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The Abbey Graveyard

Extract from the "Know your Clane" series.

The graveyard which surrounds the Abbey or former Church of Ireland Church in Clane contains one remarkable tomb - that of the Wogans of Rathcoffey. The Wogans were of Welsh extraction and settled in Ireland towards the close of the 13th century. It is an altar tomb, surmounted by armorial bearings and the date '1618'. An inscription in raised capitals lower down reads as follows:

HERE . LIETH . INTOMBED . THE . BODY .OF . WILLIAM . WOGAN . ESQUIRE . OF . RATHCOFFIE . WHO . DECEASED . THE . LAST . OF . DECEMBER . IN . ANNO . DOMINI . 1616 . BEINGE . OF . THE . AGE . OF . XXVII YEARS.

On the front of the tomb six human figures are represented, three males and three females, the former to the left. Over each are the initials - I.W. - W.W - E.W. - M.W. - I. W. the sculptor never finished the task of carving all the faces.

Other graves marked with headstones bear the following family names:

B Barfoot, Beaghan,, Bonynge, Bohan
C Carefield, Carrol Clarke, Clowery, Connell, Cowner, Cumming
D Digby, Digby#2
E Edges,Eldor
F FitzGerald
G Guinness, Glennon
H Hermon, Hanley, Hill, Hitchcock
K Kenny, Knox
L Lennon
M Mills, Murphy
O Oaks, O'Sullivan
P Power
S Smitit, Stammer, St Laurence
T Tracey, Turner
W Warburton, Wilson
Feint F(?)nsby, L(?)armon

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Reproduced from "Le Chéile" by kind permission

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