dates and love in a narrow line.

17th-century graveslab of Thomas Wilson (1653) located in the disused graveyard (DU018-494----) formerly known as the ‘Green Churchyard’ or the ‘Vicar’s Bawn' located to the E and SE of St Patrick’s Cathedral (DU018-020269-) which was closed for burials in 1868. Described in the Urban Survey of Dublin City (Bradley and King 1988, Vol. 1, 92) as follows; ‘A list of these was published in 1905 together with a sketch plan showing their location (Anon. 1906, 306). Several of these are now missing. The tombs which were located were those of Peeter Vanendhovaen (1650), Edward Bathe (1651), Thomas Wilson (1653), Thomas White (1668), and Mary Bradstone (1692) . All are in a very worn condition and only parts of the Bathe and Bradstone inscriptions are now legible’. Inscription on the graveslab of Thomas Wilson transcribed by Mrs. T. Long in 1905 as follows; ‘A flat slab, fractured at the upper and lower ends ; incised capitals :, . . . H BVRIED . . ... THESE SEVERA . . . . . . S HERE VNDER ... . . . NAMED M ( ) . . . [THOM]AS WILSON DECEASED . . . FOVRE [YEARES OF] AGE FEBRVARY THE DAY IN THE YEARE 1644 THOMAS WILSON THEIR GRANFATHER DECEASED AT 70 YEARES OF AGE SEPTEMBER THE DAY IN THE YEARE 1653 (?) RICHARD WILSON DECEASED IV YEARES AND 7 DAYES OF AGE MAY (?) THE 7 IN THE YEARE 1666 MARGERY WILSON HIS MOTHER DECEASED SEPTEMBER 1674 AGED 75 RICHARD WILSON HER HUSBAND 24 SEPTEMBER1678 AGED 65 THOMAS WILSON HIS NEPHEW . . . AGVST 1678 AGED . . .' (Anon. 1906, 308). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.