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MEMOIRS 
 
 FAMILY OF GRACE, 
 
 SHEFFIELD GRACE, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 To 7oi£ ytpas tan Qayovru-v — HOM . 
 
 These on tradition's tongue still live, these shall 
 On history's honest page be pictured bright 
 To latest times. Grahame. 
 
 LONDON : 
 MDCCCXX1IJ. 
 
Crimed by Weed and Rider, LilUe Britain, LoDdon. 
 

 TO HER GRACE 
 
 ANNA ELIZA, 
 
 DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAM AND CHANDOS, 
 
 WHO, TO THE PRINCELY VIRTUES' OF HER DESCENT, 
 
 UNITES ALL THE MORE ENGAGING AMIABLENESS OF HER SEX, 
 
 AND WHO HAS PECULIARLY DISTINGUISHED HERSELF 
 
 BY THAT BENEVOLENCE OF FILIAL PIETY 
 
 TO WHICH THIS VOLUME IS CONSECRATED, 
 
 THESE MEMOIRS 
 
 OF A FAMILY, NOT UNCONNECTED WITH HER ILLUSTRIOUS HOUSE, 
 
 ARE INSCRIBED, 
 
 WITH EVERY FEELING OF RESPECT 
 
 AND OF CRATEFUL ATTACHMENT, BY 
 I 
 
 SHEFFIELD GRACE. 
 
 See p. 74, note • 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 GRACE FAMILY. 
 
 ■ Et uos aliquod nomenque decusqxie 
 
 Gessimus. Virg. 
 
 XT has been well observed, that the spring, which urges a lore of 
 distinction, is so strong as to press upon every order and rank of 
 society, not quite brutalized by ignorance, or rendered desperate by 
 sufferings. Upon this feeling, in almost every civilized state, has been 
 built that gradation of ranks, which, in the highest degree, terminates 
 in hereditary nobility ; whether attained, as in Rome, through a series 
 of official employments, or conferred, as in modern Europe, by the 
 sovereign. That, under either system, unworthy persons have from 
 time to time obtained these honours, will not, in course, be denied : 
 but it must be also allowed that such an elevation, of either citizen or 
 subject, must generally be received as an evidence of merit, whether 
 consisting of talent, however used, of virtuous exertion, or merely of 
 general weight of character. 
 
 Under the head of talent, the class of conquerors may be ranked ; 
 such as, after the battle of Hastings, partitioned out England among 
 them ; or such as possessed themselves of Ireland, on the Anglo-Norman 
 invasion, and still in their descendents survive in both countries as the 
 proudest of our nobles. 
 
 In more settled times, when the affairs of state proceed in a more 
 equable course, virtuous exertion combined with talent, whether shewn 
 in the due discharge of military service, or of civil duties in public life, 
 lead commonly to the high distinction of nobility. In Rome, the pro- 
 gression through the curule offices, some of them essentially of a civil 
 nature, and others, as the consulate, liable to military service, opened 
 the way to the Jus Imaginum ; while the equivalent honours of our 
 nobles are obtained by statesmen, by magistrates and jurists, and by 
 military commanders. Our own age may well boast of the many in- 
 stances in which the elevation has been won by men, whose memory it 
 will be the proudest and most complacent office of their descendents to 
 cherish. 
 
 B 
 
2 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Our own age has also seen various personages raised to the peerage 
 from their general weight of character, founded upon the consequence 
 given by large property and influence in their respective countries, or 
 by their acquaintance and friendship with the persons invested under 
 the sovereign with political power. In Rome, the hundred senators, 
 selected by Romulus, and the conscript fathers subsequently added, may 
 be regarded as having been thus advanced ; but ever afterwards, as has 
 been already observed, the road to nobility lay through official honours, 
 conferred by popular election.* 
 
 There are few, if any families, which can substantiate their claims 
 to a very high antiquity, that have not at first either sprung from 
 nobility, or subsequently obtained it in their direct line, or become 
 descended from it collaterally, in their progress downwards. The origin 
 is, of course, in the first instance, the proof of the antiquity 5 and the 
 subsequent connection, a strong evidence that the family continued to 
 maintain its character and consequence. 
 
 That such a descent is respected by most persons possessing it, the 
 experience of every man must have shewn him. But the respectability 
 of birth, or, as it is termed, the " pride of blood," has itself been made 
 a subject of debate. The reasonableness of it, however, seems inferable 
 from several considerations. Among those, with whom we live, their 
 good character is very properly judged to exalt our own. Now of all 
 the persons connected with us by either consanguinity or friendship, 
 there can be none, under both these relationships, more interesting to us 
 than our parents. In them we have the first links of that long chain, 
 which binds us to the original founder or founders of our family ; and, 
 although exceptions must, from time to time, be presumed to- have 
 taken place, it is plain that some of the qualities necessary to preserve 
 the comparative rank in society established by the founders, must, upon 
 the whole, have in general existed in their descendants. Moreover, 
 ancient families are the upholders of civilization ; and we have the au- 
 thority of lord Bacou for the assertion, when he refers the continued 
 barbarism of the Turks to the want of such families. The single fact 
 of a parentage being consecutively able to secure to every succeeding 
 generation better opportunities of education, amidst which must be 
 ranked the high advantages of more improved companions, is of itself 
 very important. Thus circumstanced, the admonition of example, not 
 only as it regards the present, but the past, brings with it a persuasive, 
 a resistless influence. 
 
 Inspicere, tanquam in speculum, in vitas omnium 
 Jubeo; atque ex aliis sumere exemplum sibi. — Tea. 
 
 The very preservation, also, of a pedigree is a proof that the persons 
 recorded in it respected themselves : and some pride may well be allowed 
 
 • Gibbon, in a disquisition upon the Roman nobility, at an advanced period of his 
 history, observes, that the patrician families had totally disappeared, and that of those, 
 only noble, the Anician one was incontestably the oldest. Yet the jus imaginum, or 
 nobility, was not obtained, it is presumed, before the sixth century of the Roman eera. 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. 3 
 
 to a man, who derives his birth and being from persons endowed with 
 such a principle. 
 
 But, without attempting to push the question further in this point of 
 view, it is beyond all doubt or cavil, that the feelings of mankind are 
 on the side of this " pride of blood." " No man,'' says one of Sir 
 Richard Steel's dramatic characters, " ever enjoyed the advantages of 
 birth, who did not value it." The assertion may, perhaps, be some- 
 what too sweeping, but we have evidence every day that the feeling is 
 very general. 
 
 It is the happiness and the boast of the British Islands, that the 
 highest honours of the state may be achieved, and the proudest for- 
 tunes raised by persons however lowly born, or poorly conditioned at 
 their original outset. In a country, also, so generally commercial, it 
 might be natural to suppose that the principle in question might be 
 weakened amidst that perpetual and eager pursuit of wealth, which 
 characterizes a nation so circumstanced. But it is a matter of notoriety, 
 that no sooner do the persons, who have very laudably ascended in the 
 scale of society by their assiduity and talents, feel at their ease, than 
 they hasten, with the assistance of the heralds, to invest themselves 
 with the honours which an armorial bearing can bestow. A feeling thus 
 generally diffused and maintained century after century, through every 
 civilized state, must have its foundation laid deep in human nature. 
 
 Under these circumstances, then, whether of reason or of feeling, or 
 rather of both, it may surely be permitted to a family, able to trace its 
 ascent to a very high antiquity, and connected extensively with some of 
 the noblest houses in Europe, to put upon record these honourable facts ; 
 and, by the diffusion of the evidence, to make it imperishable. It is in 
 truth a great and peculiar advantage belonging to ancient birth, that, 
 when once thus recorded, it cannot be undone by time itself, or its acci- 
 dents. The greatest fortunes may be wasted by mismanagement, or 
 crushed by the revolutions of states ; power, whether inherited or 
 achieved, may be lost ; and, when they are gone, they are as if they 
 had never been for the purposes of present enjoyment. Not so is the 
 pride of blood. Amidst the desolation of fortune, and the prostration 
 of power, it stands upright^ firm upon its basis ; and, as it required 
 centuries to build it up, so is its duration in proportion to the slowness 
 of its structure. 
 
 Among the multiplied instances, illustrative of these truths, as they 
 have been furnished by the long, cruel, and revolutionary history of Ire- 
 land, the family of Grace stands eminently prominent. Its antiquity is 
 of the very highest order. Descended from the ancient lords of Tuscany,* 
 
 • While the boundless genius and indefatigable exertions of Leibnitz founded tbe 
 basis of the Origines Guelfictz, the persevering and authentic researches of Muratori 
 constructed the Antichita Estense. The German and Italian, in these vast efforts of 
 erudition and labour, have firmly rivetted to these ancient Lords of Tuscany the genea- 
 logical chain of the bouse of Este, from whose elder branch spring the Dukes of Bruns- 
 wick and Kings of Great Britain ; as the late Dukes of Ferrari and Modena did from 
 the younger. 
 
4 MEMOIR OF 
 
 it passed through Otho or Other, a powerful nobleman, contemporary 
 with our Alfred, into Normandy, and thence into England ; where, in 
 the sixteenth year of Edward the Confessor, he is styled a baron, and was 
 the father of Walter-Fitz-Other, who, at the general survey of the 
 kingdom in 1078, was castellan of Windsor, aud appointed by the Con- 
 queror to be warden of the forests in Berkshire, — an office in those days 
 of no small power and correspondent responsibility. The high honours 
 and brilliant achievements of his descendants are reflected on the 
 founder ; and Other must always be illustrious, as the common ancestor 
 of the noble houses of Windsor earl of Plymouth, Carew earl of Totness 
 and Carew baronet, Grace baron of Courtstown and Grace baronet, 
 Fitz-Maurice marquis of Landsdown and earl of Kerry, Gerard earl of 
 Macclesfield and Gerard baronet, Fitz-Gerald duke of Leinster, earl of 
 Desmond and Fitz-Gerald baronet, Mackenzie earl of Seaforth aud Cro- 
 martie, and Fitz-Gibbon earl of Clare. He is thus the stem of a tree, 
 which, during more than a thousand years, has borne its honours high, 
 and spread them branchingly in society ; which, transplanted from its 
 Italian soil, has, in the vigour of primeval health, successively adorned, 
 enriched, and benefited England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. 
 
 Upon the conquest of South- Wales by the Anglo-Norman nobles, 
 through the instrumentality of Jestyn-ap-Gwrgan's* perfidy towards 
 Ithys-ap-Tewdor, his benefactor and patron, Gerald Fitz-Walter de 
 Windsor acquired extensive possessions there ; which some younger 
 branches of his descendants quitted, to run a still more splendid race in 
 Ireland. Of the various members belonging to this family, which 
 accompanied and ennobled the adventure, was Raymond f Fitz-William 
 de Carew, surnamed le Gros, who may justly be styled the Achilles of 
 the expedition, of which Richard de Clare, surnamed Strongbow, earl,of 
 Pembroke, was the Agamemnon. His services were so conspicuously 
 evident in securing the success of the invasion,^ that as they exacted 
 
 • He was to Wales, what Count Julian is said to have been to Spain. He was 
 indeed much worse. Julian resented an injury ; Jestyn forgot or defied benefactions. 
 
 t The names of Other and Raymond are still used in the families of Windsor and 
 Grace ; and prouder ones they could not use. 
 
 Í Annales Jacobi Gras Kilkenniensis, qui incipiunt, cum Historia invasionum hujus 
 insula?, et terminantur cum obitibus Onnondia? et Desmoniai. This MS. work con- 
 tains thirty-six folio pages, and the last year mentioned is 1536. (Vide MS. in E., tab. 3, 
 No. 20. Col. Triu. Dubl.) The author is said to have belonged to the Priory of 
 St. John, in Kilkenny, and to have been prior elect when he fell a victim to the con- 
 tagious malady or plague that then prevailed in Ireland. The learning and wisdom of 
 Sir Oliver Grace, of " the Leagan," M. P. in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, are to this 
 day in traditionary repute among the neighbouring peasantry. Oliver Grace, of Shan- 
 ganagh (Gracefield), M. P., was thought to have surpassed iu knowledge, as well as in 
 virtue, most of King James's ministers in Ireland. Sheffield Grace, who died in 174G, 
 the youngest son of Michael Grace, of Gracefield, was the author of several very beau- 
 tiful essays in prose and verse ; and his Latin compositions prove him to have been a 
 scholar of no ordinary attainments. The literary acquisitions of the late Richard Grace, 
 of Boley, M. P., embraced all the politer languages of Europe (Spanish and Portuguese 
 excepted), which he could speak as well as write with fluency. He possessed also the 
 same command of Latin ; and his knowledge of Greek euablcd him to enjoy all the nicer 
 beauties of that unrivalled language. His productions, iu English and Latin, hear ample 
 testimony to his genius, his learning, and classical taste. 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. 5 
 
 from Strongbow, so they certainly deserved, the hand of Basilia de Clare, 
 sister of that aspiring 1 chieftain, at this time become a prince by bis 
 own alliance with Eva, daughter and heiress of the king of Leinster. 
 
 His marriage with this illustrious lady was no barren honour. With 
 her he received that great district in Kilkenny, denominated from him 
 the " cantred of Grace's country,"* for his agnomen of Gros, given to 
 him on "account of his prowess, gradually became first Gras, and then, 
 by English pronunciation, Grace. With this possession was coupled 
 the honour of constable and standard-bearer of Leinster, together with 
 the lands of JFethard, Odrone, and Glascarrig. He was also Lord of 
 Lereton : and Dermod Mac Carthy, king of Desmond, whom he restored 
 to his throne, conferred upon him a noble territorial reward in the 
 county of Kerry, which he settled upon Maurice, bis second son, the 
 
 * This vast tract of land, originally comprehending;, it is said, the three contiguous 
 baronies of Crannagb, Galmoy, and Shillelogher, extended northwards by the liberties 
 of Kilkenny and river Nore to the bovders of the Queen's county; and thence south- 
 wards by the borders of Tipperary and the Munster river to the liberties of Callan, form- 
 ing a district between eleven and twelve miles in length, and between six and seven 
 in breadth. The original surface of Grace's country was consequently about eighty 
 thousand Irish acres ; and a considerable portion of it still continues to commemorate its 
 former lords, not only in its general but in its particular denominations. Thus we 6nd 
 laid down on the county surveys a Bally roe- Grace, a Brittasmore-Grace, a Killaghy- 
 Grace, and a Ratheaty-Grace, in Tullaroan or Grace's parish ; a Bally frank- Grace, and 
 a Knocken-Grace in Ballycallan ; a Cooleshal-Grace, and a Knock-Grace in Three- 
 castles; a Grace-gTaigne, and a Ballysheam-Grace in Clomanto ; a Rathmoyle- Grace, 
 and a Lough-Grace, in Ballynamara, &c. But, in looking over the denominations of 
 the townlands, situated in the more limited district of Tullaroan, or Grace's Parish, in 
 which the castle of Courtfitown stood, we are at once struck with the prevalence of the 
 Celtic language, and the significancy of the terms descriptive either of the feudal conse- 
 quence of the proprietor, or of the character of the place. In fact, the seat of an ancient 
 baron represented all the features of a royal court, though, in course, upon a smaller 
 scale. Thus, in the instance of Grace's Parish, there is a towuland of the physician 
 (Lisnaliagh), of the huntsman (Bally fiaguidhe), of the tailor (Foiltailleur), and in short 
 of every necessary dependent. The hawker had his portion (Bally seal grave) allotted in 
 another part of the cantred; but the swineherd (Knocknamuck), a somewhat more 
 useful though less magnificent adjunct, was nearer the castle. Of the lord, upon whom 
 was the depeudency, the name of Grace, differently modified, reminds us, and admirably 
 points out, the close and reciprocally advantageous relationship of the superior and his 
 vassals. Godwin, in his life of Chaucer, a work redeeming many of his whims, has 
 very happily and feelingly dwelt upon the affectionate nature of this connexion. Most 
 of the other names of these townlands were descriptive of their topography ; as the 
 field of stumps (Gortnaceap), the great rocky water-fall (Brittasmore), the red bog 
 (Monemidrone), the hamlet of the little glin (Ballycluainin), &c. ; and these charac- 
 teristics still justify the application, excepting where the industry of man, like death, 
 has levelled all distinctions. Some more distant local evidences, not less singularly 
 explicit than curious, have also perpetuated the recollection of a family second only in 
 rank, wealth, and power, during the long period of five centuries, first to the house of 
 the Earl Marshal, and subsequently to that of Butler; but as certainly preceding the 
 last, in point of antiquity of settlement in this country, by two full centuries. Grace's 
 Castle, in the city of Kilkenny, and the cantred of Grace's country, above noticed, 
 were thus long held by them before the third earl of Ormonde and Carrick purchased the 
 castle of Kilkenny, in 1391, from Thomas le de Spencer, who inherited it in right of 
 blood from the Earl Marshal. But the Butlers, after bearing upon their brows a ducal 
 coronet, and riding triumphantly over many a political storm, still survive and flourish. 
 Not so favourable have been the vicissitudes in the consequences befalling the family 
 of Grace, whose name in the same county is now only remembered by the numerous 
 traditionary tales quoted aud affectionately cherished by the resident peasantry. 
 
G MEMOIR OF 
 
 founder of the Fitz-Maurice family.* This heroic chief was himself 
 the great grandson of the patriarch, baron Walter de Windsor, through 
 his third son, Gerald Fitz-Walter, chamberlain to kiug Henry I, and 
 governor of Pembroke, whose alliance was not unworthy of his Tuscan 
 origin. By his marriage with Nesta, the daughter of Eees-ap-Tewdor, 
 prince of South- Wales, his posterity acquired an ancestry among the 
 ancient British kings : and her inheritance, the great lordship of Carew, 
 in Pembrokeshire, continued for many centuries the baronial resideuce 
 of his descendants and representatives. William, the elder son of this 
 Gerald Fitz-Walter, lord of Carew, was denominated de Carew ; which 
 thus became the surname of the second great branch of the house of 
 Windsor, and which Odo his successor necessarily inherited ; while 
 Raymond, his second son, as has been already stated, was rewarded with 
 his distinctive appellation, on account of his personal and military 
 qualities.f For his uncle he had the celebrated Maurice Fitz-Gerald, 
 the younger brother of his father, and the founder of those illustrious 
 lines of nobles, which, in one unhappy instance, ended prematurely in 
 the too aspiring family of Desmond ; while, in the other, it has fortu- 
 nately survived through many a political storm, to be crowned with the 
 honours of a ducal coronet. 
 
 The warriors, who, as leaders of their respective tribes, subverted 
 Troy, were bound to undertake in common that expedition, by their 
 oaths, as the former suitors of Helen. The chiefs of the bold adven- 
 turers in the invasion of Ireland were connected in a very remarkable 
 way by blood. Raymond was nephew both to Robert Fitz-Stephen and 
 Maurice Fitz-Gerald, as were also Miler Fitz-Henry and Miles Cogan. 
 He was likewise uncle to David Walsh; and, by his alliance with Basilia 
 de Clare, he stood in the same degree of relationship to Hen é de Mon- 
 temarisco, who was nephew to the earl of Pembroke. This last tie of 
 affinity was further strengthened by Herve's marriage with Nesta, the 
 daughter of Maurice Fitz-Gerald, and consequently the cousin of Ray- 
 mond, whom, however, he still continued to envy and malign. 
 
 The general pedigree, comprehending its several branches, exhibits 
 the extraordinary extent and splendour of connection which peculiarly 
 
 * This line is represented by the marquis of Lansdowne, wbo is also earl of Kerry 
 in Ireland. 
 
 + The descent of this family singularly illustrates that total extinction or loss of 
 patronimics in assumed names, which sometimes embarrasses our profouudest anti- 
 quaries. William, the eldest son of Walter Fitz-Otber, governor of Windsor, in 1078, 
 retained the superadded, or, as in French, the surname of Windsor, and was ancestor of 
 the family of that name ; while Gerald Fitz-Walter, the youngest son, acquired from his 
 lordship of Carew, in Pembrokeshire, the surname of Carew. William, the eldest 
 son of this Gerald de Carew, kept the paternal surname, which was never assumed by 
 Maurice Fitz-Gerald, the second son, ancestor to the Fitz-Gerald, Mackenzie, and Fitz- 
 Gibbon families. Odo, as eldest son of this William de Carew, was likewise called 
 de Carew, and was ancestor to the Carew family ; while Raymond Fitz- William, his 
 second son, acquired, from his prowess and great stature, the agnomen of le Gros ; which 
 be transmitted to his eldest son William, ancestor to the Grace family, and which was 
 never assumed by Maurice Fitz-Raymond, his second son, ancestor to the Fitz-Maurice 
 family ; but continued, as in the foregoing instances, to be the surname of William, 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. 7 
 
 distinguish the house of Windsor. It may be here shortly stated, that 
 this house, producing the eight great families already mentioned, has 
 had to boast, in the direct male lines, of no less thau one Dukedom, 
 two Marquisates, fourteen Earldoms, thirteen Viscounties, and twenty- 
 eight Baronies; in all fifty-eight peerages, besides nine baronetcies.* 
 
 The abrupt details of the annalist, and the monotonous progress of 
 the genealogist, are designedly avoided in this abridged memoir, which 
 merely comprehends a concise sketch of authentic, honourable, and not 
 uninteresting attestations of family eminence. In another place, the 
 
 his eldest son, exclusively, aud his descendants, though since changed by English 
 pronunciation into Grace. As a consequence of these notices, the following genea- 
 logical diagram, in accordance with the text, is subjoined. 
 
 Other, a baron of England 
 in 1058, 16 of Edward the 
 Confessor, descended from 
 the lords of Tuscany. 
 
 Baron Walter Fitz-Other or 
 de Windsor, governor of 
 Windsor Castle in 1080, 14 
 of William the Conqueror. 
 
 I 
 William Fitz-Walter or de 
 Windsor, eldest son, go- 
 vernor of Wiudsor, temp. 
 Hen. I., ancestor to the fa- 
 mily of Windsor. 
 
 Robert Fitz-Walter de 
 Windsor, second son, lord 
 of Estaines. His male issue 
 extinct in William, second 
 lord of Estaines. 
 
 Gerald Fitz-Walter de- 
 Windsor, third son, cham- 
 berlain to Henry I., go- 
 vernor of Pembroke and lord 
 of Carew, ob. 1135. 
 
 William Fitz-Gerald or de Maurice Fitz-Gerald, second 
 
 Carew, eldest son, lord of son, a coadjutor in the con- 
 
 Carew, aud governor of the quest of Ireland and lord of 
 
 couuty and castle of Pern- Offaley there, ob. 1177. 
 
 David Fitz-Gerald, archdea- 
 con of Cardigan, and bishop 
 of St. David's, in 1147. 
 
 broke, ob. 11737 
 
 Ancestor to the families of 
 Fitz-Gerald, Macken- 
 zie, and Fitz-GibbON. 
 
 I 1 
 
 OdoFitz- William de Carew, Raymond Fitzwilliam or le William Fitzwilliam Fitz- 
 
 lord of Carew, eldest son, Gros, second son, a co- Gerald, third son, lord of 
 
 ancestor to the family of adjutor in the conquest of Kingsley aud justice in 
 
 CAREW. Ireland, lord of Lereton, Eyre Co. Chester. Ancestor 
 
 and of Grace's Country, in to the family of Gerard. 
 
 Leinster, and of Lixnaw, 
 
 in Munster. Viceroy of 
 
 Ireland in 1176. 
 
 William Fitz-Raymond or 
 le Gros, eldest son, lord of 
 Lereton- and of Grace's 
 Country, heir to his father's 
 lands in Wales and leinster. 
 Governor of Leinster in 1198. 
 Ancestor to the family of 
 Grace. 
 
 1 
 Maurice Fitz-Raymond le 
 Gros, younger son, lord of 
 Lixnaw, and of Clan-Mau- 
 rice, heir to his father's 
 lands in Munster. Ancestor 
 to the family of FlTZ- 
 Mauricb. 
 
 * The ducal houses of Howard and Butler may perhaps be found to afford materials 
 for a detail of corresponding lustre ; but assuredly no other in these kingdoms. 
 
S MEMOIR OF 
 
 evidence of national, official, and domestic records* has already stood 
 the test of a patient and uncompromising criticism ; and the descent, 
 
 * To the labours of the Record Commission, the writer is indebted for a large pro- 
 portion of the earlier details in the following pages. It is scarcely possible to conceive 
 a state of greater confusion, or of more certain ruin, than the national records were in, 
 previous to the appointment of this commission. The losses already incurred, and 
 incurring, by the progressive decay of these public muniments, as well as their utter 
 uselessness, from indiscriminate mixture, immemorial neglect, and the absence of any 
 sort of reference, were stated, in 1723 and 1791, to the then governments of Ireland; but 
 till the year 1810, no substantive effort was made for their preservation. The Record 
 Commission was then constituted, to secure them from further destruction, and to 
 methodize their contents. They appear to have been generally considered as the very 
 refuse of state-lumber ; and, in some cases, they occupied, in promiscuous accumulation, 
 the open space of an entire room, from the floor to the ceiling ; in others, they lay upon 
 the ground in great heaps ; and, when they underwent an investigation, their contents 
 was estimated by the ton weight! This chaotic mass 
 
 mdis indigestaque moles 
 
 Non bene junctaram discordia semina rerum. — OVID. 
 
 is now rapidly yielding to persevering and judicious exertion. Order and utility begin 
 to characterize these important as well as interesting evidences ; and the results of the 
 commission have already, in several instances of public concern, proved highly bene- 
 ficial ; and, among those of a private nature, the writer does not scruple to acknowledge 
 that a considerable proportion of the substance of this compilation would otherwise 
 have been unattainable. He was in Ireland during the years 1818 and 1SI9, and since 
 that period a vast additional quantity of the national records has been methodized, 
 none of which has been yet examined with reference to further collections relative 
 to the Grace family. And it cannot be doubted, that, when the commission has 
 terminated its labours, many original documents will be brought to light, illus- 
 trative of the subject of these pages. Mr. Shaw Mason, the secretary of the Record 
 Commission, has been appointed to carry into effect the late Act of Parliament, 
 to ascertain the population of Ireland ; and he is also known to the public as the 
 author of the " Statistical and Parochial Survey" of that country. Mr. Groves, one of 
 the sub-commissioners, is now engaged in compiling an " Irish Historical Library ; " 
 an undertaking for which his previous pursuits peculiarly qualify him. Mr. Hardiman, 
 another sub-commissioner, is the author of the " History of Galway," which far sur- 
 passes, in every description of merit, any topographical work that has yet been 
 published of Ireland. To these may be added, the name of EdmuSd Hyde Hall, a 
 highly gifted and most accomplished gentleman, whose instructive a Analysis of the 
 Down Survey " is universally admired ; and whose " History of Carnarvonshire," now 
 ready for the press, is as estimable for its literary excellence, as for its valuable 
 information. 
 
 The official records in the Herald's Office have also supplied mnch important 
 matter; and the writer considers himself uo less fortunate as to the period of his 
 researches, in this instance, than he does in that of the national records. The previous 
 inefficiency of the office of arms, the consequent absence of all inquiry or employment 
 of a private nature, and the uncertain location of this repertory, are well known. Hap- 
 pily for the preservation of evidences so operative upon property, so implicated in 
 family feelings, Sir William Betham has been recently appointed Ulster King of Arms. 
 The heraldic knowledge of this gentleman, his ultimate acquaintance with the genea- 
 logical history of the country, and his unwearied exertions to fully and clearly 
 substantiate every descent, and to develop every connection of the families be under- 
 takes to illustrate, (as may he seen in the splendid pedigrees of Kavanagh of Bonis, of 
 Lords Frankford, O'Neil, Limerick, Longford, and others,) have rendered the Herald's 
 Office not only highly respectable, but most emineutly useful. A house is also now 
 permanently appropriated for the reception of its records, owing to his representations 
 of their injury and loss, by being moved from place to place, as it suited the con- 
 venience of former kings of arms, or their deputies, to change their private residences. 
 It only remains to add, that the contents of the Prerogative Office in Dublin, and of 
 the Diocesan Court iu Kilkenny, have likewise been examined ; and that these 
 comprehend all the national and official records which leisure or opportunity permitted . 
 the writer to inspect. 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. 9 
 
 from Raymond le Gros to the late Michael Grace, of Gracefield, John 
 Grace, of Mantua-House, and Richard Grace, of Boley, M. P., has 
 been manifested in a clear and regular series. 
 
 With respect to Raymond himself, and his descendents, the Graces, 
 the weight of his alliance with Basilia de Clare was long felt by them, not 
 only as being hereditary lords palatine of the cantred called after them, 
 but as being the only landholders in their county who owed no feudal ac- 
 knowledgment to the earl marshal's or mareschall's Court, at Kilkenny. 
 The early magnitude of the territorial possessions thus acquired, and 
 long held by the lords of Grace's country, may be inferred from a deed, 
 preserved among the evidences of the Ormonde family, in Kilkenny 
 Castle, respecting a partition made 3d of May, 31 of Hen. III. (1247), 
 " between the five daughters of William, earl-marshal, (who were 
 sisters and co-heirs of Anselm, the last earl-marshal,) of the counties 
 of Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Kildare, and Leix. The persons con- 
 cerned in the aforesaid estates are as follows : Matilda countess of 
 Norfolke and Waryn, Johan de Monteganisino, Ricardus de Clare earl 
 of Glocester, Agnes de Vessye, Matilda wife of William Marshal de 
 Mortuo-Mari, Hugo de Spencer and Elinor his wife, Jacobus le Bot- 
 teller, Radulph Bigott, Edmund le Gras, Willielmus le Gras, Edmundus 
 le Gras, Matilda (widow of) Hugh Bigott earl of Norfolk, Roger Bigott 
 earl of Norfolk, John earl Warren, Hugh de Spencer, (Walter) earl of 
 Ulster, &c."* In 1176, Raymond le Gros was appointed sole viceroy of 
 Ireland, which high office he had previously held in conjunction with 
 carl Strongbow, his brother-in-law. William Fitz-Raymond le Gros, 
 his eldest son, succeeded him as lord of Grace's country, and was 
 governor of the palatinate of Leinster in 1202, for William Marshal 
 earl of Pembroke,f son-in-law and representative of Strongbow : and 
 
 Under the head of domestic records may be mentioned some notices of persons 
 and places, among the interesting and numerous collection of original MSS. in the 
 Evidence Chamber, at Kilkenny Castle, relating to the noble house of Ormonde, and 
 which extend from the reign of Henry II. to the present time. Also some family 
 MSS., ficc. by Oliver Grace, who died in 1708 ; by Michael Grace, of Gracefield, dated 
 1716; by Sheffield Grace, who died in 1746; and by the late Richard Grace, of 
 Boley, M.P. 
 
 It thus appears that an important proportion of national and official records is still 
 unexamined; and, if the circumstance was less distinctly stated, it might possibly 
 be supposed, from six octavo and four folio volumes being filled with MS. collections, 
 that the larger work, in MS., from which this memoir is abridged, contained every 
 thing extant upon the subject. The writer may, perhaps, live to finish that larger 
 work, and, consequently, to perfect his intended researches; but, if Providence orders 
 otherwise, he has, in the foregoing detail, discharged a duty towards some future 
 biographer of the Grace family. 
 
 * Johnson has observed, in his life of Swift, that, in perusing his journal for 
 the use of Stella, the reader's attention is drawn on by the continued recurrence of 
 names connected with important persons and transactions. Some such charm is felt iu 
 examining these ancient records. We there constantly meet with names which are 
 brought home to our present interests and feelings, as they belong to persons and 
 families either now in actual existence, or existing iu the page of history. 
 
 + The perpetual occurrence of the names of le Gros, Crassus, and le Gras, thus 
 vaguely and chaugeably written, though of similar meaning, as parties to the numerous 
 charters granted by these earls of Pembroke to the city of Kilkenny, the Dominican or 
 
 C 
 
10 MEMOIR OF 
 
 among those who held the important office of seneschall of Normandy, 
 we find, in 1204, 5 of John, the name of William le Gras. Henry III. 
 sent John le Gras, in 1243, as ambassador from England to the king of 
 Navarre.* In 1296, Sir Edmund le Gras was one of the twenty-one 
 great barons, securities to Edward I, for the fealty of the lord John 
 Fitz-Thomas ; and, in 1302, Anselm, David, Edmund, and Hamon le 
 Gras received summons to Parliament, as barons by tenure. William le 
 Gras was, in 1321, entrusted with the custody of the castles of Dyne- 
 both and Kenenethleg and their lands, in the marches of Wales, belong- 
 ing to Roger de Mortimer, lord of Wigmore and Leix, who was then a 
 prisoner in the tower of Loudon.-f In 13S5, there was a curious licence, 
 dated Trim, to Sir Almaric Grace, styled baron of Grace, for the better 
 preservation and improvement of the peace of the country, to form an 
 Irish alliance with Tibina, daughter of O'Meagher, prince or dynast of 
 Ikerrin, all laws to the contrary notwithstanding. J It may be interest- 
 Black Abbey, the Priory of St. John, the abbey of St. Saviour, or Graignemanagh, and 
 also to the abbey of Tintera in Wales, mark tbe continuance and the closeness of tbis 
 alliance. The charter of donation likewise, from William le Gras to the priory of 
 Bradenstoke, in Wiltshire, of some lands in Wales, is also witnessed by William 
 Marshal, earl of Pembroke, and William Marshal, his son; and to the grant of com- 
 monage, made by William Crassus to his burgesses of Sodbury, in Gloucestershire, 
 the signatures appear of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, William Mamleville, 
 earl of Essex, &c. &c. In the Testa de Neville, temp. Hen. III., it is stated that 
 Anselm le Gras possessed the lands of Aynesford, in Suffolk, by gift of lord William 
 Marshal ; and it is possible that this circumstance led to the settlement of a branch of 
 the Grace family in the adjoining county, where we find, temp. Edw. I., that John le 
 Gras de Norton died seized of Norton and other lands in Norfolk ; and that Margaret, 
 the heir of Sir Oliver le Grosse, of Crostwick, in that county, married Henry Walpole, 
 of Houghton, who ob. 1442. A considerable tract of land, in the parish of Narborough, 
 uear Swaffham, is still denominated Grace's Manor. 
 
 * The near connection already noticed between tbe powerful house of the Earl 
 Marshal and the family of Grace, may have led to these foreign employments, though 
 the state of Ireland at this period, scarcely half a century occupied by English settlers, 
 required the greatest exertions to retain the partial dominion achieved by earl Strong- 
 bow and his immediate followers. William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, hereditary 
 earl-marshal of England, and of the king's house, was not only the greatest subject in 
 Euglaud, but perhaps in Europe. Besides the vast possessions of the De Clare family 
 in England and Wales, he obtained also in marriage the royal palatinate of Leinster, 
 extending 124 miles in length, and 74 in breadth, and containing 2,792,450 Irish acres. 
 This great nobleman was regent of England during the minority of Henry HI. ; and 
 bis importance may be further estimated by the circumstance of his eldest son marry- 
 ing the da\ighter of King John, and his third son the daughter of William, king of 
 Scotland. 
 
 + He was afterwards created earl of March ; and he was also lord palatine of Leix, 
 (the Queen's county,) in Ireland, through his grandmother Maud, second daughter 
 and co-heir of William Bruce, lord of Brecknock, in Wales, by Eva. fifth daughter 
 and co-heir of William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, aud Isabel his wife, only child of 
 Richard Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, and sovereign lord of all Leinster. His second 
 son, Roger de Mortimer, on whom he settled the castle of Dunarnase and palatinate 
 of Leix, married in 1321, Joan, daughter of Edmund Butler, first earl of Carrick, and 
 sister of James, first earl of Ormonde, aud second of Carrick. 
 
 t Ricardus Dei gratia rex Angliae et Francia?, dominus Hibenn'a?, dux Aquitania?, 
 &c. Omnibus ballivis et fidelibus suis in Hibernia salutem. Sciatis quod de gratia 
 nostra speciali, et pro melioratione pacis nostri partium commitis Kylkennensis con- 
 cessimus et licentiam dedimus Almarico Grace, baroni de Grace quod ipse Tibinam 
 filiam O'Meagher Hibernici sua* nationis capitanei ducere possit in uxoretn quibus- 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. 1 1 
 
 ing, as illustrative of the times, to notice a decree, given on the 10th of 
 January, 1549, obliging Richard Archdeken to pay to Sir John Grace, 
 baron of Courtstown, at the feast of the apostles Philip and James, thir- 
 teen milch kyne with their calves, one hundred and twenty-seven marks 
 in money, seven of calf kyne, one hundred and fifty-seven sheep, eighteen 
 garrons, eleven kyne, sixty-seven pecks of oats, three horses, and a harp, 
 out of the manor and town of Castletown, in Galmoye, and certain lands 
 and tenements in Eirke. By an act of the lord-deputy and council, in 
 1566, the possession of Grace's castle, in Kilkenny, was transferred to 
 the crown, " that the said strong building might be converted into a 
 county gaol." In 1567, Thomas earl of Ormonde and Ossory, K.G., 
 lord high treasurer of Ireland, and lord marshal of England, appointed 
 his kinsman, Richard Butler, viscount of Mountgarret, and Sir John 
 Grace, knight, baron of Courtstown, to meet the lord-deputy Sydney's 
 commissioners, Sir Warham St. Leger and Sir Henry Davells, for the 
 maintenance of his rights, and the rights of his ancestors, to exact coin 
 and livery in the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary, and to agree 
 upon a just remuneration for the surrender of the same. Robert 
 Grace, baron of Courtstown, was, in 1622, the feoffee of the Lady 
 Elizabeth Butler, wife of Richard, earl of Desmond, and daughter and 
 sole heir of Thomas earl of Ormonde and Ossory, K. G., by the Lady 
 Elizabeth Sheffield, daughter of John lord Sheffield. His alliance with 
 the noble family of the feoffer, as well as his own rank, property, and 
 character, peculiarly qualified him for this important and confidential 
 trust. The possessions thus assigned to him comprehended the regalities 
 of the county palatine of Tipperary ; together with several large corpo- 
 rate towns, a vast number of manors, and other lands in the counties of 
 Kilkenny, Carlow, Kerry, and elsewhere, both in England and Ireland, 
 forming, in the whole, the most extensive estate belonging, at this 
 period, to any subject in these kingdoms. In 1651, his grandson, baron 
 John Grace, whose fearless, generous, and spirited conduct, combined 
 with extraordinary personal beauty, had acquired the particular favour 
 of Cromwell, was deputed to treat with the Parliament of England, in 
 favour of the county of Kilkenny. 
 
 cumque statutis, ordinationibus, inhibitionibus ant proclamationibus inde ante hec 
 tempora factis uon obstautibns. Nolentes quod praedictus Almaricus baro de Grace, 
 aut heeredes sui ratione permissorum per nos vel h&redes nostros seu magistros quos- 
 cuoique futuris temporibus occasioneutur molestentur in aliquo seu graveutur. In 
 cujus, Sec. Teste prefato locum tenente, apud Tryoi xxiii die Decembris, per peti- 
 tioDem de consilio." It may not be generally known that, by the statute of Kilkenuy, 
 it was high treason for any person of English origin to contract a marriage with an 
 Irish family. The infraction of this stern law, uuless dispensed with by the king's 
 special permission, as in the case of Baron Almaric Grace, was punished with unrelenting 
 severity ; and the crime for which Thomas Fitzgerald, 8th earl of Desmond, was executed 
 in t4l7, was that of " haviug broken his allegiance by an Irish alliance and fosterage. 1 ' 
 In the same spirit of permanent hostility, the term enemy was officially applied to Irish 
 offenders, in contradistinction to that of rebel to English. Thus Sir John le Gras was, 
 in 1381, commissioned to array ali the inhabitants of the county of Kilkenny, and to 
 treat with Irish enemies and English rebels, to muster forces as often as was necessary, 
 8cc. &c. 
 
12 MEMOIR OF 
 
 This family also shared largely in what has been quaintly called the 
 nobility of counties. Thus we find successive barons of Tullaroan* al. 
 Courtstown, holding the offices of governor and seneschall of Kilkenny, 
 Leinster, and Carlow, in 1197, 120?, and 1275, to William Marshal, 
 earl of Pembroke, and Roger Bigott, earl of Norfolk, lords palatine 
 thereof. Oliver Grace, baron of Courtstown, and Philip Grace, were 
 appointed, in 1576, governors of the county of Kilkenny, during the 
 absence of the earl of Ormonde. In 1686, John Grace, baron of 
 Courtstown, held the same office ; and his son, Robert Grace, was con- 
 stituted, in 16S7, sole governor and custos rotulorum of the King's 
 County. They appear also as sheriffs of Kilkenny, Tipperary, Wex- 
 ford, and Limerick. Baron William le Gras, in 1355, John le Gras 
 of Burleyeston, in 1381, Adainar le Gras, in 1388, Baron Sir John 
 le Gras, in 1410, Baron Oliver le Gras, in 1470, and Sir Oliver Grace 
 of the Leagan, in 1503, were each the custos pacis of Kilkenny; and 
 in 1559, 1568, 1613, 1634, and 1689, they represented the same county 
 in Parliament. They possessed, likewise, the uncontrolled return of 
 two members for the borough of Thomastown, till the forfeiture of the 
 Ballylinch estates. 
 
 Their employment, in a military capacity, was likewise frequent. 
 In 1296, John Wogan, the lord deputy, attended by the king's forces, 
 and Hamon le Gras, accompanied by " his men at arms," together with 
 " other nobles," made an expedition against the Irish, in the mountains 
 of Leinster. In 1302, Sir Anselm le Gras was among the barons of 
 Ireland, who severally brought reinforcements to King Edward I, in 
 his invasion of Scotland ; and, in 1315, the army opposing Edward 
 Bruce and the Scots was commauded by Sir Hamon le Gras, who fell 
 at the battle of Ascul, with many chief persons on both sides, all of 
 whom were buried in the Dominican Abbey, of Athy.-)- On the rebel- 
 
 * Rex, &c. Vicecomiti Kilkenniensis ad distringendum Johaunem Grace, baronem 
 de Tullaghroban art satisfaciendum Regi de diversis summis occasioue utlagarii, Johannis 
 Middleton clerici nobis pertinentis, &c. &c— Ex Mem. Rot. S Hen, IV, (1407). 
 
 + It has beeu conjectured that allusion is made to this event in a very ancient crest 
 of the Grace family, formerly in partial use among some of its branches. According to 
 the books in the office of arms, a lion passant argent, trampling on a royal Scotch 
 thistle, was among their earliest cognizances, though now fallen into total disuse. The 
 remarkable dissimilarity of the Carew, Grace, and Mackenzie arms, from the patriarchal 
 or Windsor coat, has been often noticed. In the Grace family, the change is supposed 
 to have originated in their near alliance by blood, their long and confidential connection, 
 and their feudal relationship, with the Marshals earls of Pembroke, who were lords palatine 
 of Leinster, in which Grace's country was situated, and whose baronial castle was at 
 Kilkenny, in which city also stood Grace's Castle, as that of Courtstown likewise did in 
 the immediate neighbourhood. The Marshals carried on a shield party per pale, or, 
 and vert, a lion rampant, gules. In assuming the lion of the lords palatine of Leinster, 
 the barons of Courtstown changed it to argent, and the field to gules, thus retaining, 
 in these particular's, a similarity with their ancient coat, viz. a saltire argent, on a field 
 gules. As a further proof of armorial discordance in the same family, it may be noticed 
 that the barons of Courtstown bore for their crest a lion rampant, per fess, argent and 
 or; while that of the Ballylinch or Gracefield family, is a demi-liou rampant, argent. 
 But, with respect to supporters, no difference prevailed. An ancient and curiously sculp- 
 tured tablet, now affixed in the wall of an humble farm-office at Tullaroan, exhibits the 
 Grace arms impaling those of Shee, having a lion for the dexter supporter, and a talbot for 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. 13 
 
 lion of Thomas Fitz-Gerald, lord Offaley, in 1534, Sir John Grace Fitz- 
 Oliver, baron of Courtstown, attended by a large body of followers, 
 invaded his lands, and laid siege to several of his castles, which he 
 despoiled, seizing likewise a great stock of cattle and other property. 
 He had also previously contributed to the defeat, which that rash and 
 unfortunate chieftain sustained at Jerpoint, from James earl of Ormonde, 
 lord-treasurer and lord-admiral of Ireland. In 1593, Sir John Grace 
 appeared at the general hosting, held at Tarah, accompanied by several 
 archers on horseback, furnished at his own charge, for the defence of 
 the English Pale and Marches. Colonel Richard Grace, of Moyelly 
 Castle, was the last man of note who upheld, by force of arms, the royal 
 cause against the republican party ; and, when he capitulated, in 1652, 
 he was at the head of nearly 3000 men. During the exile of the king, 
 he commanded a regiment in the Spanish and French services ; and on 
 the revolution of 1688 he was appointed governor of Athlone ; but after 
 successfully defending it against the army of general Douglas, in 1690, 
 it was again besieged on the following year by general de Gincle ; on 
 which occasion he was slain, and the town taken. John Grace, baron 
 of Courtstown, likewise commanded a regiment, raised and equipped at 
 his own expense for the service of king James, of which his son Robert 
 Grace, of Inchmore Castle, was lieutenant-colonel. It was denominated 
 Grace's regiment, and was engaged in most of the principal actions 
 during the war, especially at the battle of Aughrim, where it was nearly 
 annihilated. For above four centuries also, or from the reign of 
 Henry II. to that of James I., numerous commissions of array were 
 directed to them and the Butlers in conjunction, as governors of Kil- 
 kenny and Tipperary. Edward II, in 1326, made Sir James Butler 
 de Hibernia and Sir John Grace knights of the Military Order of 
 the Bath in London ; and Sir Edmund Grace (only son of Robert, the 
 youngest son of Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh, now Gracefield,) was a 
 knight of Malta, and living in 1778.* An admission to this most 
 
 the sinister. (See Shaw Masou's Stat. Survey of Ireland, vol. iii, p. 608.) These heraldic 
 remains must undoubtedly relate to Sir John Grace, baron of Courtstown, who married 
 Leltice, daughter of Sir Richard Shee, knight, whom he enfeoffed iu the manor of 
 Tullaroan, &c. on the 2d of December, 1590, and died 27th of March, 1602. On the tomb, 
 in Jerpoint Abbey, of Sir Oliver Grace, of Legan and Ballylinch castles, the same sup- 
 porters are to be found ; and in the latter of these feudal structures they were formerly 
 conjoined to a shield, in which Grace impaled Fitz-Gerald of Decies, and constituted 
 the huge ornament of a chimney-piece, of great size, ou which was inscribed " Maria 
 Fitzgerald me fieri fecit, 1603. Spes mea in solo deo." Joseph Edmondson, Mowbray 
 herald, states, in his " Complete Body of Heraldry," vol. i, p. 190, " that these families, 
 who anciently used supporters, either on their seals, banners, or monuments, and carved 
 them iu stone or wood, or depicted them on the glass windows of their mansious, and 
 in the churches, chapels, and religious houses of their foundatiou, endowment, or 
 patronage, as perspicuous evidence and memorials of their having a possessory right to 
 such supporters, are fully and absolutely well entitled to bear them ; and that no one 
 of the descendents of such families ever ought to alienate such supporters, or bear his 
 arms without them, because such possessory right is by far more honourable than any 
 modern grant of supporters that cau be obtained from an office of arms." 
 
 • Peter Shee, Esq., M. D., the editor of " O'Phelau's MS. Collection of Epitaphs 
 in the Cathedral of Kilkenny," and a gentleman whose antiquariau knowledge and taste 
 
14 MEMOIR OF 
 
 illustrious order of knighthood is necessarily accompanied by a genea- 
 logical document, exhibiting the thirty-two quarterings, and the other 
 usual proofs of noble origin, which are strictly required from all its 
 members. A counterpart of this very curious instrument, as prepared 
 for Sir Edmund Grace's admission, is still in the possession of the 
 Grace family. 
 
 No evidence of hereditary local importance is more impressive, and 
 implicitly acceded to, or of more universal diffusion, than military archi- 
 tectural remains.* Jn the distinction of conquerors and conquered, 
 long felt in Ireland, as well as in that of lord and vassal, originated 
 most of the principal castles. There were formerly, doubtless, many 
 to attest the sway of this family throughout their extensive possessions, 
 of which no vestiges now remain. Innovations and time have, however, 
 hitherto spared the following venerable land-marks, to pathetically tell 
 how quickly utter ruin can follow long and early greatness ; Grace's 
 Castle, in Kilkenny (now converted into the court-house and county- 
 gaol) ; the castles of Courtstown, al. Tullaroan, Inchmore, Gaulstown, 
 
 for the fine arts are deservedly appreciated in his native city, communicated the fol- 
 lowing anecdote to the author, in a letter, dated at Kilkenny, on the 6th of January, 
 1818. " The knight of Malta and Oliver Grace I perfectly remember, and there are 
 many people here still living who were personally acquainted with both of tbcm. The 
 following anecdote of the former may not, perhaps, prove wholly uninteresting to his 
 relative. The members of the distinguished knighthood to which he belonged unsheath 
 their swords on coming to a certain part of our church-service; in compliance with 
 which custom the knight of Malta drew his from the scabbard amid a crowded congre- 
 gation in the principal chapel here, which appearing to them an act of insanity, they 
 fled in terror from the chapel ; but, after an interval of a few minutes, the knight 
 replaced his sword, and tbe people returned to their devotions." 
 
 * These interesting evidences of local history, which also very frequently prove of 
 important value in authenticating national facts, are every where rapidly disappearing. 
 The writer, during his stay in Ireland in 1818 and 1819, contemplated several spots, 
 naked and unoccupied, on which the recollections of his childhood still vividly pour- 
 tray to him the ivy-mantled wall, the castellated tower, and the picturesque arches of 
 roofless aisles. These ruins have since been appropriated to the manufacture of lime, 
 to the repair of roads, and to other rural or domestic purposes. As far as architectural 
 testimony can go, it is assuredly less liable to error than the doubtful information, 
 as to place and many local circumstances, which must, in numerous instances, unavoid- 
 ably influence written statements of facts. Hence, therefore, we may apply to the 
 destruction of such corroborative testimony the observation of Mr. Gibbon, who says, 
 " The losses of history are indeed irretrievable ; when the productions of fancy or 
 science have been swept away, new poets may invent, and new philosophers may 
 reason ; but, if the inscription of a single fact be once obliterated, it can never be 
 restored by the united efforts of genius and industry. The consideration of our past 
 losses should incite the present age to cherish and perpetuate the valuable relics which 
 have escaped." Those who join in opinion with the historian of tbe Roman Empire, 
 must acknowledge that Ireland and future generations are deeply indebted to the 
 patriotism, or the love of the fine arts, which induced Mr. Anthony Cbeamley, of 
 Burnt-Court, in tbe county of Tipperary, about the year 1740; Peter Walsh, esq., of 
 Belline, in the county of Kilkenny, about 1760 ; the Honourable "William Conyngham, 
 about 1770 ; and Francis Grose, about 1790, to make their respective collection of draw- 
 ings of ancient architectural remains; a large proportion of which have since totally 
 disappeared. The appropriate subjects contained in these collections, combined with 
 many original drawings taken of places on the spot, purposely for the writer, have 
 formed a valuable mass of " graphic illustrations of the Grace family:" and the 
 engraver's steel and lithographer's pencil have now secured from oblivion most of these 
 perishing testimonies of early piety, feudal munificence, and hereditary importance. 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. 15 
 
 Tubrid, Ratliaillc-Grace, and Killaghy, in Cranagh barony and Grace's 
 Country ; of Ballylinch, Killerney, and Legan, near Thomastown ; of 
 Aghaviller, near Knocktopher ; of Grace Castle, near Castletown ; of 
 Gracetown Castle, near Killenaule ; of Castle-Grace, near Clogheen ; 
 of Carney Castle, near Nenagh ; of Brittas Castle, near Thurles ; of 
 Uskane, near Burros-Akane ; of Castle Grace, near Tullow ; of Moyelly 
 Castle, near Clara ; and of Enniscorthy, in the county of Wexford. 
 Some vestiges of others also may still be traced ; but the irreclaimable 
 obscurity which involves them renders their enumeration unnecessary. 
 
 Of these structures, the castle of Courtstown was formerly distin- 
 guished by the family pre-eminence of its owners, and the superior im- 
 portance of its architectural character. Its halls of hospitality, and its 
 bulwarks of defence have, indeed, long ceased to attract political notice, 
 or social intercourse ; but still no local historian can forbear to pause 
 upon its name, or biographer of the Grace family to transcribe its 
 description. The ruins of this edifice evinced considerable grandeur, as 
 well as great strength. They exhibited the spirit of a powerful chief- 
 tain, and the taste of a feudal age. Courtstown castle consisted of an 
 outward ballium, or envelope, having a round tower at each angle, and 
 also at each side of an embattled entrance to the south, which was 
 further defended by a portcullis. Within this area, or outward court, 
 comprehending nearly au acre of ground, stood the body of the castle, 
 enclosing an inner court of an oblong form. The general figure of the 
 building was polygonal. A massive quadrangular tower or keep, pro- 
 jected from the centre of the south front, directly opposite to the 
 embattled entrance of the exterior area above mentioned. The walls of 
 this tower were of considerable thickness, and the rests and fire-places 
 within showed it to have originally admitted five floors. From the 
 sides of this great square tower two wings extended, which terminated 
 on the east and west with round towers. The east front consequently 
 exhibited on its southern angle one of these round towers, and further- 
 northwards stood a similar tower, flanking a portal, which led into the 
 inner court, formerly furnished with a portcullis. Between this last 
 flanking round tower, and a square tower at the northern angle, was a 
 spacious room or hall, of an oblong shape, occupying the entire space. 
 The north front consisted of a high embattled wall, connecting two 
 square towers, and inclosing the iuner area on that side. The western 
 front externally corresponded with the eastern. There is said to have 
 been a communication round the buildings of the inner court by a 
 gallery, and, in the centre of it, the traces of a draw-well are still 
 visible ; as are also the vestiges beyond the outside walls of the bowling- 
 green, cock-pit, fish-ponds, &c. Some mounds of earth to the south 
 of the castle, called " bow-butts," are likewise visible, and are reported 
 by tradition to have been the place where the followers were exercised 
 in the practice of archery. Though deprived of the " pride, pomp, 
 and circumstances of glorious war," Courtstown castle long continued 
 to possess great dignity of appearance, from the extent of its area, the 
 
16 MEMOIR OF 
 
 height and massive thickness of its walls, the picturesque and skilful 
 disposition of its towers, the embattled gateway, and the works of cir- 
 cumvallation, by which it was defended. Such were the characteristic 
 features of this baronial edifice about the year 1760; and, after abun- 
 dantly supplying, for above a century, materials for the neighbouring 
 structures, and for repairing the roads, &c, its very foundations are 
 now beginning to be rooted up, and 
 
 Broke by the share of every rustic plough : 
 So perish uiODuments of mortal birth, 
 So perish all in turn, save well-recorded worth. — BYRON. 
 
 The endowment of monasteries, and their benefactions, form another 
 testimony of a family's eminence. Thus we find Raymond le Gros, 
 before the year 1 1 86, liberally assisted in the endowment of the priory of 
 Christ's church, and of the abbey of St. Thomas, both in Dublin ; and 
 also of the abbey of Molana, near Youghall, in the county of Waterford, 
 where his remains are said to have been interred. Between the years 
 1210 and 1219, William le Gras made a large grant of land in Wales to 
 Bradenstoke priory, in Wiltshire, to which his kinsman, William Mar- 
 shal, earl of Pembroke and lord of Leinster, likewise gave the church 
 of Estone ; and, about the year 1390, baron Almaric Grace also appears 
 as a benefactor to the priories of Glascarrig, in the county of Wexford, 
 and of St. John's, in Kilkenny. Grace's chapel, adjoining Tullaroan 
 church, was erected by Sir John Grace Fitz-John, baron of Courtstown, 
 in 1543, as appears by the two following inscriptions over a gothic 
 door-way, profusely decorated with sculpture, in bold alto relievo, 
 "crate, pro. anima. fiatotiis. grag. johannifi. filtt. olhn, qui, me, fieri, 
 fecit." " et. pro. anima. onorina. brenach,* ur.ort. ejus, anno, Domini. 
 
 rrtCCCCCpuii." A lion rampant, the armorial bearings of the family, here 
 forms an appropriate and conspicuous ornament, as it also does upon the 
 monumental remains in the inside of this chapel, and upon other ancient 
 vestiges elsewhere of a funereal character ; and likewise upon the more 
 important structures which emanated from the devout zeal or patriarchal 
 disposition of the house of Courtstown. The little monastery and church 
 of Tullaroan, as well as the neighbouring religious edifices of Rathely- 
 Grace and Killaghly, all iu the cantred of Grace's country; together 
 with Castle-Grace church, near Clogheen, owed their origin, at various 
 intervals, either to the immediate head, or to some of the opulent 
 branches of this house. Rossibercon monastery, seated on the river 
 Barrow, and opposite the town of Ross, was likewise founded by this 
 family, in conjunction with that of Walsh ;f and we learn that friars- 
 
 * " Brenach " is the translation into the Irish language of the name of " Walsh ; " 
 a family of high antiquity, and at this period of vast possessions and of considerable 
 repute in the county of Kilkenny. The baron of Courtstown, in the text, mar. 
 Onoria, daughter of Walter Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, baron Shanacher and lord of 
 Walsh's country, or as uow denominated " the Walsh Mountains. 1 ' 
 
 t Succinit Alemandus addens, extructum fuisse camobium hoc ab Hibernico- 
 Anglicauis familiis de Grace et de Walsh. (Vide Hibernia Dominicana, p. 270.) 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. 17 
 
 preachers were first introduced there on the 19th of September, 1267 . 
 " From the ruins, it appears," says the author of the Monasticon 
 Hibernicum, " to have been by no means an ignoble structure." The 
 munificent piety that suggested these foundations was, in many 
 respects, most usefully directed. In countries already decorated by 
 literature, they assisted the cause of neglected letters, both in their 
 preservation and culture ; while, in ruder regions, and under circum- 
 stances of revolution, the only place of security to be found for the 
 weak, the aged, and the helpless, was beneath their protecting roofs. 
 The arts of life were also there systematically pursued ; and, but for 
 them, all their excellencies must have necessarily perished. If, therefore, 
 " some faults did fall to their share," such were balanced by many a 
 redeeming virtue; and this we may now confess, since our quarrel 
 with the monasteries has been long since over.* Other memorials also 
 remain to attest the piety and local importance of this family. About 
 a mile to the north-east of Courtstown castle, on the cross road, in the 
 village or hamlet of Tullaroan, two very ancient stone crosses of their 
 erection are still to be seen. The one exhibits on the centre, in alto 
 relievo, a figure of our Lord, with a cloth round his waist, and on the 
 shaft the mutilated remains of an inscription, from which nothing can 
 now be gathered. The other has also, in alto relievo, a figure of the 
 Virgin, or of some female saint, in long flowing drapery. Of this latter 
 cross, a tradition prevails, that a French lady, of high rank and exqui- 
 site beauty, having followed one of the Grace family from France; and, 
 finding that he was married, built this cross, as well to reproach his 
 inconstancy, as to evince the piety of her resignation to disappointment. 
 But it is at the same time added, that, on returning to the continent, 
 she sought forgetfulness, by immuring herself in the gloom of a cloister. 
 On this improbable incident are, however, founded some very pathetic 
 lines in Irish verse. A third cross is also still remaining. It stands on 
 the road-side, near Bonnestown, between Tullaroan and Kilkenny, and 
 about two miles from the latter. It is said to have been designed to 
 commemorate the melancholy fate of a young man of the family of 
 Courtstown, who had been only two days married, when he was killed 
 on this spot by a fall from his horse. On the west of the pedestal is a 
 
 • No man, certaiDly no gentleman, who can boast the advantage of an ancestry, 
 can indulge in the reprobation of the Roman Catholics, without directly exposing 
 his own progenitors to the abuse thus aimed at his contemporaries. Feelings of 
 family respect, or, indeed, of mere decency, therefore, should restrain them, if they 
 cannot pretend to any higher principles of forbearance. We may, while engaged upon 
 this subject, advert to, perhaps, one of the greatest events by which Christendom has 
 ever been agitated, though fortunately without bloodshed or convulsion. The order 
 of Jesuits, amidst so many orders, did much in the way of enlightening mankind ; but 
 the very light, thus dispensed, blazed upon themselves, and in it they perished. 
 All scholars must recal with veneration and gratitude the embodied form, the concen- 
 trated erudition, the facilitated explanation of that edition of the classics, which, 
 under the patronage and munificence of Lewis XIV, they. constructed, and gave to the 
 world by the name of the Delphin. A gift so precious may, by some, be allowed to 
 operate as a redeeming one. — May all other sinners, if sinners there must be, so redeem 
 their offences, by such services to mankind. 
 
 D 
 
18 MEMOIR OF 
 
 shield, with a lion rampant, impaling; a chevron between three arrows, 
 and under the shield the names of cumi'.ttt. grace and catatin. archer, in 
 alto relievo gothic characters. On the south side is inscribed, in the 
 same characters, rhcífl. tg. Beat!;, rememfcer. ant. think, upon. thig. ttog. 
 fcihich, rfjoti. Host, gee. ano. praj. for. them, flat. SuitB. this, ctog. On 
 
 the east side may be decyphered 12 of. an. 1619 catatin. archer. 
 
 atg neccageo. the tljat. huffa. this*, crog. The only words 
 
 discernible on the north side are, gacr monumentnm. About half a 
 
 mile to the west of this cross is a stone with some rude unintelligible 
 characters, said to be Irish. The peasantry call it " Clogh Grasagh," 
 (Grace's stone,) and say that from that spot the funeral procession of 
 some popular member of this family extended to Kilkenny ; and those 
 who happened to be in the rear stood here while the ceremony of inter- 
 ment was performing in the cathedral. Many local traditionary anec- 
 dotes of ancient date continue, even to the preseut hour, to supply in 
 this neighbourhood the most gratifying topics of rural narrative. The 
 stories of border forrays, in the days of black rent, coyne, and livery, 
 are partially perpetuated in fragments, both of prose and verse. Nor is 
 the slogan or war-cry of the Graces, or of their rival neighbours, the 
 Fitz-Patricks, forgotten : and as the " Grasagh-aboe" of the barons of 
 Courtstown, and the " Gear-laidir-aboe" of the barons of Upper Ossory 
 were the martial signs of other times, so are they closely linked, at the 
 present moment, with the fond recollections of the combined and indi- 
 vidual feats they preceded. Several pieces of poetry, that still com- 
 memorate these exploits, as well as the marriages, deaths, and other 
 domestic incidents of the Grace family, after surviving above two 
 centuries solely by tradition, have been lately transcribed from those 
 oral sources, and are by no means destitute of merit. One of these, 
 written to celebrate " the return of Gerald Mac (the son of) Oliver 
 Grace,* of the Leagan, from England," informs us that " his sovereign 
 
 * This Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch, Legan, and Carney Castles, died 4th of March, 
 1618 ; and, in illustration of the period, it should be likewise stated, that the passages 
 above quoted are literal translations from the originals. The magnificent and oriental 
 colouring of Irish poetry has elicited from Lord Byron a burst of admiration, such as 
 the kindred sympathies of his genius could readily conceive, and forcibly express. 
 Sir Walter Scott has also acknowledged similar sentiments in an eloquence of language 
 peculiarly his own. Mr. Moore, too, has found among the bards of Ireland many a 
 congenial spirit to his own delightful muse. That these precious remains should be 
 for ever fixed beyond the reach of accident, in a printed form, must be the wish of every 
 man of taste and feeling ; and if the Ibkhko-CeltiC Society could effect this very 
 desirable purpose, a great, perhaps the greatest, object -of its institution would thus be 
 secured. Among the resolutions agreed to on the formation of this society, the fol- 
 lowing, which is expressive of its views, fully accords with the sentiments here 
 expressed : " Resolved, That the principal objects of this society shall be the preserva- 
 tion of the venerable remains of Irish literature, by collecting, transcribing, illustrat- 
 ing, and publishing, the numerous fragments of the laws, history, topography, poetry, 
 and music, of ancient Ireland ; the ascertaining of the Irish language ; the elucidation 
 of the antiquities, manners, aud customs, of the Irish people ; and the encouragement 
 of works, tending to the advancement of modem Irish literature." The origin of this 
 patriotic society, in 1818, may be ascribed to the Right Rev. Dr. Johu Murphy, 
 Rev. Dr. Edward Ledwich, ReT. Rob. Walsh, Rev. Paul O'Brien, Sir Wm. Betham, 
 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. 19 
 
 accepted from him gifts of high estimation,— the hawkcs which killed 
 for him the game aloft in the regions of the air, and the shaggy dogs 
 of sable hue, which slew the ravenous wolf." Nor is the tenacity with 
 which a species of genealogical descent is retained less remarkable. 
 The custom of the ancient Irish, of distinguishing their chieftains by a 
 soubriquet, derived from some noted exploit or place, or from some 
 accident or quality of mind or body, contributes to the accuracy as well 
 as to the interest of their traditions iu this particular. Thus the per- 
 sonal characteristics or achievements, whether popular or otherwise, of 
 Oliver feasog (the bearded), can scarcely be ascribed to his grandson, 
 Oliver ciallmhar (the wise), or those of John crios iarann (the iron- 
 belted), to his son, John more (the great). But when we observe the 
 quickness and correctness with which the Irish peasantry, ignorant of 
 written numbers, form a computation, it ceases to be surprising that, 
 in such an habitual exercise of memory, the circumstances in which 
 their forefathers participated should be tenaciously retained and faith- 
 fully transmitted. Constantly engaged in scenes of petty warfare, 
 bardic traditions are still found to be the oral records of the more 
 popular exploits of their feudal lords, who 
 
 were of fame, 
 
 And had been glorious in another day. 
 
 It is almost impossible, on this occasion, to associate ancient history 
 with existing fact; to bring, as it were, the past into contact with the 
 present ; to contemplate, in short, the family of Grace as aliens and 
 utterly unknown at this moment in Grace's country, excepting by 
 name, after a possession of above five hundred years ; and, at the same 
 time, to exclude the moral interest which such combinations are cal- 
 culated to excite. The strong and beautiful delineations of lord Byron 
 are strikingly apposite. 
 
 " Pride ! bend thine eye from heaven to thine estate, 
 See how the mighty sink into a song ! 
 Can volume, pillar, pile, preserve thee great ? 
 Or must thou trust tradition's simple tongue, 
 When flattery sleeps with thee, and history does thee wrong." 
 
 The affluence of the house of Courtstown, and of the numerous branches 
 
 that claimed, with jealous care, descent from it, can however be still 
 
 Mat. O'Conor, J. H. North, Mat. Weld Hartstrong, Edward O'Reily (the sec.), John 
 D' Alton, W. Monck Masou, W. Shaw Mason, John M'Namara, James Hardiman, and 
 Sheffield Grace, Esqs. The Duke of Leinster was appointed president ; aud among its 
 earliest members and supporters may be noticed lords Frankford, De Vescy, Carbery, 
 Castle Coote, Sligo, and Ross, Sirs Rob. Langrish and Neale O'Donuell, Barts., Judge 
 Fletcher, W. H. Curran, Richard Malone, Randell M'Donnell, Miles J. O'Reilly, 
 Richard Power, and Richard Wogan Talbot, Esqrs. The annual report for the year, 
 ending the 17th of March, 1820, informs us, that " some gentlemen have uot ouly paid iu 
 their entrance, and last year's subscriptions, but have also paid in advance the contri- 
 butions that only became due ou this day. Among this latter description, your com- 
 mittee find great pleasure in stating, are to be found our illustrious President, the Duke 
 of Leinster ; our noble Vice-President, Lord Viscount Frankford De Montmorency ; 
 Sheffield Grace, Esq., &c. &c, thereby setting au example worthy of imitation by all 
 our members." 
 
20 MEMOIR OF 
 
 further illustrated by the unerring testimony of official, heraldic, and 
 private record. Before the storm of republican proscription had swept 
 over the land, and the stern victors had planted the spear of confisca- 
 tion (crudelis ilia hastaj on the accumulated spoil of 6,883,846 acres,* 
 we find the following families of Grace, between the years 1610 and 37, 
 possessing considerable property in their respective counties. Grace of 
 Courtstown, Killaghy, and Inchmore ; of Ballylinch, Leagan, and Kil- 
 lerney; of Grace's Court, of Kilrindowny, of Glashare, of Corstown, 
 of Thomastown, of Bally-Callan, of Knockna-Gras, of Coolishill, of 
 Aghaviller, of Ballyfrunk-Grace, of Ballyhany, of Clonetubrid, of 
 Ballyroe-Grace, of Garryhigen, of Kilcowle-Grange, of Rosetown, and 
 of Rathmageden, all in the county of Kilkenny ; Grace of Carney, 
 of Clogh-priory, of Kilboy, of Uskane, of Ballingarry, of Moglasse or 
 Moglalla, of Tyone, of Killowny, of Nenagh, and of Kilrobed, in the 
 county of Tipperary ; Grace of Maryborough, Leixfort, and Kil- 
 niainham, in the Queen's County ; Grace of Rathvilly and Killergee, in 
 the county of Carlow ; Grace of Harristown and Carneally, in the county 
 of Kildare; Grace of Lusk and Raheeny, in the county of Dublin; 
 and Grace of Moyelly, in the King's County. It is not, therefore, 
 tradition only that perpetuates and justifies the prevalent opinion that, 
 previous to the civil war of 1641, the number of gentlemen possessing 
 landed estates of the name of Grace exceeded any other in the county of 
 Kilkenny. Though the patrimony in that county of the house of 
 Ormonde was of unrivalled magnitude, it was still of a far greater 
 importance in their palatinate of Tipperary, which may account for the 
 numerical preponderance of the name of Grace in the former county. 
 But of all the foregoing branches of this family, three only were found, 
 on the restoration of the monarchy, and after the act of settlement was 
 carried into effect, to be in possession of their former inheritance. Of 
 these the house of Courtstown was one ; and it also, after a feverish 
 existence of a few years, participated in a wreck, which, a9 it regards 
 one family, is, probably, in vastness of property, and in number of 
 individual branches, without parallel in British history. 
 
 Among those vested with ecclesiastical dignities, we find the see of 
 St. David's, in Wales, had for bishops both the uncle and grandson of 
 Raymond le Gros, viz., David Fitz-Gerald de Carew, who died in 1176 ; 
 and Anselm le Gras, who died in 1247. Richard de Carew, the kinsman 
 of bishop Anselm le Gras, likewise held this see from 1256 to 1280 ; 
 and Richard le Gras, abbot of the mitred abbey of Evesham, in Wor- 
 cestershire, and keeper of the great seal of England, was nominated 
 bishop of Litchfield, but died in 1252, before consecration. William le 
 Gras died, in 121 2, prior of the Holy Trinity, commonly called Christ's 
 Church, in Dublin, where he had recently taken the habit of St. Augustin. 
 The priors of Christ's Church sat as barons in Parliament. In 1530, 
 
 * I^wrence's Interest of Ireland, part 1, page 79, 1 vol. duod. Dub. 1682. I» 
 page 48, of, part 2, lie states the total number of acres of the whole country to be 
 10,868,949, of which the quantity forfeited was as above. 
 
THE GBACE FAMILY. 21 
 
 Oliver Grace Fitz-OHver, brother to John Grace Fitz-OHver, baron of 
 Courtstown, was lord abbot of Jerpoint, in the county of Kilkenny, when 
 that great mitred abbey was suppressed by Henry VIII. Among the ab- 
 batical peers of Parliament, the abbot of Jerpoint held the third place. 
 In this most noble, ^dmired, and venerable structure, the remains of se- 
 veral succeeding generations of the line of Ballylinch repose ; and it will 
 be pardonable if their descendents, after a retrospective glance, contem- 
 plate this interesting pile with a deepened shade of sympathy. The 
 monastery of Rossibercon is likewise stated to have been, at an early 
 period, a place of family interment, as well as Grace's chapel, adjoining 
 Tullaroan church ; and also St. John's Abbey, in Kilkenny. Nor was 
 the cathedral of St. Canice, in that city, wanting in numerous and 
 impressive proofs of this last and solemn attestation of a family's con- 
 sequence, previous to the republican devastations, on the abolition of 
 episcopacy, and the subsequent alterations of bishop Pocock. That 
 richly sculptured monument, however, noticed by Dr. Ledwich, is still 
 standing to the memory of Sir John Grace, baron of Courtstown, the 
 inscription on which, in gothic characters, is as follows : Sic jacettt. 
 
 joJmnttes!. gtag. mifof. ac. sato.ae. coitrtgtofem. et. ottoritta. hrettarf). uj:or. 
 ejuis. anno. Domini. mcccccljAiit. Die. men 
 
 It appears, by various official records,* that the Grace family pos- 
 sessed, under the ancient ecclesiastical and regal polity, considerable 
 church patronage, which was wrested from them by the despotic 
 enactments of the new puritanical hierarchy, and protectoral govern- 
 ment of Cromwell. They exercised, at that period, the right of advow- 
 son to the following rectories, situated in the counties of Kilkenny and 
 Tipperary, and in the King's and Queen's Counties : — Grace's Parish, 
 Ballygranagh, Ballyvakye, Templedeere, Balleandine, Killcrowane, 
 Killodirnane, Cloghpriore, Cowlenewane, Templeneharry, Dunkerene, 
 Ballycashelan, Ramoveoke, Roskene, Rosmorowe, Etaghe, Coynrane, 
 Castle-Grace, &c.-)- In 1615, Oliver Grace, of Ballylinch and Carney 
 Castles, presented to the valuable livings of Castletown and of Roscrea, 
 both in the county of Tipperary. To an enlightened and benevolent 
 mind, the possession of ecclesiastical patronage affords frequent occa- 
 sions of just and exquisite satisfaction. The clergy of our early 
 church, down, perhaps, to the days of Henry VIII, engrossed the 
 whole literature of the country, and preserved the inestimable relics of 
 Greek and Roman lore from utter annihilation. Thus have their reli- 
 gious orders secured the imperishable gratitude of the world of letters : 
 
 • Records in the offices of the Auditor-General and of the Chief Remembrancer, the 
 Decree-Rolls, and the Regal Visitation-Books. 
 
 + See page 671 of the Monasticon Hiberaicum, by the Rev. Mervyn Archdall. This 
 work, as the learned author justly says, is merely an epitome of the numerous highly 
 interesting records and documents still extant, which relate to the monastic history of 
 Ireland. " The public," he most truly observes, " are losers by the defalcation : for 
 scarce a family of note in England or Ireland, who may not, at some period, trace their 
 pedigree in the subscriptions to our monastic charters and donations, and find remains 
 of their property, both before and after the dissolution of these societies." 
 
22 MEMOIR OF 
 
 thus have they made posterity their debtors beyond the possibility of 
 re-payment. In our own times, also, when knowledge has become so 
 widely diffused, it must be admitted that the clergy still constitute the 
 most numerous body in the empire of well-educated men ; and as then- 
 pursuits are more directed to general learning than Jhe professors either 
 of jurisprudence or of medicine, so has their proportion of historians, 
 poets, philologists, been more bountifully accorded. Education, like- 
 wise, is almost exclusively acquired under their governance, and a wise 
 and enlightened instructor has been often justly regarded as a second 
 parent ; — a parent of the intellect. The claims of such a person on our 
 gratitude can scarcely be surpassed by any that emanate from future 
 circumstances in life. How gratifying, therefore, must be the power, 
 afforded by the possession of church patronage, of suitably manifesting 
 a sense of services, which are the source of a daily, an hourly acquisi- 
 tion of profitable knowledge or of rational enjoyment. The reward, also, 
 of successful literary exertions is, in most instances, thus practicable ; 
 while the care and happiness of a peasantry may, at the 6ame time, be 
 achieved. When, with an ample patrimony, the Grace family inherited 
 the advowson of eighteeu livings, their means of generosity were not 
 restricted within narrow limits ; and the voice of tradition still con- 
 tinues to loudly and widely testify, in the characteristic details of nu- 
 merous anecdotes, that, though they were remarkable for the profuse 
 hospitality and costly exhibitions of feudal grandeur, their name was 
 not unadorned with the fairer glories of benevolence, liberality, and 
 patriarchal protection. 
 
 As in the ancient lords of Tuscany this family possesses an illustrious 
 and early origin, so are its subsequent connections* a strong evidence, as 
 
 • Among these connectious in foreign countries may be noticed the counts Peter 
 and Francis de Lacy. The former accompanied James II. from Ireland, and was a mus- 
 queteer in the French guards when Peter the Great visited Paris. Being, on this occa- 
 sion, appointed to attend his Czarish Majesty, he was prevailed upon by that discerning 
 prince to enter the Russian service. His merit was conspicuous on every occasion ; and 
 the decisive battle of Pultowa, in 1709, which, perhaps, saved the empire from the sub- 
 jugation of the Swedish conqueror, was achieved by his talents. He held many dis- 
 tinguished offices besides those of field-marshal and governor of Livonia. Count 
 Francis Maurice de Lacy, who was his son, attained a still greater eminence in the 
 service of Austria, where he distinguished himself almost as much in negociation as iu 
 battle. He was a field-marshal, commander in chief of the army, president of the Aulic 
 council, a knight of the Golden Fleece, and of other orders. The friendship of this 
 great and meritorious man for his kinsman, William Grace, the father of Richard Grace, 
 of JBoley, and of Captain John Grace, induced him to accept, for the youngest of these 
 sons, the marshal's offer of paternal protection. Charles Kavanagh, third son of Morgan 
 Kavanagh, of Borris-House, (and brother of Bryan, whose grandson, Morgan Kavanagh, 
 of Borris, married Alicia Grace, of Gracefield,) was a general in the Austrian service, and 
 governor of Prague in 1766. General John Baptist Kavanagh, baron of Linditz, &c. was 
 son of Bernard Kavanagh, of Ballyleigh, of the family of Borris, and married Mary, 
 daughter of Maurice Kavanagh, field-marshal and chamberlain to the king of Poland. 
 Charles Kavanagh, second son of Henry Kavanagh, of Ballyheale, born 1735, was a 
 general of cavalry iu the Austrian service, and a count of the empire. General barou 
 Henry Kavanagh, of Austria, uow living, is the son of Sir James Kavanagh, slain in the 
 French war of 1795, who was son of Simon Kavanagh, of Inch, by Helena, second 
 daughter of Michael Grace, of Gracefield. The present prince de Nugent has contri- 
 buted to the glory of the country he has adopted, and to the honour, not only of the 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. £3 
 
 has been already observed, that it .has continued to maintain its character 
 and consequence. Of its baronial head, its numerous and opulent 
 branches, the line of Ballylinch, or Grace-field, alone survives. But 
 though twice immolated at the shrine of honour, twice prostrated in 
 the revolutionary storms that desolated the land, it still stands upright 
 in the dignity of conscious rectitude, and environed by the honest 
 lustre of the vast sacrifice it has made to principle of domains, held, 
 for the most part, solely by the proud right of prescription, of adhe- 
 rents passionately attached by a bene6cence of immemorial origin, 
 and of political consequence, confirmed by the possession of above 
 five hundred years. The alliances of a race, endowed with such sen- 
 timents, are rarely of a degrading character. Those of this family 
 will be found to have been uniformly honourable ; * while, from the 
 
 ancient house from which he is descended, bnt of those also with which be is connected. 
 Among the families connected with that of Grace, and naturalized in France, may be 
 mentioned the counts Walsh de Serant ; field-marshal Henry Clarke, duke de Feltre ; 
 the chevalier de Montniorency-Morres, knight of St. Louis, and adjutant-general in that 
 service; and, lastly, the count Robert Shee, son of Richard Shee, of Goran, by Eliza- 
 beth, eldest daughter of Michael Grace, of Gracefield, raised to the rank of senator, in 
 1814, by Louis XVIII. 
 
 * A species of genealogical monotony, with respect to one family, has marked these 
 alliances to an extent perhaps without example. They became connected, as might 
 be expected, from local circumstances, with the noble house of Butler at a very early 
 period ; but, approaching nearer to our own times, the following descents and marriages 
 of the Ballylinch or Gracefield branch are, as a whole, rather remarkable : viz. its 
 descent from the earls of Ormonde and Ossory f through Mary, the wife of Sir Oliver 
 Grace, of Leagan and Ballylinch, and the daughter of Sir Gerald Fitz-Gerald, of Decies, 
 by Ellis, daughter of Pierce Butler, eighth earl of Ormonde, &c. From the viscounts 
 Mountgarret, through Margaret, the wife of Oliver Grace, of Ballylinch, and daughter 
 of Edmund Butler, second Viscount Mountgarret, whose eldest daughter, Helena, 
 married Walter, eleventh earl of Ormonde, the grandfather of James, the twelfth earl 
 and first duke of Ormonde. From the lords Dunboyne, through Ellen, wife of Gerald 
 Grace, of Ballylinch, and daughter and co-heir of Edmund Butler, third lord Dun- 
 boyne. From the lords Cahier, through the last-named Ellen Butler, of Dunboyne, 
 whose mother was Margaret, daughter and sole heir of Thomas Butler, fourth lord 
 Cahier. In 1816, Richard Butler, eleventh lord Cahier, was created earl of Glengall. 
 From the viscounts Galmoy, through Ellinor, wife of William Grace, of Ballylinch, and 
 mother of Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh, (now Gracefield,) and daughter of Pierce, 
 eldest son of Edward Butler, first viscount Galmoy. It may be also added, that this 
 William Grace, of Ballylinch, was the half-brother of Pierce Butler, second viscount 
 Ikerrin, (whose great grandson was created earl of Carrick, in 1748,) through their 
 mother, Ellen Butler, of Dunboyne, who married, first, James, eldest son of Pierce 
 Butler, first viscount Ikerrin; and, secondly, Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch. Oliver 
 of Shanganagh, this William Grace's son, was, consequently, by birth the half-nephew 
 of Pierce, second viscount Ikerriu ; and he afterwards, by marriage, became also the 
 half-brother of his half-uncle; lord Ikerrin having married Ellinor, daughter of 
 John Bryan, of Bawnmore, by Anne Loftus, his first wife, and Oliver Grace haviu» 
 married Elizabeth, another daughter of John Bryan, of Bawnmore, by Ursula Walsh* 
 his second wife. Michael Grace, of Gracefield, was the half-brother of Edmund Butler] 
 ninth viscount Mountgarret, (whose great grandson was created earl of Kilkenny, in 
 1793,) through Elizabeth Bryan, of Bawnmore, above mentioned, who married, first 
 Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh ; and, secoudly, Edmund Butler, sixth viscount Monnt- 
 garret. Anne, daughter of this Oliver Grace and Elizabeth Bryan, married, first, 
 Richard, only son of Sir Richard Nagle, attorney-geueral, speaker of the House* 
 of Commons, and secretary of state for Ireland; and, secondly, Edmund Butler, 
 eighth lord Dunboyne, and had issue James the ninth lord, and Pierce the tenth 
 lord Dunboyne, whose only sou Pierce, the eleventh lord, dying unmarried, in 
 1786, John Butler, her third son, became the twelfth and the last lord Dunboyne of 
 
24- MEMOIR OF 
 
 extent and splendour of some, consanguinity is derived with several 
 of the most illustrious houses in Europe, as it has heen distinctly 
 and fully detailed in another place. Through the heiresses also of 
 many noble and distinguished families, the privilege devolves upon 
 them, in right of blood, of quartering with their paternal coat above 
 seventy armorial bearings belonging to names of which they are the 
 representatives.* The circumstance, likewise, of their affinity with 
 
 this line. Alicia, daughter of the second Michael Grace, of Gracefield, aud of Mary 
 Plunket, of Dunsogbly Castle, married Morgan, third son of Thomas Kavanagh, 
 of Bonis, by the lady Susan Butler, sister of John, seventeenth earl of Ormonde and 
 Ossory. James Butler, the fifth earl of Ormonde, was created earl of Wiltshire, in 
 1449. John Butler, earl of Gowran, and Richard and Charles Butler, earls o/Arran, 
 were also of this family. When the representative of this most illustrious house was 
 attainted, in 1715, on the unproved charge of conspiring to restore the Stuart family 
 to the throne, he was distinguished with the following titles, viz. The most high, 
 puissant, and noble prince, James Butler, duke of Ormonde, earl of Brecknock, and 
 baron of Lantnony and Moore Park in England, duke, marquis, and earl of Ormonde, 
 earl of Ossory and Carrick, viscount Thurles, baron of Dingle and Arklow in Ireland, 
 baron of Dingwall in Scotland, hereditary lord of the regalities and governor of the 
 county palatine of Tipperary, and of the city, town and county of Kilkeuuy, hereditary 
 lord chief butler of Ireland, lord high constable of England, lord warden and admiral 
 of the Cinque-ports and constable of Dover castle, lord lieutenant of the county of 
 Somerset, lord lieutenant and custos rotulorum of the county of Norfolk, high steward 
 of the cities of Exeter, Bristol, and Westminster, chancellor of the Universities of 
 Oxford and Dublin, colonel of the first regiment of foot-guards and of the first regi- 
 ment of horse-guards, captain-general and commander in chief of all her majesty's 
 forces by sea and land throughout the British dominions, or acting in conjunction with 
 allied powers, one of her Majesty's most honourable privy council in England and 
 Ireland, knight companion of the most noble order of the garter, and lord lieutenant, 
 general, and governor-general of the kingdom of Ireland. The revenue of this great 
 nobleman, and the estates forfeited by him in England and Ireland, have been estimated 
 at £ .80,000 a year. And, in further illustration of the princely possessions of his 
 family, it may be here added, on the authority of undoubted evidences adduced by the 
 historian Carte, (vol. ii, p. 409,) that, his grandfather, " the first duke's losses by the 
 troubles of Ireland, in 1641, amounted to £868,590. 16$. 9d. beyond all official profits, 
 and every other description of remuneration, afterwards received." In 1721, an act was 
 passed to enable his brother, the earl of Arran, to re-purchase all the Irish property from 
 the crown, excepting the palatiuate of Tipperary, which was extinguished. John, the 
 seventeenth earl of Ormonde, also recovered some of the more ancient peerages of his 
 family, and was father of Walter, the eighteenth earl, created marquis of Ormonde in 
 1816. The parliamentary influence of the duke of Ormonde nominated the return of 
 twenty-one members to the House of Commons. In the long aud illustrious lineage 
 of this most noble house, it has never had to boast of a representative more distin- 
 guished than the present for that elevation of sentiment and innate dignity which 
 are invariably linked with a pre-eminence in virtue. A pride of conscious rectitude has 
 thus rationally become paramount to a pride of blood. An early and intimate personal 
 acquaintance authorizes these remarks, and the private character of these pages sanctions 
 their admission. 
 
 • In the office of Ulster King of Arms, a selection of quarterings, amounting to forty 
 coats, belonging to this family, is recorded in page 56, of volume xviii, of Pedigrees; but 
 they are evidently entitled to bear many more, of which the following are the principal : — 
 Arches ; Babington, of Chilwell, co. Nott. ; Bellofago, baron ; Beltoft ; Bermiugham ; 
 Bigot, of Setrington, co. Ebor ; Brabant and Lorraiu, Charles, duke of ; Bromflete, of co. 
 Ebor; Burnhani; Bros, baron of Skelton, co. Ebor; Butler, baron of Duuboyue, co. 
 Meath; Butler, hereditary lord butler of Ireland; Butler, baron of Caheir, co. Tippe- 
 rary ; Becket, archbishop of Canterbury ; Britain, Cadwallader, king of; Cave, of Cave, 
 co. Ebor; Clare, earl of Pembroke and lord of Leinster, &c; Cliffe, of SouthclifTe, co. 
 Northamp. ; Delves, of Delves and Dodington, co. Chest. ; Darrell. ; Ewe, al. Ogie Os- 
 bert, couut of; Ferreby, of Ferreby, co. Line. ; Fitz-Geffrey, al. Fitz-Piers, baron of 
 Berkhamsted, co. Hertford ; Fitz-Patrick, baron of Upper-Ossory, Queen's co. ; Fitz- 
 
THE GRACE FAMILY. £5 
 
 Henry Chichele, archbishop of Canterbury ; * Walter de Merton, lord 
 high chancellor 5 and William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, 
 entitle them to the privileges of " founders 1 kin, 11 in All-Souls and 
 Merton Colleges, at Oxford, and in St. Mary's College, at Winchester j 
 and, as descended from the royal house of Plantagenet, in two lines, 
 viz., through the families of Butler and Bohun, from the princess 
 Elizabeth, seventh daughter of king Edward I, and through the fami- 
 lies of Bryan, Walsh, Sheffield, Howard, Mowbray, and Seagrave, from 
 Thomas of Brotherton, fifth son of the same monarch ; they can claim 
 the academical rank of an honorary degree in the University of 
 Cambridge. 
 
 A last and fatal proof of this house's greatness was the magnitude 
 of the estate forfeited by baron John Grace, of Courtstowu, under 
 William III, amounting to 32,870 acres of valuable land, of which 
 about 8,000 acres and the castle of Courtstown lay within Tullaroan, or 
 Grace's parish. It was, also, during the terrible civil wars of 1641 that 
 the resistance of Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch and Carney castles, to the 
 protectoral government, was followed by his line being dispossessed of 
 a landed inheritance, exceeding 17,000 acres, in the counties of Kil- 
 kenny and Tipperary, and the King^s County. The loyalty of the 
 family to the unfortunate house of Stuart, as it had been unimpeach- 
 able upon both these memorable occasions, was, in each instance, 
 
 Reinfride, al. Lancaster, baron of Kendal ; Fossard, baron of Mulgrave, co. Ehor ; Gant t 
 baron of Folkinghani, co. Line. ; Giffard, earl of Buckingham ; Gibthorpe, of co. Lin- 
 coln; Genellj ofSouthcliffe, co. Northampton ; Gower ; Grantemesnill, baron; Hainault, 
 Raynier, sixth count of ; Harford, of Marshfield, co. Dublin ; Kingsley, of Kinsgley, 
 co. Chester; Lancaster, baron of Kendal ; Lateragb, al. Fitz-Martin, lord of Lateragh, 
 co. Tipperary ; Lizures, of co. Northampton ; Lound, of Butterwick, co. Lincoln ; 
 Lovain, lord of Levingtou, co. Ebor; Lyndsey, of co. Lincoln ; Marshal, earl of Pem- 
 broke and lord of Leinster, &c. ; Mac-Morough, king of Leinster; Mauley, barou of 
 Mulgrave, co. Ébor. ; Meinill, baron of Whorlton, co. Ebor ; Montmorency, al. Ma- 
 risco, lord of Huntspil-Marreis, co. Somerset; Montfort, baron; Moyne, of Hemerswell, 
 co. Lincoln; Northumberland, Gospatrick, Saxon earl of; Normandy, duke of; Paynell, 
 of Carleton, co. Ebor; Fetyt, lord of Dunboyne, co. Meath ; Percy, lord of Topcliffe, 
 co. Ebor; Powis, Convyn-ap-Gwerystan, prince of; Rochford, of co. Lincoln ; Stanton, 
 of co. Ebor; Sutton, lord of Sutton, in Holderness, co. Ebor ; Sheffield, baron of But- 
 terwick, co. Lincoln, earl of Mulgrave, co. Ebor, and duke of Buckingham and Nor- 
 manby ; Riddlesford, lord of Bray, co. Dublin; Thorpe, of Friskenny, co. Lincoln; 
 Thorpe, of co. Lincoln ; Thweng, baron of Kilton, co. Ebor ; Turnhara, baron of Mul- 
 grave, co. Ebor; Valoius, lord of Parham, co. Norfolk; Vavasour, lord of Haselwood, 
 co. Ebor; Verdon, lord of Altou, co. Stafford; Walsh, of Castlehoel, co. Kilkenny; 
 Ward, of Burton, co. Leicester; Yvery, count of; North-Wales, Rywalhon-ap- 
 Convyn, prince of; South-Wales, Meredith-ap-Owen, prince of. 
 
 * A very interesting and useful volume was published, in 1765, entitled, " Stem- 
 mata Chicheleana; or, a Genealogical Account of some of the Families derived from 
 Thomas Chichele, of Higham-Ferrers, in the County of Northampton, (the Archbishop's 
 Father); all whose Descendants are held to be entitled to Fellowships, in All-Souls' 
 College, Oxford, by virtue of their Consanguinity to Archbishop Chichele, the 
 Founder." The Sheffield pedigree (No. 91) is recorded in p. 55, and is thus referred 
 to in p. vii of the Appendix, containing corrections and additions. — " There was 
 issue from this match, (of lady Magdalen Sheffield,) of which we know not the par- 
 ticulars, except that two Irish gentlemen, of the name of Grace, who are now, or were 
 lately, resident in London, succeeded, a few years ago, to a good part of the last duke 
 of Buckingham's estate, as her great grand-children." 
 
 E 
 
2Q MEMOIR, &c. 
 
 attended with most disastrous consequences to its prosperity. The 
 swarm of adventurers led into the country by Cromwell were fortified 
 in their acquisitions by the Act of Settlement j and the grantees of 
 king William have never been disturbed in their possessions. 
 
 Thus, after a period of nearly five centuries and a half, during 
 which the house of Butler* alone was paramount to that of Grace, the 
 existence of the latter, as a Kilkenny family, may be said to terminate, 
 as the small estate of Holdenstown is the only property they at present 
 possess there. Henceforth they are to be heard of in the Queen's 
 County, where the representative of the Ballylinch branch was led by 
 circumstances, which will be stated elsewhere, to become seated at 
 Gracefield; and his descendant is now, by the extinction of the line of 
 Courtstown, the head of this family. 
 
 To this very rapid and general sketch of early official events, illus- 
 trative of family respectability, we will now add some few biographical 
 details of a more individual, private, and domestic nature ; and, as 
 these pages are not designed for public circulation, much of the writer's 
 scruples on the one hand, and of the reader's indifference or distaste 
 possibly, on the other, to their narration, are obviated. 
 
 * The possessions of the noble families of Butler, Agar, and Ponsonby, in the 
 county of Kilkenny, are severally of so preponderating a magnitude, that they may he 
 almost said to hold it among them. In these memoirs, mention has necessarily been 
 often made of the illustrious house of Ormonde, from its connection with every event of 
 importance relating to this county; but, in the note preceding the two last, its early 
 consequence, family honours, and present representative, have been particularly and fully 
 noticed. Of the distinguished house of Agar, the viscounts Clifden are the head ; the 
 earls of Normanton aud the lords Callan, being descended from younger branches. It 
 may be also added, that Ellis Agar, countess of Brandon in her own right, was sister 
 of James, first viscount Clifden. Tf, as has been said, the soul is the seat of true 
 nobility, the present head of this eminent family fully illustrates the sentiment, and is 
 most truly noble. It would be difficult, it would be impossible to point to the 
 manifestation of a single principle of his, in either word or deed, that does not hear the 
 stamp of genuine integrity, and of that hallowed species of high mind, which abhors 
 whatever is mean or dishonourable. Worth and iutellect are too practically associated 
 with the name of Clifden, to excite a fear that personal and hereditary partiality have, 
 in these remarks, blindly influenced the operations of reason. In noticing the repre- 
 sentative of the house of Ponsonby, it can be safely stated, that the earl of Bessborough 
 is affectionately Tegarded by a very numerous circle of enlightened friends and near rela- 
 tives; and that he has been uniformly represented, by all who have the honour of 
 bein 0, acquainted with him, as exemplary in the fulfilment of every domestic, and dis- 
 interested io the discharge of every public, duty of life. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 COLONEL RICHARD GRACE. 
 
 Explorant adversa viros. Perque aspera dura 
 Nititur ad laudeni virtus inteirlta divo. — SlL. ITAL. 
 
 DURING the civil war of 1641, Colonel Richard Grace, of Moyelly 
 Castle, in the King's County, appears to have been no less distinguished 
 by his military talents, than by his enthusiastic loyalty. The duke of 
 Ormonde, to whom he was allied, having recommended him to the king's 
 especial notice, he continued in his immediate service till the surrender 
 of Oxford, in 1646. On his return to Ireland, the wealth and influence 
 of his family soon placed him at the head of a little army, which at one 
 period amounted to 5000 men : but, though his numbers seldom ex- 
 ceeded 3000, his skill and enterprise rendered him always formidable. 
 Hence arose his extraordinary popularity on the one side, and the 
 marauding character given to him on the other, in the official accounts 
 of public occurrences, during this distracted period of civil warfare. 
 Between the years 1647 and 1652, his individual exertions, and the 
 achievements of his followers, are very frequently mentioned in the 
 state-papers, at the Council-Office, in Dublin-Castle, amongst which 
 is a letter addressed 
 
 " To the Council of State in England. 
 
 " My Lords, 
 
 " In our last we then acquainted your lordships that commis- 
 sary-general Reynolds, with his party, had pursued (lord) Dungau's and 
 (colonel) Grace's parties, from about the Shannon to Glamaliere, and 
 thence had followed them to Wicklow ; and that the enemy had again 
 gathered together ; and Grace, with his party, is, as we heard yesterday, 
 about Tecrohan, and have driven away the prey in those quarters, and 
 have burnt part of the corn ; and, it is feared, he will doe more mischief 
 that way. General Reynolds and his party are gone after this body 
 of the enemy ; but we fear the garrison of Tecrohan, which is a very 
 considerable place, will be lost ; and, if taken, it will be of much 
 advantage to the enemy," &c. &c. 
 
 Dublin-Castle, 23a of September, 1651." 
 
28 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Lord Clarendon slates, in iiis History of the Rebellion and Civil 
 Wars in Ireland, that " Redmond Burke, a colonel in his Majesty's 
 army, had quarter given to him by colonel Coote, he being taken in a 
 skirmish between colonel Grace and some of Cromwell's party j but 
 that colonel Henry Ingoldsby caused his head to be cut off." His last 
 battle of consequence seems to have been in defence of an important 
 pass, in the county of Galway, where, at the head of 3000 men, he was 
 defeated by Colonel Ingoldsby, after a sanguinary contest. " Colonel 
 Grace," says the historian Heath, c< got over the Shannon, having lost 
 two colonels, seven captains, and eight hundred souldiers, killed and 
 taken June the 20th." Tbat his resources, however, were not yet ex- 
 hausted, and that he was still formidable to the protectoral government, 
 are obvious, from the following inscription, affixed to a rudely engraved 
 print of him habited in armour : " The pourtraiture of Colouell Richard 
 Grace, now utterly routed by the coragious Coll. Sanckey." — "Are to be 
 sould, by J. Smith, in Back-layne, 1652." According to this date, he 
 ■was the last person of note who resisted, or was capable of resisting, 
 the republican power in Ireland. His merits are further acknowledged 
 by the best-informed writer of the present day on the history of Ireland, 
 and a gentleman of general learning, in a letter to the author. '* I enter- 
 tain," says the Rev. Dr. O'Conor, " a high sense of his irreproachable 
 character, his honest patriotism, and his spotless integrity, from the 
 beginning to the end of the civil wars. He does not appear to have 
 truckled to the excommunicators* of Ormonde and Clanrickarde, whose 
 wise counsels, had they been followed, would have protracted the war 
 against Cromwell and Ireton, cut oft* their supplies, and saved the 
 nation. He lent his aid to lord Clanrickarde as long as he could, that 
 is, till the end of that fatal war when he led bis regiment of 1200 Irish 
 into the service of Spain." By a proclamation, issued at Clonmell, on 
 the 22d of May, 1652, the sum of £300. was offered for the persons or 
 
 * Viz. The Nuncio Rinunccini and his party. An original document is extant, in 
 the MS. library at Stowe, (see vol. xix, of the Essex State-Papers,) which fully proves 
 the celebrated Owen Roe O'Neal, who was the great favourite of this intriguing Italian 
 and his rebellious adherents, and who commanded their army, to have received a bribe 
 of £5065. 17s. 6d. from Cromwell. " Thus," observes the instructive compiler of the 
 Bibliotheca MS. Stowensis, (vol. i, p. 272,) " Ireland was conquered by her own hands, 
 by Owen Roe O'Neal in the north, and by lord Orrery iu the south." The MS. library 
 of the duke of Buckingham and Chandos, at Stowe, is inestimably rich in important 
 and official documents relating to Ireland. A large proportion of these are unique, 
 and of very many of the remainder no perfect transcripts are known to be extant. It 
 is quite impossible to compile a full, faithful, and satisfactory history of that country, 
 particularly during the period between the years 1641 aud 1678, without reference to 
 this library, the magnificence of which is, in every respect, characteristic of the splen- 
 did spirit of its illustrious proprietor. The catalogue of the Stowe MS., compiled by 
 the Rev. C. O'Conor, D. D., and printed in two volumes, quarto, is exclusively appro- 
 priated to private distribution. Those MSS. which relate to Ireland, in the first 
 volume and appendix, occupy 325 pages ; and the good taste, as well as the indefati- 
 gable labour, the useful, general, and unostentatious knowledge, exhibited by the learned 
 compiler, are beyond all praise. The copy of this most interesting catalogue, which is 
 now before the writer, bears the following inscription ou the title-page, " Presented to 
 Sheffield Grace, esq., in testimony of my sioceie regard. 
 
 C. Buckingham & Chandos." 
 
COLONEL RICHARD GRACE. 29 
 
 heads of the lords Muskerry and Mountgarret, of the bishops of Limerick 
 and Cork, and of Colonel Richard Grace. The highest price put on 
 any of the other proscribed names in this list is £200. His submission 
 alone being now wanted to terminate the war, terms highly honourable 
 to himself and followers were offered and accepted. Though his estates 
 in the King's County were seized by the Parliament, and granted to 
 " one John Vaughan," as stated in the memorial drawn up by him on 
 the restoration, he was supplied with money and necessaries for his 
 adherents, and permitted, as already noticed, to retire unmolested with 
 1200 men to any country at peace with the Commonwealth. In Clarke's 
 Life of James II, published from the original Stuart MS., we find him 
 thus mentioned. "A.D. 1656. And here his royal highness takes par- 
 ticular notice, in his memoirs, of the handsome carriage of one of the 
 colonel proprietors of the Irish regiments, when he quitted the service 
 of the Spaniards. This gentleman, by name colonel Richard Grace, 
 after having served the late king Charles I. till the surrender of Oxford, 
 then going over into Ireland, had there served the king Charles II, so 
 loug as any part of that island held out for him : when that war was 
 ended, he obtained leave from the English rebels to carry over a regi- 
 ment into Spain of his own countrymen. The regiment he brought over 
 with him, consisting of twelve bundled fine effective men, he procured 
 a very favourable and honourable capitulation for them ; but, as soon 
 as they arrived, the Spaniards wholly broke the capitulation they had 
 made with him, and used his men so very ill, that, before he could 
 march them into Catalonia, he had lost half his number. Notwith- 
 standing this bad treatment, he served in the Spanish army with good 
 reputation till the end of the compagne ; at which time, being left in 
 garrison, in a castle upon the frontiers, which was a considerable post, 
 and considering that by the ill usage he had received, and was likely to 
 receive for the future, he should, iu all probability, lose the remainder 
 of his regiment ; at the same time, also, hearing that the king, his 
 master, was in France, where he was honourably treated, and that his 
 royal highness was also in the French service, he resolved to stay no 
 longer with the Spaniards ; yet, notwithstanding that they had broken 
 their articles with him, he would not, for his own sake, do any thing 
 unbecoming the character of a gentleman, but would leave them fairly. 
 To which purpose he sent to the Mareschall D'Hocquincourt, who at 
 that time commanded the French army in Catalonia, to let him know 
 that on such a day, which was mentioned by him, he would march off 
 with his regiment on these conditions : — that his regiment might be 
 placed upon the same footing with the Irish regiments then in the 
 French service, and that they might be permitted to go and serve their 
 own king whenever his affairs required their service. These conditions 
 were easily accepted, and great offers made to him, in case he would 
 deliver up the castle : but that he absolutely refused, and only desired 
 the mareschall to send him some horse on the day appointed to bring 
 him off. When that time was come, he sent to the neighbouring gar- 
 
30 MEMOIR OF 
 
 íison of the Spaniards to give them notice of his intention, that they 
 might give order to some of their men to come and take possession of 
 the castle, as he marched out of it ; and that, by his giving them this 
 notice, they might perceive he intended only to march away with his 
 regiment, and not to deliver up the castle to their enemies. He also 
 warned them that they should not send above two hundred men till he 
 was marched out of it ; for in case they gave him reason to suspect that 
 they intended to betray him, he would give up the castle to the French. 
 This precaution of his secured him from their sending any more troops 
 than he had desired ; and, as soon as they approached the place, he per- 
 mitted them to enter it at one gate, while he marched out at the other, 
 and went off to the French horse that waited for him." Colonel Grace 
 was afterwards chamberlain to the duke of York ; and a letter, written 
 in 1658, is still extant, acknowledging the receipt of a thousand gold 
 pieces from John Grace, baron of Courtstown, for the use of the exiled 
 princes. He was so highly esteemed by queen Henrietta Maria, that she 
 entrusted the duke of York to his sole care when he secretly fled for 
 refuge into Spain. In the great battle between the Spanish and French 
 armies, near Dunkirk, on the 18th of June, 1658, his royal highness 
 held a chief command in the service of the former ; and colonel Richard 
 Grace nobly distinguished himself at the head of a battalion of the 
 English troops belonging to the duke. On the restoration of Charles II, 
 in 1660, he attended the royal family to Breda, and from thence into 
 England ; and on the 5th of March, in the year following, a pension of 
 £100. was couferred upon him, in testimony of his Majesty's approba- 
 tion. In the king's declaration for the settlement of Ireland, colonel 
 Richard Grace is specifically named, on account " of his faithful ser- 
 vices at home and abroad, to be presently restored to all his estates ; " 
 and in the manuscript library, at Stowe,* is preserved the determination 
 of the English privy-council on the subject. The decree of the court 
 of claims in Ireland to this effect bears date the 20th of June, 1663. 
 A patent was granted to him, in 1664, whereby Moyelly, and his 
 adjoining lands, in the barony of Kilcoursy, were constituted a manor, 
 with the privileges of holding courts baron and leet, &c.f And, by 
 another patent, on the 21st of February, 1670, " all quitt-rents, and 
 
 * Among the invaluable treasures of this library, may be mentioned " the Essex 
 State-Papers, in 22 vols., folio, wbicb contain several origiual letters, &c. relating; to 
 colonel Grace. From one of these, addressed, on the 3d of July, 1G74, to the lord- 
 lieutenant of Ireland, by the lords of the council in England, we learn that " oue 
 John Vaughan," an adventurer and adherent of Cromwell, got possession of Moyelly 
 Castle during the Commonwealth; and that, notwithstanding its restoration to colonel 
 Grace by the Act of Settlement, he frequently endeavoured to undermine his rights by 
 clandestine and fraudulent proceedings. 
 
 + By deed, dated 25th, and enrolled 27tb, of November, 1667, colonel Grace sold 
 to Warner Westenra, of the city of Dublin, merchant, the town and lauds of Clonleagb, 
 Breekennagb, and Lyagb, situated in the King's County ; and, by indenture, dated 9th 
 of December, 1673. he further alienated, to lady Harman, all such lauds as were for- 
 feited by Robert Bagot and Peter Bath, of Athcarne, being situated in the county of 
 Dublin ; and which were granted to him by privy-seal, dated at Whitehall, 5th of 
 September, 1673. 
 
COLONEL RICHARD GRACE. 31 
 
 other charges imposed upon his lands, were for ever remitted. " The 
 reversion of the castle, town, and lands of Ballyna, Cadamstown, Clo- 
 nagh, Martinstown, Thomastowu, Morrestown, Nurmy, Killincrebagb, 
 and Ballynet, in the county of Kildare, belonging to Charles Moore, 
 esq., being in the crown, " the king, taking into consideration the 
 faithful and indefatigable services of colonel Richard Grace in the late 
 wars, both in England and Ireland, and his faithful and constant ad- 
 herence, and important services, beyond the seas, during the usurpation 
 until the king's restoration, his Majesty, in recompense thereof, granted 
 to him, and his heirs, the said remainder and reversion to all his estate 
 and right in the said premises, pursuant to letters patent from White- 
 hall, dated 25th of June, 1670." The duke of Ormonde, who could by 
 personal knowledge judge of his conduct both in Ireland and in foreign 
 countries, attests his long and unshaken attachment to the royal cause, 
 in the following unpublished letter to the earl of Essex, lord-lieutenant 
 of Ireland. 
 
 "My Lord, Clarendon-House, Wth Feb., 1673-4. 
 
 " The bearer is employed by coll. Richard Grace, in some 
 affaire of his, wherein my recommendation to your excellency is desired. 
 If it bee matter of controversy betwixt him and any other, it may be 
 necessary to bespeake your favour, so that in generall I shall only assure 
 your excellency that, as the collonel had no part in the rebellion of his 
 countrymen, so he served the late king, in the English warr, with much 
 fidelity and ability, and our present master abroad very usefully. 
 
 " I do not doubt but that divers give you an account of transactions 
 
 here : there is to me no very pleasant prospect of the conclusion; but 
 
 I hope my melancholy is the greatest cause of my dissatisfaction, and 
 
 that all will end well. I am, with all reality, your excellencies most 
 
 " Faithful and most humble servant, 
 
 " Ormonde." 
 
 In consideration of his losses, his services, and the inadequate 
 recompense he received, his Majesty granted to him a further pension 
 of £300. a year, during pleasure, by privy-seal, dated at Whitehall, on 
 the 30th of June, I6S5. 
 
 At the period of the revolution, when king James retired to France, 
 colonel Grace hastened to meet him with an offer of his loyal services ; 
 and so highly were his abilities and integrity estimated, that the king 
 publicly particularized the favourable representations he made to him 
 of the strength and disposition of the people of Ireland, as among the 
 chief inducements he had to place himself at the head of his Irish sub- 
 jects. Thus was his evening of life passed like his early dawn, in again 
 cheerfully devoting himself, his fortune, and his talents, to the interests 
 of his royal master, to whose person he was enthusiastically attached. In 
 the beginning of the second civil war in Ireland, we find colonel Grace 
 appointed governor of Athlone, one of the most important posts in the 
 
32 MEMOIR OF 
 
 hands of king James. The command of this fortress afforded frequent 
 opportunities of displaying great personal courage and military skill. 
 After the defeat of his unfortunate master at the battle of the Boyne, 
 king William, hoping to immediately reap the fruits of that glorious 
 victory, divided his forces into two parts, with one of which he hastened 
 in person to invest Limerick, and the other he entrusted to General 
 James Douglas, one of his ablest officers, on a similar expedition 
 against Athlone. Colonel Grace was as fully prepared, as circum- 
 stances permitted, to encounter this formidable army, flushed with suc- 
 cess, and anticipating, from the age of the governor and the dejected 
 spirits of the garrison, a speedy and bloodless triumph. It is, however, 
 stated, by Burton, Rapin, and Leland, that when summoned by general 
 Douglas to surrender, on the 17th of July, 1690, he returned a pas- 
 sionate defiance, " These are my terms," said he, discharging a pistol 
 in the air ; " these only I will give or receive ; and, when my provisions 
 are consumed, I will defend till I eat my old boots." The mauy in- 
 effectual attempts and heavy losses of Douglas, at length, obliged him 
 to yield to superior skill or zeal ; and, relinquishing his design ■with 
 his hopes of success, he raised the siege. His sentiments on the event 
 are thus expressed, in a despatch to the earl of Portland. 
 
 " M I d From the Camp before Athlone, July 24, 1690. 
 
 " I have done my best endeavours at Athlone. All my powder 
 is shot off, except two barrels ; and having no powder to make a breach 
 in the retrenchments, makes me judge it absolutely necessary to retire 
 to Mulliugar, where I shall await his Majesty's further orders. I shall 
 say no more; but only wish I had more troops, and was otherwise better 
 provided; for I do assure your lordship that this place is of the greatest 
 consequence of any in Ireland," &c. &c. And in his letter to the king, 
 of the same date, he concludes thus : " I intend to march to-morrow, 
 and shall await your Majesty's commands at Mullingar, least my stay 
 here, without powder for my cannon, might occasion a misfortune to 
 my train," &c. &c. 
 
 In the year following, Athlone was again invested by general count 
 de Ginkle, at the head of eighteen thousand of the choicest troops of king 
 William's army. The combined efforts of spirit and ingenuity were, like- 
 wise, on this occasion, successfully exerted to repulse this great force ; 
 and Ginkle was preparing to convert the siege into a blockade, when the 
 chief obstacle to his conquest was removed by the death of the old and 
 heroic governor, who was slain in an attack, on the 20th of June, 1691. 
 The town was then taken by assault, and general Ginkle was deservedly 
 rewarded, for the brilliant and important achievement, with the earldom 
 of Athlone, and a grant of the estates forfeited by William Dongan, earl 
 of Limerick. In the memoirs, written by king James, already noticed, 
 it is stated that, " after the battle of the Boyne, the great towns, before 
 which the enemy appeared, made little resistance ; the loss of that 
 
COLONEL RICHARD GRACE. 33 
 
 battle, and the example of Dublin, making them consider nothing but 
 their safety. Kilkenny, therefore, made no resistance. Drogheda, 
 Waterford, and Duncannou, surrendered, upou conditions, at the very 
 first summons ; but Athlone, where colonel Richard Grace commanded, 
 did not only stand a formal siege, but forced the enemy to raise it, after 
 a considerable loss. This shewed that, if other garrisons had done their 
 duty, they would have much weakened the prince of Orange's forces, 
 and retarded his progress." The quotation of another passage, which 
 appears in Strean's Account of Athlone, will further contribute to dis- 
 play the character of this brave and honourable man : " During the 
 exile of the royal family, colonel Grace was treated by the duke of York 
 with the familiarity of an equal, rather than the reserve of a sovereign. 
 Hence arose that warm attachment to his person, and those indefatigable 
 exertions in his service, which so pre-eminently distinguished him on all 
 occasions. The reputation he acquired for military experience, during 
 his residence abroad, was, therefore, not higher than what the effects 
 of his zeal merited for him at home ; and the example which he dis- 
 played, at an advanced age, of activity, enthusiasm, and contempt of 
 death, commanded universal admiration. On one occasion, having left 
 Athlone, he unexpectedly returned at the expiration of a few days with 
 a reinforcement of 400 men, which he accompanied on foot from a 
 remote part of the county of Kilkenny, distant above seventy miles, in 
 a forced march of two days. At another time he rode to Dublin, from. 
 Athlone, and returned in twenty.four hours. His conduct to the Pro- 
 testant inhabitants of the district under his command is said to have 
 been so singularly humane and just, as to bring censure upon him for 
 granting them protections too profusely, and administering to them 
 justice too impartially. Hence it was that, till the arrival of general 
 Douglas, this neighbourhood enjoyed a degree of tranquillity unknown 
 elsewhere. The lifeless bodies of ten of his soldiers, executed together 
 beyond the walls of the town, proclaimed his determination to repress 
 military outrage ; but, though the severity of his discipline was con- 
 trasted with the prevailing licentiousness of the Irish army, he never- 
 theless possessed, in an eminent degree, the affections, as well as the 
 confidence, of his soldiers." Colonel Richard Grace was a younger son 
 of Robert Grace, baron of Courtstown, and the brother of Oliver Grace, 
 of Inchmore castle, who died during his father's life, July 6, 1637 ; 
 and the uncle of John Grace, baron of Courtstown, to whose eldest son 
 Robert, his only surviving child, Frances,* was married in 1665. King 
 
 » On the forfeiture of colonel Grace'» property, this Frances claimed in it an estate 
 for life, by deeds, dated 7tU and 8th of May, 1665, on her intermarriage ; which claim 
 was disallowed. Periam Poole, gent., (the father of Periam and William Poole, esquires, 
 successively of Ballyfin, in the Queen's County,) claimed in it a term of years, by lease, 
 of the lands of Ballyun, Tulluuroe, Killanowan, Fireboy, and a park, with several other 
 lands, in the barony of Kilcoursy, King's County ; which claim was dismissed. James 
 Stopfcrd, esquire, who accompanied the parliamentary army to Ireland, and was grand- 
 father to the first earl of Courtown, (in the county of Wexford,) clr.imed in it the sum 
 of £.200, by bond, dated 14th of May, 1684 ; which claim was allowed. 
 
 F 
 
34 MEMOIR, &c. 
 
 James, wishing to reward the tried fidelity of his old servant, and the 
 distinguished services of the house of Courtstown, offered to confer the 
 dignity of a viscount on Robert Grace ; a favour which the embarrassed 
 state of the king's affairs, and the numerous importunate claims upon 
 him, having induced the family to generously postpone accepting, it 
 soon became irretrievably lost, by the utter annihilation of his power, 
 and his permanent exclusion, by Act of Parliament, from the sove- 
 reignty of these kingdoms. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the 
 castle and estate of Moyelly, in the King's County, together with 
 colonel Grace's other lands elsewhere, were seized by the adherents of 
 king William, and disposed of as confiscated property. 
 
M E M O I R 
 
 JOHN GRACE, BARON OF COURTSTOWN. 
 
 Hi proprium decus, et partom indignantur houorem 
 Ni teneant : vitamque volunt pro laude pacisci.*— V 
 
 -VlEG. iEN. v. 229. 
 
 JLHE circumstances, connected with- the downfall and extinction of 
 the house of Courtstown, have also been carefully perpetuated in the 
 family. On the subversion of royalty, the Courtstown estates were 
 seized by the Commonwealth, and were officially surveyed, for the pur- 
 
 * la the admired translation of the ,32neis, recently published by the Rev. Charles 
 Syuunous, D.D., this quotation is thus rendered, 
 
 u These their won fame iudignant strive to keep ; 
 And hold e'en life as honor's purchase Cheap : " 
 
 while, in Dryden's version of the same poem, it is swelled into four lines : and the reader 
 will perceive how feebly and insufficiently they express the sense and the spirit of the 
 original. 
 
 " These clamours with disdain the Scylla heard, 
 
 Much grudged the praise, but more the robb'd reward ; 
 
 Eesolv'd to hold their own, they mend their pace ; 
 
 All obstinate to die, or gain the race." 
 
 The redundancies and difficiencies which characterize Dryden's translation are here 
 strikingly obvious ; but it must at the same time be acknowledged, that the number- 
 less irregularities of this " chartered libertine " are not unmixed with many great and 
 high beauties. Since the production of his version, those by Pitt and Trapp have 
 appeared; but the humiliation of obscurity almost instantaneously extinguished their 
 pretensions to rival fame. The last, and assuredly the best, translation of the Angnstan 
 Epic, is tbat by Dr. Symmons ; — a writer so acutely susceptible of poetical feeling, and 
 so intimately acquainted with the mind of the original, that be may be almost said to 
 contemplate things with the same eyes, and to sympathise with the same soul. He 
 unites fidelity with spirit, and is at once " true to the sense and the fame" of his 
 author. Neither the sounding amplification and the unjustifiable omissions of the 
 flowing translation of Dryden, nor the tame diffusions of the equally faithless produc- 
 tion of Pitt, are here discernible. Unseduced by example, " I have glanced," says 
 Dr. Symmous, " over nothing, and am not conscious of having shrunk from the trans- 
 lation of a single line." It is well known tbat lord Lauderdale's version supplied Dryden 
 with nearly 400 lines, and that Pitt borrowed largely from that of Dryden ; but, 
 though Dr. Symmons was not indebted to " either of his predecessors for the loan of a 
 single verse," his work, containing above 13,000, was executed within the unexampled 
 short period of a year and a half; his translation of the JEneis having been commenced 
 in the first week of December, 1813, and finished on the 18th of May, 1815. The 
 merits of his preface have also called forth the voice of praise for its Virgilian criticism, 
 and its minute analysis of the principles of poetical composition. His notes, likewise, 
 
36 MEMOIR OF 
 
 pose of distribution among the soldiery, as forfeited land.* The spolia- 
 tion and cruelties, inflicted during; this unjust and violent intrusion, 
 were marked by more than republican sternness. Every description of 
 property found within the walls of Courtstowu Castle, including even 
 
 replete with classical and general learning, are thought fully, as well as unostentatiously, 
 to illustrate the text, and to contribute, by their good taste aud erudition, to justify the 
 large portion of public esteem which his translation appears to have already conciliated. 
 But this flattering pre-eminence might well have beeu anticipated by the biographer of 
 Milton. The author of a work, so strongly indicative of bis own moral excellencies, 
 mental powers, and literary attainments, as the life of Milton most assuredly is, can 
 attach uo other value to the just praises here given to him, than what they may derive 
 from his feeling of the friendship which unites him to their giver. In recording this 
 community of regard between the writer of these pages and the historian of Milton, it 
 would be unpardonable to omit the name of the historian's amiable aud accomplished 
 son, John Symmons ; — a man more deeply and thoroughly conversant with Greek litera- 
 ture, and with the almost infinite uiceties of the Greek language, than any scholar of the 
 present day, with the solitary exception perhaps of Dr. Parr. Charles Symmons, D. D., 
 is brother of John Symmons, esq., of Paddiogton-House, Middlesex, and formerly of 
 Llaustiuan and Slebech Hall, both in the county of Pembroke. By his wife Elizabeth, 
 sister of admiral" Sir Thomas Foley, G. C. B , {who married lady Lucy Fitz-Gerald, 
 daughter of James, duke of Leinster,) he had, besides John Symmons, who has been 
 mentioned, a daughter, Caroline, who died as she was entering on her sixteenth year. 
 The poetical effusions of this most accomplished young lady occupy the first eighty-one 
 pages of a collection of Dr. Symmons' poems, printed in 1812. In the exquisite sensi- 
 bility and the correct taste, which distinguish these productions of early genius, 
 scarcely can a defect or puerility be discovered, to remind the reader of the very 
 youthful age of this interesting, lovely, and highly-gifted poetess. 
 
 * This work, forming part of the Down Survey, was executed by Sir William 
 Petty, a great and good man ; whose assertion must he implicitly believed, that he 
 employed no person not fully qualified, und furnished with necessary instruments. 
 The present improved state of science, and of the instruments belonging to it, are, 
 therefore, unequivocally exemplified in the vast difference between the survey thvs 
 made of Tullaroan, or Grace's Parish, in 1664, and one made of the same place, in 18I8 T 
 by Messrs. Aher and Clements. The measure of territorial confiscation, and national 
 proscription, which produced the Down Survey, has continued, even to the present 
 hour to excite an interest, hereditary, deep, general, and almost commensurate with the 
 terrible importance of the event. Among some MSS. in the possession of the writer, is 
 a duodecimo volume, containing 361 written pages, chiefly compiled duriug lord Essex's 
 administration in Ireland, under whom the Act of Settlement and Explanation were, 
 to a considerable extent, earned into effect. This MS., for the most part, relates to 
 the revenue and establishmeut for 1670, aud the five following years, and also for the 
 years 16S2 and 4. It, however, likewise contains other matter connected with the 
 country, amongst which is a statement, from page 154 to 161, of the acreable allot- 
 ments, and the several classes of persons, to whom the whole kingdom was distributed 
 under the act alluded to. A document so authentic, so interesting, so minutely satis- 
 factory, and so infinitely superior to any thing that has yet appeared upon the subject, 
 must prove highly acceptable, however foreign it may be to the immediate subject of 
 these memoirs. 
 
 "A GENERALL VIEW OF IRELAND, according to the antient and present descrip- 
 tion thereof, coutaining the whole quantity of acres, both profitable and unprofitable, 
 (which unprofitable acres includes loughs, boggs, mountains, rivers, waters, highwayes, 
 as well by Irish plantation measure, as by English statute measure, according to the acre 
 thereof,) and move particularly those parts which were surveyed as forfeited by the late 
 rebellion, begun the 23d day of October, 1641 : what quantity of the said profitable lands 
 are granted to the English upon the account of adventureres, arveares, provisors, pre- 
 emptions of mortgages, augmentation of bishopricks ; to Protestants on the transplanta- 
 tion asassiguers of persons transplanted into the province of Connaught and county of 
 Clare, letters-patents of grace confirmed, fl'ort of Duncannon, royal highnes the duke 
 of York and the duke of Ormonde, as his demesne lands ; and what quantities of the 
 said profitable lands are granted and disposed uuto innocent Papists restored to their 
 
JOHN GRACE, BARON OF COURTSTOVVN. 37 
 
 pictures, books, and title-deeds, was either plundered, or wantonly 
 destroyed. Tradition has also preserved many particulars, exhibiting 
 the ruthless spirit of the fanaticism, avarice, and oppression, to which 
 the inhabitants of Grace's country were the victims. In the history, 
 likewise, by lord Clarendon, of " The Rebellion and Civil Wars in 
 Ireland," it is incidentally mentioned that, at this period, " some sol- 
 diers of the king's army being taken in a village in Grace's parish, 
 colonel Daniel Axtell caused all the inhabitants of the said village to 
 be apprehended, hanged three of them, and sold the rest to the Bar- 
 estates, and to others of the Irish by provisoes and as nominees, and on his Majesty's 
 letter of restauratiou on the said transplantation (and not assigned to Protestants uot 
 settled by the late court of claymes) ; and what of the said surveyed profitable lands 
 remaines as left undisposed, beiug never adjudged, seized, and sequestred. Reduced out 
 of an ancient record in the auditor's-office, in Ireland, and out of the books of quite- 
 rents, mapps, and surveys of this kingdom. — Diawne per Edw. Roberts, esq., anno 1675. 
 
 A GENERALL DESCRIPTION OF Ireland, takeu out of the record in the auditor's 
 office. 
 
 Ireland contains in length, from Kuockbrannon in the south unto St. Coleman's 
 Island, otherwise called the Curragh, in the north of Ulster, 400 miles; and from 
 Dublin to Crogh-Patrick, iu Connaught, 200 miles in breadth. 
 
 Ireland was then divided into five great proportions or divisions, that is to say, 
 Leinster, Munster, Connaught, Meath, and Ulster ; and they contained 184 cantreds, 
 hundreds, or baronies ; and every cantred contained 30 townes, except in Meath, which 
 contained but 281, which made in all 5495 townelands; and each towne contained 
 8 plowlands arable, and pasture for 300 kine* 
 
 T/te division of the Cantreds, Towns, Plowlands arable, and Pasture 
 for the Kine. 
 
 CANTREDS. TOWNES. PLOWLANDS ARA. KINE. 
 
 Leiuster 31 0930 7440 279,000 
 
 Munster 70 2100 1680 630,000 
 
 Connaught 30 0900 7200 270,000 
 
 Meath 18 0515 4121 154,500 
 
 Ulster 35 1050 8400 315,000 
 
 Total 184 5495 43960 1,648,500 
 
 THE DISTRIBUTION OF IRELAND, 
 
 ACCORDING TO THE SURVEYS, MAPS, AND QUITT-RENT BOOKS. 
 
 Provinces. The whole Plantation Acres Statute Acres 
 
 Contents. surveyed as /or- surveyed as 
 
 /cited. /or/etted. 
 
 Leinster 2,603,520 1,514,700 2.453,562 
 
 Munster 3,255,874 1,820,461 2,948,845 
 
 Connaught 2,231,680 968,798 1,569,292 
 
 Ulster 2,777,875 454,698 736,535 
 
 Total 10,868,949 4,758,657 7,708,237 
 
 LEINSTER. MONSTER. CONNAUGHT. ULSTER. 
 
 Plantation Statute Plantation Statute Planta, Statute Planla. Statute 
 
 To Acres. Acres. Acres. Acres. Acres. Acres. Acres. Acres. 
 
 Protestants 956,388 1,549,188 1,193,170 1,932,738 331,145 536,400 334,423 541,710 
 
 The Irish . .421.541 682,826 415,274 672,675 496,864 804,837 100,918 163,470 
 
 Undisposed 136,771 221,548 212,017 343,432 140,789 228,055 19,357 31,355 
 
 Total 1,514,700 2,453,562 1,S20,461 2,948,845 968,798 1,569,292 454,698 736,535 
 
38 MEMOIR OF 
 
 badoes." This ancient patrimony was, however, again recovered by 
 barou John Grace, after au alienation of nearly two years, owing to 
 the particular and personal interposition of the Protector. Two private 
 
 Plantation Statute 
 
 Acres. Acres. 
 
 = { Leinster 956,388 1,549,188 
 
 ,= -) Minister. 1,193.170 1,932,738 
 
 •" -2 \ Connaught 331,145 536,401 
 
 £ff(Ulster 334,423 541,710 
 
 W 
 
 Totalis 2,815,126 4,560,037 
 
 „ e f Leinster 421 ,54 1 682,826 
 
 ^JMunster 415,274 672,675 
 
 o .» \ Connaught 496,864 804,837 
 
 ^-(Ulster 100,918 163,471 
 
 Totalis 1,434,597 2,323,809 
 
 . = /-LeiDster 136,771 221,548 
 
 ;|,,)Munsler 212,017 343,433 
 
 = g } Connaught 140,789 228,055 
 
 •"cLvUlster 19,357 31,355 
 
 Total is 508,934 824,391 
 
 42 (To the English .. 2,815,126 4,560,037 
 
 •2 ' To the Irish 1,434,597 2,323,809 
 
 6^ ( Left undisposed.. 508,934 824,391 
 
 In all 4,758,657 7,708,237 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 .=• fLeinster 19,364 17 
 
 £ )Munster 18,119 8 4 
 
 g> \ Connaught . . 3,352 10 1J 
 
 ■2 (Ulster 4,514 5 
 
 Total 45,351 5J 
 
 o 
 
 » t Leinster 8,535 6 6 
 
 £ - JMunster 6,306 6 6| 
 
 < ~ \ Connaught . . 5,030 4 7* 
 
 -' - (Ulster 1,362 5 2 
 
 a 
 
 p Total 21,234 2 10} 
 
 b 
 
 ° % /-Leinster 2,769 7 
 
 " S) Munster 3,219 13 8J 
 
 g S" } Conuaught . . 1,425 6 101 
 
 a % (Ulster 261 5 10 
 
 S " 7.675 13 41 
 
 13 
 
 «/English 45,351 51 
 
 £ '. Irish 21.234 2 10J 
 
 g «Undisposed.. 7,675 13 41 
 
 In all 74,260 16 8} 
 
 Observations on the before-mentioned Distribution of Ireland, and of the surveyed 
 Lands thereof. 
 
 Of the before-mentioned 10,868,949 acres, (that Ireland contains by the area thereof,) 
 there is to be deducted, for loughs, rivers, barren mountains, boggs, and higb-wayes, 
 one twelfth part, (being the nearest proportion that can be pitched upon,) which comes 
 UDto 905,745 acres, and the before-mentioned 4,758,657 acres surveyed as profitable 
 forfeited lands, and then there will remain 5,204,547 acres for the Protestants, the con- 
 stant good affection men of the Irish, the bishops, clergy, crowue-lands, aud lauds never 
 seized or surveyed. _ 
 
 There is oue half of Ireland, wanting only 445,890 acres, that hath been and is to 
 be settled and disposed off, pursuant to the Acts of Settlement and Explanation. 
 
 Of 4,249,723 acres, which are settled already, pursuant to the said acts, the English 
 have, as before said, 2,815,126 acres, and the Irish 1,434,596 acres, which is one-third 
 part of the whole within 18,023 acres. The distribution of which 4,249,723 acres to the 
 Euglish and Irish respectively, is before exprest and distinguished. 
 
 The before-mentioned 508,934 acres, that were surveyed but not disposed, are either 
 parts or fractions of townes, or possest by English and Irish, without title ; or were, 
 when Ireland was distributed uulo tbe adveuturers, soldiers, and transplanted persons, 
 looked upon as doubtfull whether forfeited or not, and soe were never sett out ; the 
 usurpers intending a further inquiry into the title of those lands before they disposed 
 them ; for which reason those lands never came under the cognizance of the commis- 
 sioners of the late court of claymes, nor were they claymed by any. By the Act of 
 Explanation, page 102, fifty-foure persons are to be restored to their mansion-houses, 
 and 2000 acres contiguous thereunto, pursuant to which clause thirty-six of them claymed 
 63,221 acres, and of which they are possest but of 42,202, aud soe are defficient 21,019 
 acres, but have in Connaught 28,665 acres not yet settled , and nine of them are restored 
 to their whole estates, two of which, viz. Thomas Butler, of Kilconnell, and Daniel 
 O'Bryan ; the particulars of tbeir lauds are not known, and the other seaven are possest 
 of 3S,894 acres ; and nine other of them never claymed any lands on that clause. 
 
 Had all the lands surveyed as forfeited been charged with quirt-rent, according 
 to the Act of Explanation, (and not part thereof had been remitted or discharged,) 
 
JOHN GRACE, BARON OF COURTSTOWN. 39 
 
 letters, of his own writing, in 1655, besides three official orders upon 
 the subject, are still extant; and to his son-in-law, the lord-deputy 
 Fleetwood, he strongly, though guardedly, thus expresses himself. 
 
 bearer, Mr. Grace, having obtained an ordinance from 
 .ourselfe IfHtl councell, in reference to his compounding for his estates, 
 and being, by reason of sickness, hindered from going oyer into Ireland 
 to prosecute the same, the perfecting of his commission hath been 
 retarded ; and, being now going over thither, hee hath besought me to 
 recommend his case to you, that he may have a speedy and favourable 
 dispatch of that business ; which I most earnestly desire of you, upon 
 the merits and equity of his case, hee being, I think, the only person 
 that the late lord-deputy did soe particularly recommend to favour, 
 upon the account of his forwardness and readiness to assist the English 
 
 forces and interest. 
 
 I rest, your loving ffather, 
 White-Hall, August 9, 1655. OLIVER P. 
 
 Cromwell had previously stated, in a public ordinance, issued on the 
 30th of August, 1 654, " that John Grace, of Courtstowne Castel, in the 
 countie of Kilkenny, in Ireland, esq., was, in the yeare 1641, (when the 
 
 there had heen yearly payable to his Majestie £74,260. 16s. 8{d. out of those lands, 
 which had been an eucrease to his Majesties revenue above what was payable in 
 the year 1640 ; the yearely summe of £61,362. Hi. 8d., his Majesties rents, (iucluding 
 the composition rents,) being then but £27,234. 3s. 7{d. yearely, of which there is 
 discharged, by the said act, for the lands that now pay nuitt-rents, £12,898. 5*. O^d. 
 yearly, which, being deducted from the said £74,260. 16j. 8\d. t leaves the before-said 
 sum of £61,362. lis. 8á. 
 
 A more particular Distribution of the Lauds surveyed as forfeited both to the 
 English and Irish. 
 
 CHANTED TO THE ENGLISH 
 Plantation 
 Acres. 
 
 Adventurers 486,054 
 
 Souldiers 1,472 936 
 
 Forty-nine Officers . . 278,041 
 Royal H. D. of York 104,598 
 
 Provisors 295,014 
 
 Duke of Ormoudf's ) 
 and Col. Butler's J 
 
 lands J 
 
 Bishops' augments 
 
 Statute 
 Acres. 
 787.326 
 2,385,915 
 460,380 
 169,431 
 477,873 
 
 158,977 257,516 
 
 tZ 8 ..^.?. :} 19 . 506 3, ' M6 
 
 Total 2,815,126 4,560,037 
 
 GRANTED OB DISPOSED TO THE IRISH. 
 
 Plantation Statute 
 
 Acres. Acres. 
 
 Decrees of Innocencie 726,321 1,176,520 
 
 Provisors 303,118 491,001 
 
 K ltfíuto„ te '!. . f . R . e :} ^ 644 «,398 
 
 Nominees in posseV- J i%v& 6836() 
 
 Transplantation . 334,312 541,530 
 
 Total 1,434,597 2,323,809 
 
 The forty-nine officers are such commission-officers, under the king, who served 
 in Ireland before 1649. The provisors are such as had provisoes in the Act of Settle- 
 ment for their lands. The nominees are such as were restored to their land by being 
 named in the same act. A pole or perch, Irish measure, is twenty-one feet; the acres 
 are measured by that perch, as those in England are by a perch of sixteen feet and a 
 half. Hence also eleven Irish miles make fourteen English according to this proportion. 
 
40 MEMOIR OF 
 
 late horrid rebellion broke forth,) in ward, and under age ;* and, in the 
 time of the said rebellion, hee did relieve diverse of the English," &c. &c. 
 He also openly interfered to diminish the amount of the composition- 
 money which was imposed, and to lengthen the time stipulated for its 
 payment. The high spirit, generosity of character, and singularly 
 prepossessing appearance of John Grace, are said to have excited in 
 him a most fortunate and efficient interest, of which tradition has pre- 
 served some marked instances. Ludlow observes, " that he was re- 
 stored to his great estates by Cromwell himself," who was not displeased 
 with his manly defence of them. The proposal of an individual, 
 strengthened by the influence of his official power, to accept of a 
 liberal indemnity in the province of Connaught in exchange for them, 
 was, for a long time, urgea and supported with hostile deeds and 
 threats, but was as constantly rejected by John Grace, with a hazardous 
 firmness. A possession of five hundred years must, doubtless, have 
 rendered Grace's country valuable to this family far beyond its intrinsic 
 worth ; and the recovery of their baronial castle, their patriarchal 
 domains, and their feudal adherents, was the just and eager object of 
 hereditary pride. 
 
 " The lofty scenes around their sires recall, 
 Fierce in the field, and generous in the hall ; 
 The mountain crag, and stream, and waving tree, 
 Breathe forth some proud and glorious history, 
 To urge their steps where patriot virtue leads, 
 And fires the kindred souls to kiudred deeds. 
 They tread elate the soil their fathers trod, ^ 
 
 The same their country, and the same their God ! " 
 
 It will be a very cold feeling, and little in sympathy with the senti- 
 ments here expressed, to regard the loss of mere property as the most 
 severe portion of the visitation. It is the laceration of our best affec- 
 tions that thus afflicts our bosoms, and there snaps but too many a 
 link, which fastened us to the memory of those who have gone before us. 
 But such sentiments were not confined to the immediate family of the 
 proprietor: they were the vivid feelings of a numerous race or clanship 
 of the name, occupying the wide extent of Grace's Country. During 
 the progress of this eventful struggle, the baron of Courtstown was 
 assisted by the advice and influence of the duchess of Ormonde, who 
 possessed a more distinguished pre-eminence in sense, spirit, and per- 
 sonal character, than she did even in birth and rank. The measures, 
 which she adopted to obtain the restitution of a portion of her maternal 
 
 * He succeeded his grandfather, Robert Grace, baron of Courtstown, and was son 
 of Oliver Grace, of Inchmore castle, iu the cantred of Grace's Country, who died in his 
 father's life-time, on the 6th of July, 1637, leaving issue by Joan, daughter and sole 
 heir of Sir Cyprian Horsfall, of lnnishnag, county of Kilkenny, four sons, viz. John 
 Grace, baron of Courtstown, as above ; second, Raymond ; third, Cyprian ; and 
 fourth, Robert. In 1658, Cyprian Grace, of Kilbriken, in the county of Kilkenny, 
 sold to Henry Lestrauge, of Raharra, in the King's County, the lands of Tullanehichy, 
 containing 544 acres, and the lands of Derrymfinala, containing 156, situated in the 
 parish of Faghy, barony of Longford, and county of Galway. 
 
JOHN GRACE, BARON OF COURTSTOWN. 41 
 
 inheritance from the commissioners of the Commonwealth, enabled her 
 to efficiently manifest her friendship on this occasion. Cromwell uni- 
 formly treated her with the utmost respect, and probably wished to 
 testify it in the instance of his favourable interfesence already men- 
 tioned. It should, perhaps, be observed, that Robert Grace, baron of 
 Courtstown, this gentleman's grandfather, was the feoffee of the duchess 
 of Ormonde's mother, lady Elizabeth Butler, the only child of Thomas 
 teuth earl of Ormonde, K.G., (by Elizabeth Sheffield, daughter of John 
 Lord Sheffield,) and the wife of Richard Preston, earl of Desmond, 
 to whom the duchess was sole heir. This circumstance, which arose 
 from a relationship by blood, sufficiently accounts for the great interest 
 she took in his welfare ;* and her constant residence at Dunmore Park, 
 near Kilkenny, from 1653 to 1660, while the duke remained in exile 
 with the king, afforded her frequent opportunities of evincing a con- 
 tinuance of these sentiments. On the restoration of the royal family, 
 he was especially confirmed in the possession of his property, by the 
 following clause or proviso, in the Act of Settlement, passed in the 
 Irish Parliament of 1662. " And be it further enacted, by the 
 authority aforesaid, that the commissioners for the execution of this 
 Act shall forthwith restore unto John Grace, of Courtstown-Castle, 
 esquire, and colonel Richard Grace, (of Moyelly-Castle,) and their 
 respective heirs, all and singular the messuages, lands, tenements, 
 and hereditaments, except impropriations and appropriate tithes, and 
 except the houses in Kilkenny, which they or either of them respec- 
 tively, or any other person or persons in trust for them, or either 
 of them respectively, had, held, or enjoyed, upon the two and twen- 
 tieth of October, 1641, and which are not already restored to the said 
 Richard Grace, by some decree of the commissioners for execution 
 of the said former Act herein confirmed, the respective adventurers or 
 souldiers, their heirs or assignees, now in the possession thereof, or 
 claiming the same, being first satisfied their respective charges and 
 proportions, and for their several and respective improvements, which 
 will be due to them by the rules of this Act ; and from and after such 
 restitution so made as aforesaid, the said John Grace shall hold, and 
 enjoy to him and his heirs, all and singular the lands, tenements, and 
 hereditaments so to be restored ; and the said Richard Grace shall hold 
 and enjoy to him and his heirs, the lands so to be restored, any thing in 
 this or the said former Act contained to the contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 • In acknowledgment both of his rank and consanguinity, he had assigned to him, 
 under the marshalling of the heralds, in the procession of no less than fourteen peers 
 and twelve commoners, all distinguished by their property/as well as by their near 
 connexion by blood with the duke of Ormonde, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, the 
 fourth place among the latter. The procession, thus marshalled, occurred on the 
 death of the lady Mary Stuart, daughter of James, duke of Richmond and Lennox, 
 and wife of Richard Butler, earl of Arran, second son of this illustrious viceroy, on 
 the 4th of July, 1668. " She was interred, (says Carte, vol. ii, p. 310,) at Kilkenny, 
 with all the pomp that her quality and the memory of her virtues deserved, the like 
 solemnity having never been seen in Ireland." See also vol. xiv, p. 94, of Funeral 
 Entries, in Ulster's Office. 
 
 G 
 
42 MEMOIR OF 
 
 The baron of Courtstown, and his eldest son Robert, together with 
 Sheffield Grace, Robert Grace, John Grace, Walter Grace, William 
 Grace, Oliver Grace, Richard Grace, and Thomas Grace, affixed their 
 signatures to " the address of the nobility, grand jury, and gentry, 
 of the county of Kilkenny, agreed on the 27th of April, 16S2, to be 
 presented to Charles II." He was appointed, in 1 686, high sheriff and 
 lieutenant-governor of the county of Kilkenny, and, in three years 
 afterwards, he represented the same couuty in parliament.* On the 
 revolution, he raised and equipped a regiment of foot, and a troop of 
 horse, at his own expense, for the service of king James, whom he fur- 
 ther assisted with money and plate, amounting, it is said, to £14,000. 
 Possessing a high character, and great local influence, he was early 
 solicited, with splendid promises of royal favour, to join king William's 
 party; but, yielding to the strong impulse of honourable feelings, he 
 iustantly, on perusing the proposal to this effect from one of the duke 
 of Schomberg's emissaries, seized a card, accidentally lying near him, 
 and returned this indignant answer upon it, " Go, tell your master, I 
 despise bis offer : tell him that honour and conscience are dearer to a 
 gentleman than all the wealth and titles a prince can bestow." This 
 card, which he sent uncovered by the bearer of the rejected offer, 
 happening to be the " six of hearts," is to this day very generally 
 known by the name of " Grace's card," in the city of Kilkenny. Thus 
 the nine of diamonds is styled " the curse of Scotland," from the duke 
 of Cumberland writing his sanguinary orders for military execution, 
 after the battle of Culloden, upon the back of that card. 
 
 When king William obtained possession of Dublin, after the deci- 
 sive battle of the Boyne, it is said that the unfinished patents of his de- 
 throned predecessor for creating Sir Patrick Trant, Sir Stephen Rice, 
 and Robert Grace, (this John Grace's eldest son,) peers of Ireland, were 
 found among the papers of the fallen government. The battle of 
 Naseby, says Gibbon, decided the judicial fate of Charles I, for that field 
 was the court in which the trial had been conducted. The banks of the 
 Boyne exhibited a different sort of tribunal ; but the decision was no 
 less final. John Grace, baron of Courtstown, died in 1690, leaving 
 issuef baron Robert Grace and Sheffield Grace, who married Elizabeth 
 
 * John Grace stands next to Richard Botler, lord viscount Mountgarret, in the 
 list of the twenty-four aldermen of the city of Kilkenny, elected December 14, 1G87. 
 Robert Grace, his son, was appointed, April 9, 1689, sovereign of the borough of Tho- 
 lnastown, in the county of Kilkenny; and John Grace, Robert Grace, Edward Butler, 
 lord Viscount Gaunoy, and Richard Uniake, burgesses. On the 14th of May, 1689, 
 John Grace, Harvey Morres, Robert Grace, senior, and Robert Grace, junior, were 
 appointed burgesses of Knocktopher, in the county of Kilkenny. 
 
 t His wife was Elizabeth, eldest daughter and eventual co-heir of Walter Walsh, 
 of Castle-Hoe), and of Magdalen Sheffield, only surviving sister of Edmund, second earl 
 of Mulgrave, and grand aunt and eventual sole beir of Edmund Sheffield, last duke of 
 Buckingham and Normanby. Ursula, the other daughter of Walter Walsh, was the 
 second wife of John Bryan, of Bawnmore, whose only surviving child, Elizabeth, married 
 Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh (Gracefield), so that the two branches of the Grace family 
 became thereby the sole representatives of the families of Walsh aud Sheffield. 
 
JOHN GRACE, BARON OF COURTSTOWN. 43 
 
 dowager viscountess Dillon. It is stated, by Harris, that, " In an 
 engagement, near Mountmelick, iu the Queen's County, on the 4th of 
 May, 1691, captain Michael Cheevers, lieutenant James Caddel, lieu- 
 tenant Michael Daly, and adjutant Farrel, of colonel Robert Grace's 
 regiment of foot, were taken prisoners by king William's army :" and, 
 in the London Gazette of July 20-23, in 1691, we find " the following 
 list of prisoners of distinction taken at the battle of Aughrim: major- 
 general Hamilton, lords Bellew, Slane, Killmure, and BufKn ; colonels 
 Butler, (Robert) Grace, Bourke, and Bagot." The noble enthusiasm 
 of " Grace's regiment," * in this action, evinced a patriotic devotion 
 that might dignify a Spartan band. Of that fine body, selected from 
 the flower of the youth of Grace's country, not fifty returned to their 
 homes, where they were received with scorn and reproaches, till their 
 chieftaiu's testimony confirmed their claim to the same heroic intre- 
 pidity which had distinguished their fallen comrades. The plaintive 
 strains excited by this event were the aspirations of a whole people. 
 They are still preserved, and still elevate the peasant's breast with sen- 
 timents of hereditary pride and national feeling. Robert Grace did not 
 himself long outlive this disaster. The wounds he received on the field 
 of Aughrim terminated, in the same year, his existence, while yet in 
 the vigour of life. Oliver, his eldest son, survived him only nine days, 
 and the estates passed to his next son, John Grace, the last palatine 
 baron of Courtstown. Both he and his father Robert were included in 
 the articles of Limerick, which guaranteed their personal safety and 
 the security of their property : but his eldest brother Oliver was, most 
 unfortunately, not included in them, being then in the south of France, 
 and in such extreme bad health that no hopes were entertained of his 
 recovery. He had, however, at an early period, joined the party of 
 king James, for whom his grandfather, as already stated, had raised a 
 regiment, the full command of which eventually devolved on his father 
 Robert. + Domestic events, of a common or quiescent character, are 
 generally of limited interest, and of contracted circulation. The cir- 
 cumstance, therefore, of his having survived his father was probably 
 only known to his immediate family ; and he is himself said to have 
 
 * It has been said that the Gentleman's Magazine contains a " something of every 
 tiling ; " and it is justly considered the most interesting, as well as useful, of all peri- 
 odical publications, for the preservation of detached and curious facts. The followiug 
 extract is taken from an article of that work, published in November, 17G2. " Mr. Tho- 
 mas Shortall, who died 25th of October, at Landreci, in French Flanders, was a native 
 of Kilkenny, in Ireland, aged 104 years, 7 months, and 5 days, being bom the 21st of 
 December, 1657. At the siege of Limerick, in 1691, he was captain of a company of 
 100 men in " Grace's regiment ; " and when a part of the remains of the Irish array went 
 the same year to France, and were regimented, Shortall was put upon half-pay. After 
 his death there was found among his papers a schedule of his estate, on which were 
 several fine seats. Of upwards of 30,000 Irish, who went over to France with him, and 
 of upwards of 100,000 who have gone over since, he was thought to be the sole survivor." 
 
 f Robert Grace sat iu parliament for the borough of Thomastowo, and was ap- 
 pointed (May ]8th, 1687,) sole governor and custos rotulorum of the King's County, 
 where, iu right of his wife, Frances, the only child of colonel Richard Grace, of Moyelly 
 castle, he was heir to a large property. 
 
44 MEMOIR OF 
 
 died without being acquainted with it. For some time, however, this 
 event was regarded as trivial. Irreproachable conduct, and a solemn 
 acquiescence in the revolution of their government, had apparently 
 secured this family from any danger of a revolution in their property. 
 Robert Grace, of Courtstown, therefore, took no precaution to guard 
 against the possible consequence of his heir being incapacitated, by 
 his absence, from deriving any benefit from the treaty alluded to. 
 He might have destroyed the entail, vested his estates in trustees, or 
 disposed of them by will. But he did not so act ; and treachery of the 
 foulest hue, domestic afflictions the most poignant, and the prostra- 
 tion of his ancient house, followed. The violence of party feeling, and 
 the forfeiture of many considerable properties oq the slightest grounds, 
 too soon shewed the vital importance of this fatal oversight. It now 
 became necessary to observe the utmost secrecy on the subjest, as the 
 certain forfeiture of the estate was evidently involved in the disclosure. 
 Their marked and efficient exertions for king James against the prevail- 
 ing government, and their great possessions, were no ordinary incen- 
 tives to confiscation. During ten years of a most rigorous, jealous, 
 and inquisitorial administration, the wise and blameless couduct of 
 John Grace prevented the occurrence of a single instance of its distrust 
 or hostility.* Thus circumstanced, he remained in undisturbed pos- 
 session of the Courtstown estates till the year 1701, when a "bill of 
 discovery 1 was maliciously filed against him by the dowager vis- 
 countess Dillon, (the relict of his uncle, Sheffield Grace, who died in 
 1684,-f) upon his refusing to comply with her unjust demand of £.500, 
 
 • Tbe residence of a catholic gentleman was, at this period, perpetually subject to 
 the insulting visits of police-officers; and they were themselves exposed to the daily 
 indignity of being personally examined, at whatever time or place the caprice or 
 tyranny of an ignorant or a mean-born magistrate might appoint. In conformity to 
 the spirit of the times, the viscount Mount garret, who married the widow of Oliver 
 Grace, of Shanganagh, was most wantonly committed to gaol ; on which occasion, in a 
 letter addressed to the three justices of the peace, by whom he was thus insulted, viz. 
 to " Robert Best, John Browne, and Gerald Fitz-Gerald, esquires, or any of them," 
 and dated at Shanganagh, the 2d of November, 1715, his lordship thus expresses him- 
 self: — " Gentlemen, I hope the government's order, which you have along with this, 
 will teach you better manners, and instruct you in the respect that is due to the 
 peerage of Ireland, which the insolence of your behaviour to me on Saturday last shews 
 you to have been strangers to, though one of you bad an opportunity of learning 
 better things, by the honor he had to hold a plate, for many years, at the back of a 
 noble relation of mine. I hope, in a short time, when the Parliament meets, it will be 
 my turn to require you to answer, at the bar of the House of Lords, how you durst 
 offer such an indignity to a member of that illustrious body, and that with another sort 
 of right than that on which you presumed to commit me to gaol, over whom yon have 
 no manner of jurisdiction. Your strange inadvertency may be some sort of excuse for 
 what is past ; but, for the time to come, I expect you to know me to be, which you 
 shall as soon as the house meets, ModntGARret." 
 
 + This gentleman, whose grandmother was Magdalen Sheffield, ofMulgrave, and 
 whose mother was cousin- germain, to John Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, was the 
 first of this family that bore, for his baptismal name, the surname of Sheffield. Oliver 
 Grace, of Shanganagh, M. P., had likewise a son christened Sheffield, who died iu 1699. 
 The fourth son of Michael Grace, of Gracefield, was also called Sheffield, and died in 
 1746, having married Frances Bagot, of Castle-Bagot. Sheffield is the name of the 
 second son of the late Richard Grace, of Boley, M. P. , and the brother of Sir William 
 Grace, bart. 
 
JOHN GRACE, BARON OF COURTSTOWN. 45 
 
 which she had endeavoured to extort from him by the threat of this 
 base disclosure. He was necessarily obliged, by this most infamous 
 act, to set forth his title before the Court of Claims,* where the 
 treacherous informer had previously discovered the concealed circum- 
 stance of Oliver's survivorship. His estates were accordingly pro- 
 nounced, on the 24th of March, 1701, to have been forfeited by his 
 elder brother Oliver, the presumed proprietor of them during nine 
 days, who was found (under the general act of attainder against king 
 James's adherents) to have been indicted' and outlawed in the county 
 of Meath, for bearing arms under that prince, which outlawry had 
 never been reversed, owing -to his absence from Ireland on the surrender 
 of Limerick.f This decision of the court most strongly interested 
 every man of honour and character in both parties. They abhorred 
 the unparalleled baseness of the informer, sympathised in the affecting 
 issue of the inquiry, and lamented that so cruel a judgment should he 
 founded on an obsolete act of attainder, which neglect alone had 
 suffered to remain in operation. It was demonstrated that of all the 
 adherents of James, Oliver Grace was, in point of fad, the most un- 
 justly attainted, as his feeble constitution had wholly disqualified him 
 for exertion. It was proved that he had been only during the short 
 period of nine days even a nominal possessor of his inheritance, that he 
 actually never knew it had descended to him, and that he had been then 
 dead upwards of ten years. A sentence of legalized injustice, opposed 
 to every principle of equity, and only resting on mere words, without 
 any reference to their undeniable intent and meaning, and solely 
 emanating from, and upheld by, a slight legal informality, it was 
 believed would be instantly annulled by an appeal to the British House 
 of Lords. In this situation of his affairs Mr. Grace repaired to London, 
 to solicit the interest of his kinsman, John Sheffield, duke of Buck- 
 ingham. The duke received him most kindly, made him reside at 
 Buckingham-House, treated him as his nearest relation, and seemed 
 vain of his appearance and acquirements ; though he was himself one of 
 
 « This court was instituted to receive claims to, or on, the estates forfeited by the 
 adherents of king James II, and to determine ou the lights of the several claimants. The 
 result of this commission was printed in a folio volume, in 1701, entitled, " A List of 
 the Claims, as they are entered with the Trustees at Chichester-House, on College-Green, 
 Dublin, on or before the loth of August, 1700." This work, being chiefly compiled for 
 people high in office, or of distinguished consequence, and not for extensive circulation, 
 is necessarily extremely scarce. A copy in the possession of Mr. Sheffield Grace contains 
 the decisions of the commissioners on each claim, in MS., together with rive additional 
 pages, (which were never printed,) thus headed, " A List of the Claymants' Names who 
 had liberty to enter their Clayms (by a clause in the late Act) before the 1st of September, 
 1701." Few, very few, of the old proprietors appear to have recovered their ancient inhe- 
 ritance. In the MS. index of the names recorded in this calamitous register, we find 
 Frances Grace, John Grace, Katharine Grace, Elizabeth Grace, Oliver Grace, Gerald 
 Grace, colonel Richard Grace, Richard Grace, Robert Grace, Sheffield Grace, James 
 Grace, Thomas Grace, Philip Grace, and Nicholas Grace. 
 
 t By the second article of the treaty there agreed upon, exception is made against 
 all persons " then out of the kingdom," with a view to protect the country from further 
 disturbance, by excluding such as continued to disown the existing government, or 
 such as might engage in plots for its subversion. 
 
46 MEMOIR OF 
 
 the most accomplished and learned noblemen of the British court. This 
 extreme kindness was the rock on which he split. One of the duke's 
 natural daughters lived in the house with him. Mr. Grace admired 
 her, and she was equally struck with him. An intimacy arose between 
 them, the fruits of which were easily perceived in a few months. On 
 the evening previous to the day appointed for the hearing of Mr. Grace's 
 appeal cause in the House of Lords, the duke became acquainted with 
 the circumstance, on which he immediately left Buckingham-House, 
 where Mr. Grace was staying, and, retiring to his seat at Richmond, he 
 altogether abandoned him, and refused to know any of the family ever 
 after. Thus the claim, after being preferred, was, almost at the very 
 moment of its supposed certain accomplishment, abandoned. If this 
 unfortunate event had not occurred, it may fairly be presumed that the 
 Courtstown estates would have been recovered. The manifest injustice 
 of the forfeiture, together with the great exertions and commanding in- 
 fluence of the duke, then lord privy-seal, had ensured for him a certainty 
 of success previous to any decision on the appeal. From the testimony 
 of the duchess, and from the pedigree of the Sheffield family still ex- 
 tant, drawn up about this time by the duke himself, it is further evident 
 that he then intended that his vast estates should descend to his heir at 
 law. To the unpardonable breach of hospitality, of which Mr. Grace 
 was guilty, is clearly to be attributed the final ruin of his family. His 
 estates, consisting of 32,870 acres of land, chiefly in the counties of 
 Kilkenny and Tipperary, (8170 of which, with the castle of Courtstown, 
 were situated in the barony of Cranagh, in the former of these counties, 
 as appears by his petition in the Forfeiture-Office, Dublin,) were thereby 
 irrecoverably lost. The duke of Buckingham likewise excluded him 
 from the legal contingency of being his heir, to which he was bora ; and 
 adopting his natural sou, Charles Herbert, he entailed upon him the 
 reversion of most of his great property on the death of his only son, 
 duke Edmund, and the failure of his issue ; at the same time directing 
 him to assume thereon the name of Sheffield. But notwithstanding 
 this domestic quarrel, which, in the first instance, occasioned the 
 appeal-cause to be suspended, and ultimately to be abandoned, the 
 restoration of Mr. Grace's estates was still considered so certain, that 
 the occupants at four years' purchase appear to have felt their situation 
 as somewhat precarious. Under the influence of this apprehension, these 
 new owners began the work of ruin. The castle of Courtstown was 
 immediately stripped of its leaded roof, which was transported to 
 Clonmel, and there sold 5 and the want of this protection soon com- 
 pleted the destruction, which the more active dilapidation had begun. 
 The woods were felled from off nearly 500 acres ; and the trees were 
 floated down the river Nore on their way to Waterford, or were burned 
 for charcoal ; a process of which the pits remaining to this day preserve 
 abundant proofs. 
 
 In the mean time Mr. Grace abandoned himself to the influence of 
 shame, remorse, and despair. Buried in the obscurest retirement, he 
 
JOHN GRACE, BARON OF COTJRTSTOWN. 47 
 
 soon sunk into an incurable despondency ; aud, withdrawing himself 
 from all intercourse with even his nearest relations, he shrunk from the 
 efforts of any further personal exertion. His affairs being thus wholly 
 neglected, the estate became irretrievably lost;* and he expired a 
 wretched victim of self-reproach, for the ruin which his misconduct had 
 entailed upon his family. With the exception, however, of this fatal 
 instance of moral deviation, his conduct through life was more than 
 blameless : it was undoubtedly praiseworthy. For ten years his pru- 
 dence obtained the negative approbation of a most jealous, partial, and 
 hostile government ; and in the civil wars preceding that period, he 
 was aid-de-camp to the celebrated general Sarsfield, earl of Lucan, 
 
 * Od the confiscation of this great property, a specific act was passed, 1st of Anne, 
 in the English parliament, solely for its regulation, which, after recognizing some 
 incumbrances affecting it, enacts " that no Papist, or person professing the Popish 
 religiou, shall be able to purchase any of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or 
 premises aforesaid ; or any rents, profits, or interests, in or out of the same ; and that 
 all leases, which shall at any time hereafter be made of any of these lands, shall be to 
 persons only of the Protestant religion ; and if any lease shall be made in trust for a 
 Papist, or to a Protestant, and the same shall afterwards be assigned to a Papist, or in 
 trust for one, every such lease so made to, or in trust for, any Papist shall be void ; and 
 the same is hereby adjudged and declared to be, ipso facto, null and void to all intents 
 and purposes whatsoever. And, in such cases, as well the person making any such lease 
 or assignment, as the person to whom, or for whose use or benefit, the same shall be 
 made, in case such person shall accept such lease or assignment, or shall occupy any of 
 the lands or tenements herein contained, shall forfeit treble the full yearly value of all 
 the lands so let, assigned, or occupied, one moiety thereof to her Majesty, her heirs, and 
 successors, and the other moiety to such person, heing a Protestant, who shall sue for 
 the same, in any of her Majesty's courts of record at Dublin, by any bill, plaint, or 
 information, wherein no essoigne, protection, wager of law, or imparlance, shall be al- 
 lowed," &c. &c. Thus early was the intolerant spirit of Anne's government exemplified ; 
 aud the patrimony of a private family afforded, perhaps, the first opportunity, in this 
 reign, for commencing that penal and. infernal code, which has since been justly deno- 
 minated " the ferocious acts of Anne." The historical accuracy, unstudied eloquence, 
 and generosity of sentiment, exhibited by the writer of a series of letters, " addressed 
 to the people of Ireland," under the signature of " THE SPIRIT OF KING WILLIAM," 
 thus vindicates the enlightened and liberal policy of Anne's predecessor. " I lived and 
 died a Protestant prince ; but I never was a Protestant bigot. I was the first monarch 
 on the British throne who endeavoured to extend to my subjects universal freedom. It 
 is true that, as a conqueror, I entered Ireland ; but the efforts of my arms were directed, 
 not to enslave her, but to rescue her from the will of an arbitrary tyrant, aud the 
 shackles of religious slavery. Those who are the loudest in invoking my name, have 
 succeeded in again binding around you, forged by Protestant artists, the chain which, 
 welded amongst the fires of the Vatican, I had broken. And they would fain, in their 
 own shape, restore you to the duress of arbitrary power, were it not for the shame of 
 being obliged to acknowledge those to be virtues in a Protestant prince, which they 
 had stigmatized as vices in a Popish tyrant. I knew the catholics constituted the 
 majority of my Irish subjects. My object was to conciliate, not to convert them ; 
 not to make them, like Mahomet, with his sword iu one hand and his creed in the other, 
 apostles of my faith, but the catholic supporters of my crown. I offered Tyrconnel, 
 the catholic lieutenant of Ireland, and the catholic population which he governed, the 
 following terms, to secure their allegiance. First, the free exercise of their religion. 
 Secondly, half the churches of Irelaud. Thirdly, half the employments, civil and 
 military, in the country. Fourthly, the moiety of their ancient possessions; and, 
 finally, I engaged to get these terms ratified by my English parliament. If Tyrconnel 
 and the catholics refused these offers, it proves their adherence to him whom they 
 chose still to consider as their lawful sovereign ; but it docs not prove my wish to 
 govern Ireland by the Protestants alone, and by giving them the power of treading on 
 
.<•■> 
 
 48 MEMOIR, &c. 
 
 commander in chief of king James's army, and participated in the 
 many chivalrous exploits that distinguished the romantic valour of that 
 officer. His intrepid and generous spirit, amidst scenes of slaughter 
 and cruelty, was not unbecoming the representative of his ancient and 
 honourable house ; and in some of the popular poetry of the day, the 
 name of Grace is found associated with that of Sarsfield. It thus 
 occurs, in a favourite ballad, extolling the general's heroic enterprise 
 against king William's great train of besieging artillery, which he 
 surprised, captured, and blew up, with a tremendous explosion, at 
 Ballynedy, in the county of Limerick, on the 12th of August, 1690. 
 It is said that, on the birth of this baron of Courtstown's only son 
 Robert, the bells of eleven churches, connected with the estates to 
 which he was the supposed heir, and numerous bonfires, testified the 
 popular opinion that then prevailed of his future prosperity. But, 
 before he reached his sixteenth year, necessity drove him to the exiled 
 court of St. Germain's ; and, having entered into the French service, he 
 attained the rank of captain, which he resigned on inheriting, after the 
 death of Edmund Sheffield, the last duke of Buckingham and Normanby, 
 the undevised part of the Sheffield estates, as co-heir at law, in conjunc- 
 tion with his kinsman, Michael Grace, of Gracefield. Robert Grace 
 died unmarried in 1764 ; and thus the family of Gracefield became the 
 representatives, in the male line, of the house of Courtstown. 
 
 the necks of their catholic brethren. By offering to obtain the ratification of my 
 English parliament, I proved that I did not consider power vested in the catholics to 
 be hostile to the constitution, to preserve which that parliament had then but newly 
 placed me on the throne. Let it be further remembered also, that, in the maintenance 
 of that constitution, as by law established, 1 had, at the solemnity of my coronation, 
 but just before taken the very same oath, which has since been sworn by all my royal 
 successors on the throne of England. If, therefore, the catholics of Ireland do not, at 
 this moment, enjoy much higher privileges than any which they have since, even in 
 the wildest fancies, solicited from the British parliament, let not the fault be placed at 
 my door, hut at the door of those, who, urged by motives of mistaken attachment and 
 erroneous loyalty, refused them j and, afterwards, by their intrigues and misconduct, 
 made it necessary for me to adopt harsher measures, uot to put down catlwlic, but to 
 repress rebellious, subjects.'* See also vol. ii, p. 12, of Plowden's History of Ireland, 
 oct. edit., Lottd., 1812. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 OLIVER GRACE, M. P. 
 
 Oraanda est dignitas domo : non ex domo tota qujerenda est.— CICERO. 
 
 J-N briefly noticing the character of Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh, it 
 may be allowable to repeat, that the good and enlightened and excellent 
 qualities which he exhibited were entirely his own ; and, if his name 
 casually appears connected with official acts of doubtful hue, our cen- 
 sure ought in fairness to be directed against the times rather than the man. 
 Evil passions seldom fail to predominate in the unsettled and lawless pe- 
 riod of civil warfare ; and that worth cannot be too much admired which 
 is occasionally seen successfully to uphold itself, and brighten with its 
 existence some little spot in the cheerless waste of moral desolation. 
 The severe sense of right and boundless philanthropy in Oliver Grace 
 had trying opportunities, and ample room for expansion ; and bis prac- 
 tical merit in these particulars can only be estimated by a knowledge 
 of the circumstances affecting him, personally as well as politically; 
 and by an intimate acquaintance with the temper of the times in which 
 he lived. He was the son of William Grace, of Ballylinch* Castle, by 
 Ellinor, sister of Edward Butler, second viscount Galmoy, and the 
 grandson of Gerald, also of Ballylinch, by Ellen, daughter and co-heir 
 of Edmund Butler, third lord Dunboyne. The father of Gerald Grace 
 was Oliver, of Ballylinch, who married Margaret, sister of Richard 
 Butler, third viscount Mountgarret,f and died in 1626, leaving him a 
 
 • Iu a former note, on the denominations of places in the cantred of Grace's 
 conntry, the uniform and striking significancy of the Celtic language has heen shewn. 
 A further instance of its descriptive character is to be found in the word Bally-Inch, 
 (sometimes comiptly called Ballyhinch, as well as Ballylinch,) i. e. ■ the peoinsulated 
 townland,' or ' the dwelling-place of the peninsula.' The extensive tract of land for- 
 merly thus named, is inclosed nearly on three sides by a great curve of the river Nore, 
 which gives it the general form of a peninsula. Much of it is, however, now solely 
 known by its sub-denominations, which have as little reference to its original Celtic 
 name, as to its existing topographical character. 
 
 •f Sir Oliver (cialmhar) Grace, of " the Leagan," was the founder of the Ballylinch 
 or Gracefield branch of this family, which is now the representative in the male line of 
 the house of Courtstown. Sir John Grace, lord of Grace's Country, and baron of Courts- 
 town, (called crios iarann, the iron-belted,) living in 1516, married Catherine, daughter 
 of Pierce lord le Poer, or Power, of Curraghmore, and had, among other issue, 
 Sir John Gras, (called more, the great,) baron of Courtstown, (from whom the succeed- 
 
 H 
 
50 MEMOIR OF 
 
 minor, and in ward to Sir Thomas Loftus, his paternal gTand uncle. 
 The circumstance of his minority naturally connected him by the 
 closest ties with his maternal family; and it is not, therefore, surpris- 
 ing to find him in the army of his uncle, Richard lord Mount garret, 
 who was general of all the Irish forces raised against the Parliament. 
 His services were, however, of short duration ; for, in the account of 
 the battle of Kilrush, in the county of Kildare, on the 15th of April, 
 1642, his name appears among the list of slain. This event was fol- 
 lowed by the seizure of his estates; and the rights, infancy, and help- 
 lessness of his sons, were disregarded by the commissioners of the 
 Commonwealth, who distributed the confiscated lands among their 
 adherents, in the possession of which the Act of Settlement (passed in 
 1660) permanently confirmed them. By this deed of undistinguishing 
 rapacity, upwards of 17,000 acres in the counties of Kilkenny and 
 Tipperary, and also in the King's and Queen's counties, together with 
 sixteen rectories, and the four residences of Ballylincb, Legan, Killerney, 
 and Carney Castles, contributed to reward the needy followers* of the 
 
 ing barons of Courtstown were descended,) and a younger son, Sir Oliver Grace, {called 
 cialmhar, the wise,) of Leagan, Ballylinch, and Carney Castles, to whom Queen Eliza- 
 beth granted, in 1562, the site, estates, and livings, of the great priory of St. John the 
 Baptist of Tyone, near Nenagh. He was member of parliament for the county of Tip- 
 perary, in 1559 ; and, by his wife Mary, sister of Sir Maurice Fitz-Gerald, created lord 
 viscount Decies, in 1569, and daughter of Sir Gerald, third lord of Decies, he had issue 
 Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch Castle, &c, his successor, who married Margaret, daughter 
 of Sir Robert Hartpole, of Shrule Castle, and sister of Ellinor, the wife of Francis 
 Cosby, of Stradbally, and of Ellen, the wife of Sir Thomas Loftus, of Timocho and 
 Killyan, by whom she had issue Oliver Grace, of Ballylinch, &c, who married Mar- 
 garet, daughter of Edmund Butler, second lord viscount Mountgarret, and sister of 
 Richard, the third viscount, as above. 
 
 * The relationship which exists between the families of Carrick^jCarbery, and Lan- 
 grish, (the three present proprietors of the Kilkenny portion of these estates,) and 
 the lineal descendants of the forfeiting proprietor, is rather singular.— Ballylinch and 
 Ijegan, and various adjoining lands, were granted to captain John Joyner, who was 
 formerly cook to Charles I, and were conveyed by him to his brother-in-law, colonel 
 Daniel Redman. Killerney, and other property, were in like manner acquired by 
 captain Rogers, from whom they passed to his son-in-law, captain Meihill. 
 
 Colonel Redman had two daughters and co-heirs, the eldest married James Butler, 
 third viscount Ikerrin, ancestor to the earl of CARRICK, the present proprietor of a 
 moiety of colonel Redman's share of the Ballylinch estates : the other married Sir John 
 Meade, of Balliutobber, whose only child, Elizabeth Meade, had issue, by Sir Ralph 
 Freke, au only daughter and eventual heir, Grace Freke, who married the honourable 
 John Evans, grandfather of lord CARBERY, the present proprietor of the other moiety 
 of colonel Redman's share of the Ballylinch estates. 
 
 Captain Meihill had also two daughters and co-heirs : the eldest married Charles first 
 marquis of Ely, and the other married the right honourable Sir Hercules LANGRISH, 
 of Knocktopher, whose son, Sir Robert Langrish, is the present proprietor of Killerney, 
 captain MeihiU's share of the Ballylinch estates. 
 
 William Grace, son of Gerald, of Ballylinch, the forfeiting proprietor, was the 
 maternal half-brother of Pierce Butler, second viscount Ikerrin, whose son James, the 
 third viscount, grandfather of the first earl of CARRICK, acquired Ballylinch castle, 
 (now Mount Juliet,) by marriage, as above. Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh, (now 
 Gracefield,) this William's eldest sou, was, consequently, by birth, half-uephew to 
 Pierce, second viscount Ikerrin ; and he also became, by marriage, his brother-in-law ; 
 lord Ikerrin marrying Ellinor, daughter of John Bryan, of Bawnmore, by Anne Loftus, 
 his first wife, and Oliver Grace marrying Elizabeth, another daughter of John Bryan, 
 of Bawnmore, by Ursula Walsh, his second wife. 
 
OLIVER GRACE, M.P. 51 
 
 liberal and fortuuate Cromwell. John, the elder of Gerald Grace's sons, 
 died without issue; on which William, the younger, became heir to the 
 pretensions of his family. His efforts to recover the patrimony of his 
 ancestors were fruitless ; for, though he was denominated of Ballylinch, 
 his residence was at Barrowmount, a seat belonging to his brother-in- 
 law, the lord Galraoy. Oliver, the subject of this short notice, was his 
 eldest sou ; a man to whom, locally, his country owed much ; to whom 
 many contemporary families were most deeply indebted ; and to whom 
 his own descendeuts must attribute their possession of a rank in society, 
 somewhat approximating to the character of their ancestry, and some- 
 what not unworthy of the blood which they inherit. He settled at Shan- 
 gauagh, in the Queen's County, having obtained in marriage a small 
 estate, adjoining the county of Kilkenny, in that neighbourhood, which 
 subsequent purchases considerably augmented.* His maternal relative, 
 Abbé J. Butler, a French ecclesiastic, undertook the care of his educa- 
 tion ; and to the ability and integrity with which that important trust 
 
 Richard Grace, of Boley, the great grandson of the above Oliver Grace, was uncle 
 to lord CARBERV, having married Jane, daughter of the honourable John Evans, lord 
 Carbery's grandfather above mentioned. The issue of this marriage, namely, Sir Wil- 
 liam Grace and his two brothers, Sheffield and Percy, are consequently descended from 
 colonel D. Redman, to whom Cromwell granted the estates of their ancestor. 
 
 Sir Hercules LANGUISH, who married the daughter and heir of captain Meihill, 
 was grandson of John Langrish, of Knocktopher, by Mary, daughter of Robert Grace, 
 baron of Courtstown, and sister of John Grace, of the same, who married Lettice, 
 daughter of Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh, the grandson and heir of Gerald Grace, the 
 forfeiting proprietor. It has thus casually happened that these Kilkenny estates are 
 at present in possession of lord Carrick, lord Carbery, and Sir Robert Langrish, who 
 are severally connected, in the foregoing manner, with the Grace family. But the 
 extensive possessions in the couuty of Tipperary and in the King's County of the line 
 of Ballyliucb, now Gracefield, are undistinguished from other foifeitures by any parti- 
 cular incident. It is curious, and at the same time melancholy, to see how the numerous 
 con6scatious in Ireland, by which so much property has been repeatedly unseated and 
 set in motion, have driven the titles of estates across each other, so as to form a most 
 curious net-work of claims, connexions, and possessions. 
 
 « The rise in the value of land on this estate is worthy of remark. It appears by 
 the original MS. of a rental made on this gentleman's death, for his son, Michael 
 Grace, of Gracefield, that, in 1708, that part of his property which adjoined Gracefield, 
 in the parish of Rathespeck, being about 1300 acres, was then let at something less 
 ihau 3$. 6d. an acre. Most of it did not produce above 2s. 6d. t and much of it only 
 2s. t though, indeed, for part of it, the then high rent of 4s. an acre was paid. The 
 townland of Kilfeakle, in particular, was held at 2s. 6d. au acre ; and it is now let for £2. 
 an acre. So very great a disproportion between the past and the present value of land is, 
 however, not universal. The same rental informs us that part of that gentleman's estate, 
 in the county of Kilkenny, and not above three miles distant from the populous city of 
 that county, was then let at the acreable rent of 6s., of which 167 acres were, in 1819, 
 re-let at £\. 15s. an acre. From the rentals at Gracefield, similar comparisons might 
 be made, in reference to lands iu other parts of the Queen's Couuty, and also to land 
 within five miles of Dublin, and within three miles of Elphin, in the county of Ros- 
 common. But without detailing further particulars, it must be obvious that theorists 
 greatly err, who maintain that in Ireland, as in England, the value of land determines 
 the value of labour and of the necessaries of life. In the neighbourhood of Gracefield, 
 the peasant's daily hire is from \0d. to 1*., and the average price of beef and mutton 
 from Ad. to bd. a pouud. Thus this enormous increase in the value of land is exclu- 
 sively in favour of the proprietor; while a redundant population has contributed to 
 prevent it from being accompanied by a just and desirable increase in the value of 
 labour. 
 
52 MEMOIR OE 
 
 was discharged, he was chiefly indebted for the uninterrupted and high 
 respectability of his character through life. Though the affluent inherit- 
 ance of his family was irretrievably lost, his rich mental acquirements 
 gave him a personal weight and influence in public affairs, during the 
 reigns of the second Charles and James, little inferior to what the opu- 
 lent possessions of his ancestors had for many centuries entitled them 
 to enjoy. His refinement of manners, and his strict integrity of princi- 
 ple, largely added to this influence ; and, if we may judge of his personal 
 appearance, from a half-length picture of him, by Gaspar Smitz, nature 
 must be pronounced to have been generous in his favour. He was no- 
 ticed with peculiar kindness by king Charles and king James. To the 
 latter monarch he owed his appointment to the importaut situation of 
 chief remembrancer of the exchequer of Ireland.* He was likewise a 
 member of that prince's privy-council, and the representative, with his 
 kinsman, Sir Gregory Byrne, bart., (paternal ancestor of Sir John Fleming 
 Leycester, of Tabley, Cheshire,) in the parliament of 1689, for the bo- 
 rough of Ballyuakill, in the Queen's County.-f Though, like the rest of 
 his family, a zealous supporter of the house of Stuart, his public and 
 private life were remarkably free from even the slightest taint of reli- 
 gious bigotry. His political conduct, both in and out of parliament, 
 evince a more decided spirit of enlightened toleration than is to be met 
 with in that of any other man of note among king James's ministers, 
 at a period when the ebullition of popular fanaticism was at its height. 
 Connected as he was by blood, as well as by friendship, with Sir 
 Richard Nagle, then secretary of state, he could not be prevailed upon 
 to concur with him in supporting the ruinous and unconstitutional 
 measures which the duke of Tyrconnel hurried their unfortunate master 
 to adopt. As the temptation of acquiring influence never induced him 
 to countenance arbitrary measures, so neither could even the brilliant 
 prospect of regaining the great and ancient inheritance of his family, 
 confiscated by Cromwell, elicit his consent to the proposed repeal of 
 the Act of Settlement. His sentiments of justice and honour evinced 
 a Roman severity in every circumstance that could be brought to 
 depend upon himself. Thus it was that, during the civil war, he uni- 
 formly behaved in such a manner, as to acquire the esteem of whatever 
 was virtuous or respectable in both parties. The great sacrifices of 
 his family to the house of Stuart, and his own exertions in its support, 
 placed the sincerity of his political wishes beyond the reach of suspicion, 
 
 * This office is now held bj Richard Marquis Wellesley, K. G. lord-lieutenant of 
 Ireland, &c. 
 
 + Id 1687, Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh, and his brother John Grace, of the 
 Grange, together with lord Upper-Ossory and Sir Gregory Byrne, bart., were appointed 
 burgesses of Maryborough, in the Queen's County. In the same year, we again find 
 Oliver and John Grace, together with Johu Bagot, Charles Kavanagh, and Sir Law- 
 rence Esmond, bart., appointed burgesses of the town of Carlow ; and, in 1688 also, we 
 find Oliver and John Grace, together with Sir Maurice Eustace, bart., Sir Gregory 
 Byrne, bart., Robert Fitz-Gerald, and William Talbot, esqrs., appointed burgesses of 
 Athy, in the county of Kildarc. 
 
OLIVER GRACE, M.P. 53 
 
 and enabled him to fearlessly and efficiently exert his unaffected candour 
 and benevolence towards numerous individuals. The uprightness of his 
 principle and the benignity of his heart were so paramount to sectarian 
 feelings, that he scrupled not to resent, as a personal insult, the oppro- 
 brious epithets bestowed by Sir Patrick Trant on some of his Protestant 
 neighbours, with whom he lived on terms of intimacy and friendship. 
 That gentleman, who held the office of first commissioner of the 
 revenue, had purchased a considerable estate in the Queen's County, 
 which he was desirous of representing in the parliament of 1689. 
 With this view he came to Shanganagh, recommended by a letter from 
 king James to Mr. Grace, requiring him to exert, for his favourite, all 
 the influence he possessed, and extolling the peaceable and loyal conduct 
 of his Protestant subjects in the Queen's County. As this letter was 
 obviously written for the purpose of being shewn, it was accordingly 
 read by most of the principal gentry, who derived from it much satis- 
 faction in the hope which it held out of tranquillity and protection. 
 But Sir Patrick Trant expressed towards them very different sentiments, 
 grossly reviling some of Mr. Grace's friends, through whose persuasion 
 a suitable acknowledgment of the king's approbation had been obtained 
 from their Protestant brethren. Mr. Grace advocated their conduct 
 with such honest zeal and success, that Sir Patrick's warmth led him to 
 use a language which necessarily induced him to abruptly leave Shan- 
 ganagh, as it did Mr. Grace to immediately follow him to Dublin, to 
 demand satisfaction. The king, however, was apprised of the circum- 
 stance previously to the duel's taking place, and, calling both of them 
 into his presence, he effected a reconciliation : but he felt himself, in 
 justice, obliged to censure the unguarded and improper demeanour of 
 his more complaisant courtier. 
 
 In further illustration of the virtuous principles of this gentleman, 
 it may be stated, that, when the power of James's party was resistless 
 and unfettered, as it virtually was, by law, several of the most con- 
 siderable estates in the Queen's County were assigned over to him in 
 trust by their Protestant proprietors, who depended solely on his 
 honour for the restoration of them. On the successful progress of 
 king William's arms, and the issue of the contest appearing doubtful, 
 he entrusted, in a like manner, his property to two of his Protestant 
 neighbours. One of these evinced an unsullied integrity on the occa- 
 sion ; and neither the Killmaroney or Gracefield families can wish it 
 to be concealed, that the gentleman who so acted was Mr. Weldon. It 
 is, however, painful to add, that the other withheld a considerable part 
 of what ought to have been regarded as a most sacred deposit, when 
 thus solely confided to the safeguard of honour and of conscience. His 
 house was also, during their absence, the secure and crowded asylum 
 of their helpless wives and children, who were thus protected from the 
 outrages of the barbarous soldiers with which the kingdom was infested. 
 A sense of right so unbiassed, and a humanity so efficient, did not re- 
 main unrecompensed. After the surrender of Limerick, when peace 
 
54 MEMOIR OF 
 
 was restored, and the hopes of king James's friends annihilated, he 
 received, in a public manner, the thanks of the whole county for his 
 benevolent and generous behaviour in the worst of times. His services 
 were still further most gratefully acknowledged, in a petition from the 
 Protestant gentry of the Queen's County presented to king William, 
 representing his conduct in the fairest light, and beseeching his Majesty, 
 as much as in him lay, to exempt Mr. Grace from the penalties incurred 
 by his attachment to the house of Stuart. It is but just to king Wil- 
 liam's memory to add, that, with the prayer of this petition he not 
 only cheerfully complied, but expressed his satisfaction at being en- 
 abled thus to do in favour of conduct so honourable and humane. A full 
 and general pardon was accordingly grauted to him, under the great 
 seal, on the 21st of May, 1696, for his adherence to king James, and 
 for all other offences agaiust the state. He died in 1708, aged forty- 
 seven, and was interred in Grace's chapel, or south wing of Aries 
 church A plain tablet over the principal window, bearing the brief 
 inscription, " O. G. sedif. an. 1687," commemorated the founder of 
 this portion of the church till the decayed and irreparable state of the 
 edifice induced his descendents to rebuild it. This object was accom- 
 plished, in 1818, at the joint expense of Mrs. Kavanagh,* of Gracefield ; 
 of Sir William Grace, bart.j and of his two brothers, Sheffield, of Lin- 
 colu's-Iun, F.S.A., and Percy, a captain in the royal navy. The Grace 
 Mausoleum,f solidly constructed of dressed stone, in the gothic style 
 of architecture, with projecting buttresses, carved pinnacles, &c, now 
 
 • Alicia, the wife of Morgan, third son of Thomas Kavanagh, of Borris-House, in 
 the county of Carlow, by lady Susan Butler, sister of John, seventeenth earl of 
 Ormonde and Ossory, was the only child of the late Michael Grace, of Gracefield, by 
 Mary, daughter and co-heir of Nicholas Plunket, of Dunsoghly-Castle. Catharine 
 Plunket, of Dunsoghly, the second of these co-heirs, was mother of Richard Malone, 
 of Pallas Park, in the King's County, and of Baronstown, in the county of West- 
 meath ; and Margaret Plunket, the third co-heir, was mother of lieutenant-general 
 Edward Dunne, of Brittas, in the Queeu's County. 
 
 + The term Mausoleum, as sculptured on the commemorative tablet of this build- 
 m°- has been objected to by the most distinguished scholar of the age, in a letter 
 to the author, as not being strictly classical. " I doubt," says that profound writer, 
 "Mausoleum: iu page 175, article 9, of Grater's inscriptions, the word occurs ; but 
 I suspect the iuscription ; and Heinsius thought as 1 do, that it is not genuine," &c. &c. 
 It is, in course, unnecessary to state that the scholar alluded to is Dr. Parr. With the 
 opinion above expressed, also, agrees that of the learned and excellent translator of the 
 Greek Antholcria, as well as the author of various original works, communicated in a 
 letter on the subject, to Chandos Leigh, esq., of Stoneleigh-Abbey, whose cultivated 
 taste and poetical attainments are well known. " I am not certain," says he, " whether 
 I should not boldly hazard Pandochteum; for, although it means an inn, i.e. asojourn, 
 or place of rest and reception for all, still waySo^eui ASnf is no violence of combina- 
 tion. Indeed, the two words have already shaken hands ; and, in all our common places 
 on life and death, the former is the journey, and the latter the Testing-place. But this 
 I dare not press. My objection to Mausoleum, (in Mr. Sheffield Grace's inscription,) 
 is, that it recalls Myr/Mt St MctiwwXoio «sXwpiov, and with it a profusion of expense 
 and architectural grandeur, which no modern fortune or architect could equal : and 
 hence it seems like over-appraising one'B own creation. Possibly ' hoc mortuorum 
 domiciliuni or hospicium,' which would about answer to the ■ sacro albergo della morte* 
 of the Italians" &c. &c. Yet it may, on the other hand, be asserted, that the word has 
 
OLIVER GRACE, MP. 55 
 
 occupies the original site, and covers the old burial vault of Grace's 
 chapel. Every vestige of the other parts of Aries church having been 
 removed, and the church having been re-constructed beyond the ancient 
 limits of the church-yard, the mausoleum now stands alone on a high and 
 
 become naturalized in the English language by custom ; and the authority of Martial 
 may be quoted to show that such also was the case among the Romans. 
 
 " Jam vicina jubent nos vivere Mausolea,* 
 Cum doceant ipsos posse perire Deos. — Lib. V, 63-5." 
 
 " The neighbouring sepulchral monuments persuade us to make use of life," &c. &c. 
 But though the imposing edifice, dedicated to the memory of the Carian mouarch, was 
 of unrivalled splendour, that circumstance surely does not deprive the sepulchral repo- 
 sitory of a private family from its right to the same name. The tomb of Cestius, near 
 Rome, was infinitely inferior in grandeur to the Egyptian pyramids; but it was called 
 and is a pyramid. 
 
 The inscription suggested by Mr. Bland, in the letter alluded to, which, however, 
 was not adopted, is as follows :— 
 
 Alá australis eccles. Arelatensis 
 
 ( Frimitus ab Oliverio Grace amig. de Shanganagh, 
 
 sive Gracefield, 
 
 Anno redemptse salutis MDCLXXXVII extract* 
 
 Et ad ossa familice de Gracefield recipienda destinata ) 
 
 haud ita pridem vetustate collapsá; 
 
 hoc mortuorum hospicium 
 
 sibi posterisque 
 
 Dna. Alicia Kavanagh, olim Grace de Gracefield, 
 
 Gulielmus Baronettus, 
 
 Sheffieldus armig. ICtus, 
 
 Percieus armig. regia? classis prcefectus 
 
 uominis ejusdemomnes et familiaa 
 
 sacrum voluerant 
 
 AD. MDCCCXVIII. 
 
 The accomplished writer of this inscription, together with Mr. Hickie, of Bracon- 
 dale, near Norwich, the editor of J uveual and Terence, and the author of other literary 
 works; Mr. Charles Bathurst of Lidney-Park, in Gloucestershire; and the honourable 
 Algernon Herbert, severally suggested lines to follow the commemorative part of the 
 Mausoleum inscription. Of these compositions, the first we will notice is, 
 
 By the Rev. ROBERT BLAND. 
 Condtmus hauc nobis, serisque nepotibus uraam ; 
 
 Posthuma compositos gens veneretur avos, 
 Et mota admonitu busti patria ossa foventis 
 
 Exterao fugiat structa sepulchra solo. 
 
 By D. B. HICKIE, Esq. 
 
 Quisquis es hue meditans lentus qui veneris, hospes, 
 
 Hicce locus sacer est — tu mala verba cave ; 
 Quisquis es et contra, fanum qui laeseris, et te 
 
 Et genus omne tuum proruat ira Dei ; 
 Postremusque cadas post funera multa tuorum, 
 
 Sparsaque nee tumulus, nee lapis ossa tegat! 
 
 * • Hoc est sepulchrura/ say the commentators. Ainsworth states that any great 
 monument may be called Mausoleum. 
 
56 MEMOIR OF 
 
 insulated situation, embosomed in venerable trees, reputed to be coeval 
 with the former edifice. Here the bones of the original founder still lie 
 immured ; and the top-stone of the monument erected to his memory 
 
 By CHARLES BATHTJRST, Esq. 
 Tempus edax, tacito dum prseteTlabere curs , 
 
 Lene Aliens, tumulo parce nocere sacro. 
 Ne midata nepos terat inscius ossa parentuni, 
 
 Ne pereant tristi saxa peresa sit a ; 
 Ne pereant, qua dulce decas morientibus addnnt, 
 
 Qua; memori servant carmine relliquias. 
 Tempus abi tumulo ; tuque o bone, parce, viator; 
 
 Et periisse semel sit pia busta satis. 
 
 By the Hon. ALGERNON HERBERT. 
 Has tegat exnvias sacrato pulvere tellus. 
 
 Nee tantum nobis Gratia nomen erat, 
 Expectamus enim . Tu saltern dulcis Ierae 
 
 Tu gremio mater condita membra fove. 
 Felices, studio queis floruit uma uepotum, 
 
 Compositos, gnati, ne violate patres. 
 Sic erit et vobis taciti reverentia busti, 
 
 Sic erit in summo mitior iia die ! 
 
 By 
 
 Hie tegimur, vitaeque dies absolvimus segros 
 
 Fessaque natali tradimus ossa solo, 
 Tradita ne pereant cives ! ea reddere vati* 
 
 Justa peregrino non renuere Getae. 
 Hunc, uno everso, tumulum servate ! sepukhra 
 
 Ne dominis iternm sint breviora suis. 
 
 Mr. Hickie, of Bracondale, who WTote the second of these compositions, has sup- 
 plied a collection of admirable annotations, and insured an accurate and almost faultless 
 text to some of the most esteemed classics in Mr. Valpy's valuable edition. His Latin 
 metrical translation of Gray's Elegy is also allowed to possess considerable merit ; and 
 the turn of expression, in the following inscription, prefixed to his edition of Juvenal, 
 has been likewise thought extremely happy. 
 
 VIEO SPECTATISSIMO 
 
 SHEFFIELD GRACE 
 
 ARMIGERO, 
 
 DOCTISSIMI ET ORNATISSIMI PATRIS 
 
 AS9ECT0RI ET «MCLO, 
 
 HON SOLUM IN ANTIQCIS LITERIS 
 
 ET REBCS AD HISTORIAM PERTINBNTIBCIS, 
 
 SED ETIAM 
 
 IN FAVENDO STUDIIS ALIORBM; 
 
 HAS QCALESCCNQrE ANNOTATIONES 
 
 IN 
 
 JTJVENALEM ET PERSIUM 
 
 OB INSIGNEM EJCS 
 
 EYNOIAN et <!>IAOMOt£IAN, 
 
 SOIMA OBSERVANTIA 
 D. D. D. 
 
 D. BAMF1ELD HICKIE. 
 • Ovid. 
 
OLIVER GRACE, M.P. 57 
 
 is now, together with others, inclosed in cut stone mouldings, embodied 
 in the outside walls. He married Elizabeth, only surviving daughter 
 of John Bryan,* of Bawnmore, by his second wife Ursula, the second 
 daughter and eventual co-heir of Walter Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, 
 whose wife was Magdalen Sheffield, only surviving sister of Edmund 
 Sheffield, second earl of Mulgrave, and grand aunt and eventual sole 
 heir of Edmund, fourth earl of Mulgrave, aud second duke of Bucking- 
 ham and Normanby. Elizabeth, the other daughter of Walter Walsh and 
 Magdalen Sheffield, having married John Grace, baron of Courtstown, 
 as stated in auother place, the Grace family thus became the exclusive 
 representatives of the ducal house of Sheffield.-^ It has been already 
 mentioned that John Grace, the grandson of John Grace and Elizabeth 
 Walsh, was guilty of an act of moral irregularity, and a breach of hos- 
 
 * John Bryan married, first, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Loftus, of Timoghoe 
 and Killyan, by his wife Ellen, daughter of Sir Robert Hartpole, of Shrule-Castle, and 
 had issue James Bryan, his heir, and Ellinor Bryan, married to Pierce Butler, second 
 viscount Ikerrin, great grandfather of the first earl of Carrick; he married, secondly, 
 as above, and had issue Elizabeth Bryan, who married, first, Oliver Grace, as above, 
 and, secondly, Edmuud Butler, sixth viscount Mount garret, whose descendent was 
 created earl of Kilkeuny in 1793. 
 
 + Official documents unequivocally confirm this fact, with two possible exceptions, 
 viz., first of the descendants of Robert Sheffield, of Beltoft, in the connty of Lincoln, 
 the first lord Sheffield's second son, whose only child, Anne SHEFFIELD, married 
 William Ferne, of Temple-Belwood, in the county of Lincoln ; aud, secondly, of the 
 descendents of Sir Edmund Sheffield, the first earl of Mulgrave's third son, whose 
 
 only child, URSULA SHEFFIELD, married ■ Button, of the county of York. 
 
 Since the reign of Richard III, no other person, in the male line, of the name of 
 Sheffield, (excepting the lords Sheffields themselves,) ever left adaughter through whom 
 any existing pretension to an alliance with the late duke of Buckingham's family, or to 
 a right of quartering the Sheffield arms, -as borne by him, can be deduced. There were, 
 and still are, it is true, many highly respectable persons of that name, besides some 
 very reputable trades-people in London, and in the north of England ; but to prove an 
 affinity between them and the Buckingham family, it will be necessary to go back to 
 the reign of Edward IV, to find a male offspring, of the extinction of whose male issue 
 a doubt can be entertained. In illustration of the former of these assertions, the con- 
 cluding part of the genealogical account of the Sheffields is subjoined, comprehending 
 every individual, and following down every male line to its extinction. The descents, 
 as here given, contain all the particulars to be found in the English College of Arms; and 
 have been carefully compared with the visitations, and the other entries and records pre- 
 served there. It will thus be distinctly seen that, with the possible exceptions of the 
 two instances of younger branches above mentioned, no channel whatever has existed, 
 for the last 350 years, through which a representative connection with the Sheffield 
 family can be claimed, excepting through that of Grace. 
 
 Sir Robert Sheffield, of Butterwick, in the county of Lincoln, son and 
 heir of Sir Robert Sheffield, of the same, commanded, in 1467, the victorious army of 
 Henry VII. against John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, at the battle of Stoke, near 
 Newark-upon-Trent ; and was knighted under the royal standard, on the field of 
 battle. In 1512, he was chosen speaker of the House of Commons, and died 10th of 
 August, 1516, leaving issue, by Hellen, daughter and heir of Sir John Delves, of Dod- 
 diugton, iu the county of Chester, two sons and four daughters, viz., first, Sir Robert, 
 his successor; second, Edward, who ob. s. p. Of the four daughters, — first, Jane, mar- 
 ried, first, Sir Ralph Shirley, of Stan ton-Harold, in the county of Lincoln, ancestor 
 to Sir Robert, created earl Ferrers, in 1711, aud, secondly, Sir William Hastings; 
 second, Anne; third, Elizabeth; fourth, Margaret. 
 
 Sir Robert Sheffield, of Butterwick, was knighted by Henry VIII, and died 
 14th of November, 1532, having married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Zouch, of 
 Codnor, in the county of Derby, son aud heir of Sir John, the second son of William, 
 
58 MEMOIR OF 
 
 pitality, towards his kinsman, the first duke of Buckingham, which was 
 never pardoned. The duke, in consequence, disposed of his estates by 
 will, in the event of his son Edmund dying without issue : but having 
 
 fourth lord Zouch, of Harrmgworth, in the county of Northampton; and had issue 
 three sons and two daughters, viz., — first, Thomas, who ob. in vita fa. s. p. ; second, 
 Edmund lord Sheffield, his successor; third, David, slain in the ware in Scotland, s.f. 
 Of the two daughters,— first, Margaret, married Thomas Wotton, of Adlingtou, in 
 Kent ; second, Eleanor, married James Ducie, of Willenshall, in the county of Stafford. 
 Edmund, first lord Sheffield, of Butterwick, was so created on the 16th of 
 February, 1546, (I Edward VI.) but was slain, near Norwich, the year after, in sup- 
 pressing an insurrection, headed by Robert Ket, the tanner, leaving issue, by Anne, 
 second daughter of John de Vere, fifteenth earl of Oxford, hereditary lord high cham- 
 berlain of England, K. G., two sons and three daughters, viz., — first, Johnlord Sheffield, 
 his successor ; second, Robert Sheffield, of Beltoft, in the county of Lincoln, who 
 
 married , and had issue an only child, Anne Sheffield, married to William 
 
 Feme, of Temple-Belwood, in the county of Lincoln, whose sou, Sir John Ferae, com- 
 piled a curious and esteemed heraldic work, entitled, " The Blazon of Genlrie," which 
 he dedicated, -in 15S6, " To the right honorable baron, and thrise noble gentleman, of 
 an especiall hope and towardnesse in all heroical vertues, and generouse actions, Edmund 
 (third) lorde Sheffilde : All augment of honor, health, and vertue is wished." Sir John 
 Feme, ob. 1610, leaviug several sons, of whom Henry Ferne, the youngest, became 
 bishop of Chester, in 1661. Of the three daughters,— first, Frances, married Sir Thomas 
 Metham, of Metham, in the county of York; second, Eleanor, married Denzel Holies, 
 second son of Sir William Holies, of Houghton, in the county of Nottingham, and had 
 issue Sir John Holies, .created, inl624,earlof Clare, whose great-grandson, John, fourth 
 earl of Clare, was, in 1694, created duke of Newcastle; third, Elizabeth, ob.inupt. 
 This lord Sheffield is mentioned, by Bale, as the author of " a book of sonnets, in the 
 Italian manner." 
 
 John, SECOND LORD SHEFFIELD, married Douglas, sister of Charles Howard, 
 earl of Nottingham, K.G.,and daughter of William, first lord Howard, of Effing- 
 ham, K. G., a younger son of Thomas, second duke of Norfolk; and dying, in 
 January, 1568, he left issue one son, Edmund, first earl of Mulgrave, his successor, 
 aud a daughter, Elizabeth, married to Thomas Butler, tenth earl of Ormonde and 
 Ossory, K.G., lord -high -treasurer of Irelaud and lord-marshal of England, by whom 
 she had surviving issue an only daughter, Elizabeth Butler, married to Richard 
 Preston, earl of Desmond, whose only child, Elizabeth Preston, married James Butler, 
 twelfth earl and first duke of Ormonde, K. G., &c. &c. Douglas lady Sheffield married, 
 secondly, .Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, K. G., and had issue Sir Robert Dudley, of 
 Kennil worth- Castle, in the county of Warwick, who was created by the emperor Ferdi- 
 nand II, in 1620, duke of Northumberland, in Germany, and married Alice, daughter 
 of SirThomas Leigh, of Stoneleigh- Abbey, in the county of Warwick, who was created 
 duchess Dudley, by Charles I, in 1645. Douglas lady Sheffield married, thirdly, 
 Sir Edward Stafford, of Grafton, iu the county of Worcester, and of Blatherwick and 
 Laxton, both in the county of Northampton. This lord Sheffield is supposed to have 
 heeu poisoned by the earl of Leicester, to facilitate his private marriage with lady Shef- 
 field, one of the greatest beauties of Queen Elizabeth's court. But lord Leicester being 
 afterwards captivated by the charms of Lettice, daughter of Sir Francis Knolles, K. G., 
 and wife of Walter earl of Essex, he is said to have had that nobleman poisoned in Ire- 
 land, and at the same time to have attempted the death of lady Sheffield, to make way 
 for this new attachment. He likewise disowned his private marriage with her ; and the 
 poison he administered having deprived her of her hair and nails, and nearly of her life, 
 she was induced, for safety, to obey his commands in accepting, for her third husband, 
 Sir Edward Stafford. See Dugdale's Baronage, sub titul. Leicester. 
 
 Edmund, third lord Sheffield and first earl of Mdlgrave, was so 
 created on the 7th of February, 1625, made Knight of the Bath, at the coronation of 
 queen Elizabeth, in 1558, installed K. G., in 1593, and appointed lord-president of the 
 north, in 1616. He died in October, 1646, at Butterwick-House, at Hammersmith, and 
 was buried in the parish-church there, having been twice married,— first, to Ursula, 
 daughter of Sir Robert Tyrwhit, ofKettleby, in the county of Lincoln, of whom pre- 
 sently ; and, secondly, to Mariana, daughter of Sir William Irwin, by whom he had 
 issue three sons and two daughters, viz.,— first, Margaret, married to Simon Thelwall; 
 
OLIVER GRACE, M. P. 59 
 
 omitted to particularize some denominations of laud in the comities of 
 Sussex, Middlesex, and York, these necessarily devolved upon the heir 
 at law. Lords Fairfax and Mountjoy (Windsor), Sir Digby Legard, 
 
 and, second, Sarah, who 06. inupt. Of the three sons, Thomas and Robert, ob. s. p. ; but 
 James, of Kensington, the eldest, married Jane, daughter of Sir William Cockayne, 
 and 06. 1664, leaving issue by her, (whoo&. in September, 1683,) six sons, viz., — Edmund, 
 who ob. 1675, s. p.; William, ob. 1686, s.p.; James, ob. 16.., s.p.; Charles and John, 
 ob. infra etat.; and Robert, of Kensington, who married Mary, daughter of Thomas 
 viscount Faushaw, and ob. ante 1720, having had issue by her — Edmund, who ob. $. p., 
 in February, 1679; Jane, who ob. s. p., in February, 1696; and Mary, who also 
 ob. $. p.y in September, 1704. The earl of Mulgrave had issue, by his first wife, 
 Ursula Tyrwhit, six 60ns and nine daughters, viz.,— first, Charles, drowned, circa 
 1600, in vita patris Calebs ; second, Sir John Sheffield, K. B., drowned 3d of Decem- 
 ber, 1614, in passing the river Ouse, at Whitgift- Ferry, in Yorkshire, of whom pre- 
 sently; third, Sir Edmuud, a K. B. in 1610, and drowned, in 1614, with his brother, 
 Sir John; he married Elizabeth Darley, and left an only child, Ursula Sheffield, 
 
 married to Hutton, of the eouuty of York ; fourth, William, drowned in France, 
 
 in vita patris Calebs; fifth, Philip, drowned with his brothers, Sir John and 
 Sir Edmund, unmarried ; sixth, George, killed in a riding- school, in vita patris 
 Calebs. Of the daughters, — first, Magdalen, died unmarried ; second, Elizabeth, mar- 
 ried, first, Sir Edward Swift, of Rotherhara, in the county of York, the elder brother, 
 by the first marriage, of Barnham Swift, created, in 1627, viscount Carlingford; and, 
 secondly, Sir John Bourchier ; third, Mary, to Ferdinand, second lord Fairfax, of 
 Cameron, and had issue Sir Thomas, third lord Fairfax, who, in 1645, was made 
 general in chief of all the parliamentary armies, and died, in 1671, leaving an only 
 child, Mary, married to George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham, K.jG. ; fourth, 
 Frances, to Sir Philip Fairfax, a younger son of Thomas, first lord Fairfax ; fifth, 
 Tryphena, to George, the fourth son of Sir Richard Verney, of Compton-Murdach, in 
 the county of Warwick, whose grandson, Sir Richard Verney, succeeded as lord Wil- 
 loughby de Broke; sixth, Douglas; seventh, Dorothy; eighth, Ursula; and, ninth, 
 Anne, all of whom died unmarried. 
 
 Sir John Sheffield, K.B., was, during bis father's life-time, drowned in the 
 river Ouse, on the 3d of December, 1614, as already stated, together with his two bro- 
 thers, Sir Edmund and Philip, the boat being overset by an unruly horse. He married 
 Griseld, daughter of Sir Edmund Anderson, of Flixborough, in the county of Lincoln, 
 who, temp. Elizabeth, was lord- chief justice of the Court of Common-Pleas, and had 
 issue one son, Edmund, second earl of Mulgrave, heir to his grandfather, in 1646, and 
 four daughters, viz., — first, Douglas, ob. inupt. ; second, Magdalen, of whom presently; 
 third, Ursula, ob. inupt.; and, fourth, Anne, ob. inupt. Magdalen Sheffield, the 
 second daughter, married, in 1625, Walter (Fitz-Robert) Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, in the 
 county of Kilkenny, and had issue two sous, Edmund and Hoyle, and two daughters, 
 Elisabeth and Ursula. First, Edmund Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, of whom presently; 
 second, Hoyle Walsh, married a French lady, but ob. s. p. Of the two daughters,— 
 first, Elizabeth Walsh, the eldest, married John Grace, baron of Courtstown, and had 
 issue two sons, viz., — first, Robert Grace, of Courtstown, whose son, John, was father 
 of Robert, the last male of the line of Courtstown ; and, second, Sheffield Grace, who 
 died, in 1684, leaving issue, by Elizabeth dowager viscountess Dillon, an only child, 
 Catharine Grace, married to Robert, a younger son of Oliver Grace, of Shangauagh, and 
 had issue an only child, Sir Edmund Grace, a knight of Malta, who ob. Calebs. ; second, 
 Ursula Walsh, the other daughter, married John Bryan, of Bawnmore, in the county 
 of Kilkenny, to whom she was second wife, and had issue two sons and three daughters, 
 viz., Walter, Lewis, Mary, Frauces, and Elizabeth ; all of whom ob. inupt., except Eliza- 
 beth Bryan, the youngest, (afterwards viscountess Mountgarret,) who married Oliver 
 Grace, of Shauganagh, in the Queeu's County, M.P., chief remembrancer of the exche- 
 quer of Ireland, and had issue Michael Grace, of Gracefield, who, together with his 
 kinsman, Robert Grace, the last male of the Courtstown family, eventually succeeded, 
 as co-heirs at law, to the undevised estates of the late duke of Buckingham. We will 
 now return to Edmund Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, (the eldest son of Walter Walsh and 
 Magdalen Sheffield,) who married Margaret, daughter of Oliver Grace, baron of Courts- 
 town, and had issue several children, whereof Robert alone survived him. Robert 
 Walsh married Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Walsh, of the county of Watcifoid, ami 
 
60 MEMOIR OF 
 
 baronet, Thomas Worsley, and Robert Shaftoe, esquires, claimed the 
 inheritance under the odious laws then existing, not indeed as the true 
 representatives, but as the next Protestants in the line of succession. 
 
 had issue oue bod and two daughters, tíz., Walter Walsh, who, in 1737, ob. Calebs, in 
 London, and in him terminated the elder hranch, in the male line, of the Castle-Hoel 
 family; the lords Walsh, and counts Walsh de Serant, in France, being descended from 
 James, the third son of Walter Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, which Walter Walsh, ob. 1619, 
 and was the grandfather of Walter Walsh, who, in 1625, married Magdalen Sheffield. 
 Of the two daughters,— first, Margaret Walsh, married John Daly, of Cork, but ob. s. p. ; 
 and, second, Magdalen Walsh, ob. inupt. Ou the death of Walter Walsh, in 1737, and 
 of his two sisters, Margaret and Magdalen, all the descendents of the issue of Walter 
 Walsh and Magdalen Sheffield were wholly extinct, excepting those of their two 
 daughters, Elizabeth and Ursula, above mentioned, viz., the Courtstown and Gracefield 
 families of Grace, who thereupon consequently became the co-repTesentatives of the 
 Walsh family ; and, on the death of the said Magdalen Sheffield's grand nephew, Ed- 
 mund Sheffield, the last duke of Buckingham and Normanby, they became likewise 
 the co-representatives of her illustrious house, as will appear presently. 
 
 EpMUND, SECOND EARL OF Mulgrave, succeeded his grandfather, in 1646, 
 and died on the 24th of August, 1658, having married Elizabeth, second daughter of 
 Lionel Cranfield, first earl of Middlesex, lord high-treasurer of Englaud, by whom he 
 had issue oue sou, John, first duke of Buckingham, his successor, and a daughter, 
 Elizabeth, who died young. Elizabeth, countess of Mulgrave, married, secondly, John 
 Bennet, first lord Ossulston, father of Charies, earl of Tankerville, but had no issue. 
 
 John, third earl of Mulgrave and first duke of Buckingham and 
 NORMANBY, so created in March, 1702, installed K.G. in 1674, and created marquis 
 of Normanby in 1694. He married,— first, Ursula Stawell, widow of Edward earl Con- 
 way, by whom he had no issue; and, secondly, Cathariue Greville, widow of Baptist 
 earl of Gainsborough, by whom he had no issue; aud, thirdly, Catharine Daruley, 
 widow of James earl of Anglesea, and daughter of king James II, by Catharine Sedley, 
 countess of Dorchester and Portmore, and had issue three sons and two daughters, viz., 
 —first, John, ob. infra at., 1710; second, Robert, who also ob. infra at., 1715; and, 
 third, Edmund, second duke of Buckingham, his successor. Of the two daughters, — 
 first, Sophia, died an infant, in 1706; and, second, Sophia Catbarina Henrietta, also 
 died an infant, at the age of four years. John duke of Buckingham, died 24th of 
 February, 1720, at Buckingham- House, in St. James's-Park, London, and was buried 
 in Henry the Seventh's chapel, in Westminster-Abbey, 
 
 Edmund, second duke of Buckingham and Normanby, was horn llth 
 of January, 1716, and died at Rome, in Italy, on the 30th of October, 1735, aged 
 nineteen, unmarried, and was interred, in his father's vault, at Westminster-Abbey. 
 
 With duke Edmund ended the male line of the bouse of Sheffield ; and MAGDALEN 
 Sheffield, his grand aunt, being the nearest of his blood, and his next of kin, who 
 had any surviving descendents, her heirs and representatives consequently became his. 
 The said Magdalen, (the only married sister of the duke's grandfather, Edmund, second 
 earl of Mulgrave,) became the wife of Walter Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, in 1625, whose 
 ancient line terminating, as we have already shewn, in the Courtstown and Gracefield 
 families of Grace, the leading stream of the Sheffield blood also flowed in the same 
 channel. In another part of this memoir, it has been observed that, in 1759-60, Michael 
 Grace, of Gracefield, disposed of the undevised estates of the duke of Buckingham, 
 which devolved upou his heirs at law : and from what has been here stated, it is not only 
 manifest that the descendents of Magdalen Sheffield, or, in other words, the Grace 
 family, and those deriving through them, are the immediate representatives of the 
 house of Sheffield; but that no other descent through the heiress of any collateral 
 hranch since the reign of Richard III. can be adduced, unless it be through the 
 daughters, either of Robert Sheffield, of Beltoft, the first lord Sheffield's second son ; 
 or of Sir Edmund Sheffield, the first earl of Mulgrave's third son. 
 
 The political influence and high character enjoyed by the first duke of Buckingham 
 for so many years, may be seen in the following enumeration of the hereditary titles and 
 official honours with which he was distinguished, viz., — The most high, puissant, and 
 noble prince, John Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, duke and marquis of Normanby, 
 earl of Mulgrave, and baron Sheffield, of Butterwick. In 1673, colonel of a regiment 
 of foot, raised by himself, and also colonel of the old Holland regiment ; in 1674, knight 
 
OLIVER GRACE, M.P. 61 
 
 Fortunately, however, for the cause of justice and of feeling, the claim 
 was made in England. la Ireland the law must have admitted the claim, 
 against which, it is to be hoped, the conviction of the very admini- 
 strator of such a law would have revolted. It may he further stated, 
 that, during the period in which the duke was on terms of friendship 
 with the Grace family, a pedigree digested by himself, in his own hand- 
 writing, was drawn up, and the relationship therein not only distinctly 
 acknowledged, but the heirship likewise stated, after the contingency 
 of a failure of issue in his only son, and in Robert Sheffield, of Kensing- 
 ton, his only kinsman in the male line, who, however, died before him 
 without surviving issue. That only son was duke Edmund, upon whose 
 untimely death a claim was perferred, as already noticed, to the unde- 
 vised estates, which, after some litigation, was mainly determined in 
 favour of the descendants of Magdalen Sheffield, by the production of 
 the very pedigree itself, thus sanctioned by the authority of its noble 
 author. The duchess of Buckingham, a daughter of king James by 
 the countess of Dorchester, on presenting this highly important docu- 
 ment, observed, " that the Grace family had suffered too much in her 
 father's cause, not to make it a duty incumbent upon her thus grate- 
 fully, and with pleasure, to shew her sense of the obligation." This 
 sense she also in many other respects manifested ; and in the possession 
 of the family, down to the present day, are various pieces of valuable 
 and, in truth, of magnificent plate, bearing the armorial shield of the 
 duke. The family seal, likewise given by the duchess, of ample size, 
 and with a setting in gold, highly ornamented, is yet held by Mr. Shef- 
 field Grace, the brother of Sir William Grace, bart. ; and, it may be 
 added, as a circumstance of some interest, when we call to mind the 
 limited nature and extent of our relationships with Asia at that period, 
 that the stone so sculptured was brought from Mocha, in Arabia Felix, 
 in that portion of the globe. The Mocha stone, it is scarcely necessary 
 to mention, is of the species called dendrites, and is described by 
 
 of the most noble Order of the Garter, and a lord of the king's bed-chamber ; in 1679, 
 lord-lieuteuant of the East-Riding of Yorkshire, governor of Hull, and a member of the 
 privy-council ; in 1680, general of the British and Portuguese forces at Tangiers ; in 
 1685, lord-chamberlain of the household, vice-admiral of York, and commissioner of 
 the Ecclesiastical Court ; in 1688, a member of the council of government on the abdi- 
 cation of king James; in 1694, a member of the cabinet council ; in 1702, lord privy- 
 seal, lord-lieuteuaut and custos rotulorum of the North-Ridiug of Yorkshire, and of 
 the county of Middlesex, a commissioner to ratify the union between England and 
 Scotland, and a governor of the Charter- House; in 1710, lord-steward of the house- 
 hold; in 1711, lord-president of the council ; and, in 1714, a lord-justice for governing 
 the kingdom, from the death of queen Anne till the arrival of George I. This noble 
 peer has also been distinguished in the literary as well as in the political world. His 
 works in prose and verse have been published in quarto and octavo editions, each con- 
 sisting of two volumes. 
 
 The branch, denominated of Normanby, in Lincolnshire, which now possesses the 
 most considerable part of the ancient patrimony of this illustrious house, under the 6rst 
 duke's will, executed in 1716, is nearly related to the noble and distinguished families 
 of Digby, Ilchesler, Coventry, Grant, Neave, and others. Sir Robert Sheffield is the 
 fourth baronet of his liue ; and it may be added, that, whoever can appreciate an inde- 
 pendent spirit of public and private integrity, a cultivated understanding, amiable feel- 
 ings, and general worth, must value the esteem, and feel honoured by the friendship, 
 of the present proprietor of Normanby. 
 
(32 MEMOIR, &c. 
 
 Pliny 37-11. Something of this kind seems to have been the gem worn 
 by king Pyrrhus as his ring, upon which the hand of nature had 
 impressed the figures of the nine muses. 
 
 In detailing the descent of this inheritance to the Grace family, it 
 must not be omitted, that, during the legal investigation of the rights 
 of the respective claimants already noticed, it was ascertained that 
 Robert Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, (the son of Edmund Walsh, who was 
 son of Walter Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, and of Magdalen Sheffield, of 
 Mulgrave,) had left two surviving daughters, Margaret and Magdalen, 
 who were consequently next heirs to the late duke of Buckingham. 
 But the obscure retirement which the forfeiture of the Castle-Hoel 
 estates had necessarily inflicted upon them, not only prevented any 
 knowledge of their rights from accidentally reaching them, but ren- 
 dered even the fact of their existence for a long time doubtful. To 
 them, however, the duke's undevised estates, in the first instance, 
 devolved ; and by their deaths, without issue, the family of Grace 
 became the exclusive representatives of that of Sheffield. In 1759-60, 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefield,* sold the manor of Iclesham, in Sussex, 
 thus inherited, to Mr. Arnold Nesbit, of London; an estate, in the county 
 of Middlesex, was similarly disposed of to John duke of Bedford ; and 
 Henry earl of Carlisle, became the purchaser of the Yorkshire property. 
 It may be further stated, that the duke of Buckingham, by a similar 
 omission with regard to various royalties, manorial rights, and advow- 
 sons, must likewise have given to the same heirs at law the posses, 
 sion of them ; but that the neglect on their parts to claim them, 
 together with several houses, and a small estate in and near the city of 
 York, until a period so long had elapsed that it was found, upon con- 
 sulting the English crown lawyers of the time, by the late Richard 
 Grace, of Boley, M. P., that the claim was barred by the statute of 
 limitation, restricting the bringing of even a writ of right after the 
 lapse of sixty years. 
 
 • Michael Grace was sou and heir of Oliver, the subject of this memoir. He mar- 
 ried Mary, daughter of John Galway, of Lota-House, by Elizabeth, sister of Sir John 
 Meade, grandfather to the first earl of Clanwilliam, and had issue, — first, Oliver, of 
 Gracefield, of whom presently ; second, John, of Sheffield-Lodge, who ob. Calebs ; and, 
 third, William, who resided chiefly at St. Germains, in France, aud who manied Mary, 
 daughter and heir of Richard Harford, of Marshfield, near Dublin, by whom he had 
 issue Richard Grace, of Boley, M P., who ob. at Southville, in 1801, leaving issue, by 
 Jane, daughter of the honourable John Evans, of Bulgaden-Hall, son of George, first 
 lord Carbery, three sons, viz., Sir William Grace, baronet, Sheffield Grace, of Lincoln's- 
 Inn, F.S.A., and Captain Percy Grace, R. N. Oliver Grace,, of Gracefield, married 
 Mary, daughter and heir of John Dowell, of Mantua-House, and had issue two sons, 
 viz., — first, Michael, of Gracefield, of whom presently ; and, second, John, of Mantua, 
 who married Mary, daughter and co-heir of P. Hussey, of Ardimore, and had issue 
 Oliver John Dowell Grace, of Mantua, who married, 3d of September, 1819, Frances, 
 only child of Sir Richard Nagle, baronet, by his first wife, Catharine, daughter aud 
 heir of Maurice Fitz-Gerald, of Punchar's-Grange, aud has issue John Dowell Fitz- 
 Gerald Grace. Michael Grace, of Gracefield, married Mary, daughter and co-heir of 
 Nicholas Pluuket, of Dunsoghly-Castle, and had issue an only child, Alicia, married, 
 5thofJuue, 1792, to Morgan, third son of Thomas Kavanagh, of Borris-House, in the 
 county of Carlow, who ob. s.p., 2óth of November, 1804, aud was interred in the an- 
 cient ccmctry of his family at St. Mullins, in that county. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 RICHARD GRACE, M. P. 
 
 Nonien in exemplum sero servabimus aevo.— MILTON AD Path. 
 
 AT is with unaffected diffidence the writer approaches the concluding 
 subject of these memoirs : but the same feelings towards the memory 
 of a revered parent, which erects the monumental stone or brass, may 
 stand justified before the wise and the good, when they consecrate to the 
 same interesting purpose, the less perishable endurance which the pen is 
 able to bestow. With this feeling, and with this view, the following 
 pages have been composed ; and may they be accepted by those near 
 relatives and attached friends, for whom they are designed, in the same 
 spirit in which they are written, and which their very accomplished 
 subject must ever deserve. 
 
 Richard Grace, of Boley, was born in Dublin, on the 29th day of No- 
 vember, in the year 1760. The antiquity of his family, and the honour- 
 able rank of his connexions, have been already noticed ; but in no gene- 
 ration of this long and noble lineage was there bom a member more 
 distinguished by talent, or more amiable by temper, than himself. His 
 father was William Grace, the third son of Michael Grace, of Grace- 
 field, and the grandson of Oliver Grace, M.P., chief remembrancer of 
 the exchequer of Ireland, who was son and heir of William Grace, 
 of Ballylinch castle, in the county of Kilkenny. Besides the subject of 
 this memoir, William Grace had issue by Mary, daughter and eventual 
 sole heir of Richard Harford, of Marshfield, near Dublin, a second son 
 John, and a daughter, Clara- Louisa,* married, in 1782, to William 
 Middelton, of Stockeld-Park, in Yorkshire, whose eldest son, Peter 
 
 * The series of celebrated pictures painted between the years 1777 and 81, by James 
 Barry, esq., and preserved in tbe great room of tbe Society of Arts, in Londou, contains 
 t*vo portraits of this lady. In the sixth picture, which represents Elysium, or tbe state 
 of final retribution, Sir Isaac Newton and other philosophers are looking at a solar 
 system, which two augels are unveiling and explaining to them. These two angels 
 exhibit the two original portraits above alluded to, for the execution of which Mrs. Mid- 
 delton (then Miss Grace) gave Mr. Barry as many sittings as he conceived necessary 
 to attain the likenesses. Portraits of the duchesses of Rutland and Devonshire, of 
 Mrs. Montague, and of other ladies of high rank, distinguished for their beauty, are, 
 in like manner, also introduced in the various female characters that occasionally occur 
 in this noble series. 
 
64 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Middelton, married Juliana, daughter of Charles Philip, sixteenth lord 
 Stourton. John Grace, the second son above mentioned, entered the 
 imperial guards at an early age, under the protection of his near kins- 
 man, Francis Maurice count de Lacy, marshal and commander in chief 
 of the Austrian armies, whose father, count Peter de Lacy, left Ireland 
 with king James II. He resided in the house of this great and cele- 
 brated general, who soon afterwards appointed him his aid-de-camp. 
 His merit had also obtained for him the rank of captain of the carabi- 
 neers, in the highly distinguished regiment commanded by the present 
 emperor (then archduke Francis), when, as aid-de-camp, he accompanied 
 to England, in 1784, the young prince of Reuis, who married a princess 
 of Nassau-Weilburg, and was nearly related to the royal family. On 
 being introduced at court, his figure and address attracted general atten- 
 tion ; and when he was presented to the king, his majesty observed, in 
 reference to the very heavy losses sustained by the Grace family in the 
 cause of the house of Stuart, and of which the king stated himself to 
 have been fully informed by the duke of Chandos, " that while he 
 honoured it for the firm adherence to its principles, he must lament that 
 their maintenance should have carried him into a foreign service, at so 
 certain a loss of advantage to himself, and of benefit to his country."* 
 In 1789, he accompanied, as aid-de-camp, the reigning prince of Anhalt- 
 Coethen to the siege of Belgrade, where he died unmarried, on the 21st of 
 October, aged 29, and was interred at Semlin. The high and noble spirit, 
 shining talents, and personal accomplishments of this gentleman, attracted 
 the particular notice of the emperor Joseph II ; while, at the same time, 
 his kinsman, field-marshal Lacy, possessed an influence in the civil as 
 well as military government of Austria almost unbounded. This meri- 
 torious and amiable youug man was thus permitted to enjoy a prospect, 
 not less certain than brilliant, of reaching the summit of fame and 
 greatness, when the grave prematurely closed upon him in the very 
 prime of Hfe.-f 
 
 • It is possible that his Majesty may have had this in his recollection when he 
 voluntarily offered the duke of Chaudos, theu lord-steward, to confer a baronetage 
 upon his brother-in-law, Sir Richard Gamon, M. P. for Winchester, with remainder to 
 John Grace's elder brother, the subject of this memoir ; an offer afterwards acted upon 
 in the year 1795. We have also the authority of Sir Richard Gamon himself for the 
 fact, that it had been in the contemplation of the duke to request, as a final mark of 
 royal favour, on his intended retirement from public life, not a baronetage, but the 
 revival of the ancient barony of Courtstowu, in Sir Richard's person, with remainder 
 as already mentioned, and which was alone prevented by the premature death of that 
 accomplished nobleman. 
 
 + Marshal Lacy, who, it is thought, intended to have formally adopted him for his 
 son, was then in the zenith of his power. He was a count of the holy empire, president 
 of the aulic-council of war, knight of the golden-fleece, grand-cross of the military order 
 of Maria-Theresa, chamberlain to his imperial and royal majesty, a privy-counsellor, 
 minister of state and of conference, marshal of the army, and colonel-proprietor of a 
 regiment of carabineers and of a regiment of infantry. But the extraordinary estima- 
 tion in which he was held, may be still more unequivocally seen in the following letter, 
 replete with a feeling and magnanimity most honourable to its illustrious author, who 
 died a few hours after ; thus testifying that even with unbounded power, and a reign of 
 brilliant achievement, the heart may yet be cheerless and desolate, if unsauctified by the 
 purer, kindlier, and inestimable sympathies of friendship. 
 
RICHARD GRACE, MP. 65 
 
 It has been already stated, that Richard Grace was distinguished by 
 his talents, and the amiableness of his temper ; and, it may be further 
 added, that his acquirements also were of a very superior cast and extent. 
 
 He was, by nature, given to inquire and to reflect. This disposition 
 of mind was fostered by a parental care, which at once understood its 
 value, and knew how to advance its progress. The rudiments of his 
 education were laid at Reading-School, in Berkshire, so meritoriously 
 administered at present by Dr. Valpy ; and there his progress was so 
 rapid, that, at the early age of eleven, he was removed and placed under 
 the tuition of the learned Alban Butler.* With this excellent scholar's 
 assistance, he entered first the University of Leyden, in Holland, and 
 afterwards that of Caen, in Normandy. 
 
 There seems to be some danger in an experiment of this nature; 
 although, in fact, all education may be regarded as an experiment. The 
 lofty national character of our country has caused a high-bred English- 
 man to be called the perfection of the human character. Something must, 
 without doubt, be here conceded to prejudice ; but, at all events, a foreign 
 education does not, in the first instance, appear to promote this character. 
 One evil it must unquestionably be allowed to induce, which, however 
 negative it may be in its nature, is of lasting and important conse- 
 quence. The formation of early friendships, which, when made in the 
 plastic season of youth, and still more of childhood, grow with out- 
 growth, and continue impressed on us to the end of life, (of which 
 assuredly they constitute some of the greatest blessings,) can scarcely 
 take place but among countrymen, with any view, at least, to then- 
 duration. Our early associations, also, may be thus diverted from the 
 proper subjects of their application, which it must ever be the duty of pa- 
 triotism to enforce ; since we have found it, upon the high authority of 
 Mr. Burke, that even at the advanced and experienced age, which must 
 form at least one qualification for the confidential and important em- 
 ployment of ambassadors, as the representatives of the nation, the very 
 
 My dear Marshal Lacy, — The impossibility, with my trembling hand, of writing 
 even these few lines, is the sole reason which necessitates me to employ that of another, 
 at a moment when the period of my departure is approaching with hasty steps. I should 
 be ungrateful, indeed, were I to quit this life without expressing my sense of the obli- 
 gations which, on so many accounts, I owe to you. It will be a source of gratification 
 to me to have manifested these sentiments to the whole world. Yes, my esteemed 
 friend, I take a pride in acknowledging, that whatever importance may have been 
 attached to my character, it is to you I am indebted for it : it is you from whom I have 
 derived all the information I ever possessed : it is you from whose instructions I have 
 attained a knowledge of mankind. Independent of my personal obligations, it is to you 
 the whole army is indebted for its formation, its discipline, its military appearance, 
 aud the esteem in which it is held. The confidence reposed in your deliberations, your 
 attachment to my person, which no circumstances or events have ever been capable of 
 altering, render it impossible for me to thank you in terms adequate to your deserts. 
 The tears of a great and a wise man are the richest tribute than can be paid to my 
 memory. Receive, with tender sympathy, my last farewell, and be assured that the 
 only pain I feel in quitting the world arises from the necessity of leaving that small 
 circle of friends— of which certainly you are the most valued. Adieu ! remember your 
 most sincere and affectionate friend. JOSEPH. 
 
 * A biographical account of the reverend Alban Butler has been giveu to the public 
 by his nephew, Charles Butler, of Lincoln's-Iun, esq. 
 
 K 
 
G6 MEMOIR OF 
 
 circumstance of a continuance abroad, induces, by degrees, an indifference 
 towards strong and exclusive national feelings, which is but too easily 
 perceptible. Yet the character of this employment might, upon previous 
 reflection, seem, from its contentious nature itself, to suppose a very dif- 
 ferent result ; while the habits of life might also be deemed so fixed, as 
 to admit of little probability of changeableness in any material respect. 
 
 On the other hand, the first of poets has given us no higher eulogium 
 upon his hero's character, in the beginning of his great moral poem, 
 than that he had visited many regions, and witnessed many modes of 
 manners. In the freshness of youth, too, when curiosity has so much 
 to gratify, and ideas are so easily absorbed and lastingly retained, the 
 sight of new scenes, the mixing with other people, the hearing of dif- 
 ferent languages, if all enjoyed under judicious regulations and super- 
 intendence, must produce an expansion of mind, and an aptitude for 
 future improvement, of which a susceptible disposition and luminous 
 capacity cannot fail largely to profit. 
 
 That disposition and that capacity it was the happiness of Richard 
 Grace to possess, under the favourable circumstances already stated. 
 But among all the advantages afforded by early acquaintance with 
 foreign nations, the chief is the acquirement of languages, while the 
 organs of speech are yet in such a state of pliability, as to adapt them- 
 selves to the expression of any sounds. The reverend Martin Sherlock 
 has observed, in his very curious and entertaining letters, that lord 
 Chesterfield, by sending his son among German professors, homely pen- 
 sioners,* and such sorts of persons, before he brought him into the 
 fashionable world, exactly pursued the very worst method he could have 
 adopted, for making young Stanhope a man of polished manners and 
 accomplishments. " If the facilities and elegancies of good-breeding," 
 says Sherlock, " do not come first, they will never come at all." That 
 there is much truth in the observation may be granted ; for every one 
 must have observed the advantages resulting to the manners of young 
 people, from their early admission into good company, and the conse- 
 quent effects arising, if from nothing else, from the restraint necessarily 
 imposed upon them. 
 
 But it may be assumed, with more confidence, that the acquire- 
 ment of languages, with the power of their exact pronunciation, must 
 be gained early, if it is to be gained at all. In subsequent and more 
 advanced periods of life, a knowledge of another language may, without 
 doubt, be obtained, and critically obtained. It may be read with 
 facility, written with accuracy, and readily spoken, without any want of 
 words, and of " proper words in proper places ; "f but the adult scholar 
 and linguist must in vain hope to be mistaken in foreign society for a 
 native. It is, of course, not meant to be denied, that very great and 
 important improvements, in this respect, may not be founded, by due 
 cultivation, at a more mature period of life, upon the faculty thus 
 obtained in early youth. 
 
 • I use the French sense. + Swift. 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 67 
 
 That such may be the fact was proved, extensively and decidedly, in 
 the instance before us. Subsequent travels through the very large range 
 afforded by France, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Hun- 
 gary, Turkey, and Greece, gave him those opportunities, which were 
 very diligently and successfully cultivated. French, Dutch, Italian, and 
 German, were easily and correctly spoken by him ; and, what is not very 
 common among the accomplishments of an Englishman, Latin was to 
 him a living language, fully understood, and fluently uttered. Of his 
 acquirements in the French language, several pieces of poetry composed 
 in it remain as proofs; nor did he also forget to sacrifice at the shrine of 
 the muses in his native tongue. It is, of course, known to every linguist, 
 that by no other means can so perfect a tact of another language than our 
 own be obtained, as by composition in verse. Thus the distinguished 
 proficiency in ancient literature, reached by English scholars, must be 
 refierred to the incessant practice of versification at our great public 
 schools of Eton, Winchester, and Westminster ; and it will be conceded, 
 as we believe, by every competent judge, that, of all scholars, those of 
 England are the most classical. 
 
 " As many languages as a man can use," said the emperor Charles, 
 (himself an eminent linguist,) " so many times may he be said to live." 
 The praise is high ; the authority, that bestowed it, of the first order ; 
 but the very circumstance of its extent renders it somewhat indefinite. 
 In the biography of Great Britain, it will be more practically seen 
 how very frequently, and in how many instances, of which the country 
 may well be proud in indulging fond recollections, this knowledge of 
 languages raised individuals from even the floor of society, to the 
 highest degrees of wealth, of rank, and of power.* 
 
 The pathway to these advantages, for the persons so gifted, very 
 commonly lay through their employments abroad, in official situations, 
 where their high accomplishments might be most usefully exhibited; 
 and, in fact, its possession, in so eminent a degree, by Mr. Grace, often 
 induced an expression of regret, among his friends, that he had not 
 displayed it in the complex and diversified duties of diplomatic employ- 
 ment. For such an employment he was indeed by nature, as well as 
 by education, most qualified. The firmness of his temper, softened by 
 the amenity of his manner ; his accomplishments,, equally fitted for the 
 saloon or the field ; his readiness of apprehensions, his fineness of tact 
 in the discernment of characters, his actual acquaintance with the chief 
 courts in Europe, and with the most distinguished personages in them ; 
 his extensive knowledge of history, both ancient and modern, together 
 with the talent of quickly applying its parallelisms, all eminently fitted 
 him for an office, which, meaning little more than mere message- 
 carrying in ancient times, now requires, amidst the jarring interests and 
 linked relationships of modern Europe, not merely the possession of 
 such qualities, but the presence of mind which can bring them into 
 instant action. 
 
 » 1 instance the admirable Wolsey as an example. 
 
(5S MEMOIR OF 
 
 That he did possess these qualities, and that presence of miud to a 
 very remarkable extent, and even at a veiy premature period of man- 
 hood, is evinced by the observations and reflections on passing events 
 that abound in the journal he kept of bis residence abroad. These 
 desultory memoranda exhibit the instructive portrait of an intellect 
 singularly persevering, as well as successful, in his efforts towards self- 
 improvement. Mr. Grace appears, from this MS., to have been more 
 fortunate than the generality of his countrymen in his admission to 
 the most desirable foreign society, in regard either to rank, talent, 
 or accomplishments. Among the numerous names of distinguished 
 foreigners with whom be was in the habit of associating, at various 
 times, and in various parts of continental Europe, are enrolled some of 
 the brightest ornaments of modern literature. Many of their colloquial 
 remarks are here transcribed, together with his own observations upon 
 them, upon their literary pursuits, and personal characters. He 
 acknowledges, on several occasions, the benefits he derived from some, 
 in the perusal of particular works, by their suggestion, and in the com- 
 prehension of particular points, by their assistance. His intercourse, 
 too, with what is denominated the fashionable world, in its best and 
 highest circles, was certainly, for an Englishman, unusually extensive. 
 In frequent and very desirable instances, both in Germany and France, 
 an intimacy, as free from reserve as friendship ought to wish, seems to 
 characterize this intercourse. From these sources, doubtless, flowed 
 many of the curious and hidden political and private anecdotes noticed 
 in this MS. journal. But while his manners and accomplishments ren- 
 dered him thus universally acceptable in society, his discernment of 
 character soon discovered to him those who could assist that spirit of 
 deliberate inquiry, which conspicuously marks every page on the casual 
 subjects, either of literature, art, science, or politics. His observations, 
 iu particular, on the civil and military establishments, the past and 
 present situation of some of the Italian states, might bear comparison 
 with even the luminous and finished productions of a Gibbon ; and they 
 may, perhaps, on some future occasion, be permitted to illustrate the 
 vigorous and cultivated understanding which was combined with the 
 noble sentiments, generous feelings, and highly classical taste of their 
 author. Modern maps and geography, in general, appear to have en- 
 gaged his particular attention; and his frequent transcripts of monu- 
 mental inscriptions are often historically illustrated. This journal, or 
 collection of detached memoranda, was made while the impression of 
 incidental discussions, anecdotes, or scenes, were fresh upon his mind ; 
 and it displays an intellect capable of discharging any great public 
 duty, with the certainty of acquiring individual honour and national 
 advantage. 
 
 But Mr. Grace's career was destined to be the more tranquil, though 
 not the less useful one of a private gentleman. In independent circum- 
 stances, and endowed as has beeu shewn, and possessing likewise an inti- 
 mate and critical knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew languages, he 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 69 
 
 almost necessarily turned his attention to the formation of a library.* 
 For increasing and giving; additional value to this, his travels afforded 
 him opportunities, of which he availed himself to a considerable extent, 
 by procuring many very rare and admired editions. At his death the 
 number of volumes amounted to nearly 9000, of which the printed cata- 
 logue, preparatory to their sale, disclosed a very large proportion of the 
 scarcest and most esteemed works, both ancient and modern, and deriving 
 no ordinary value from the taste with which they had been selected.-f 
 
 But however exquisite the gratification, which, as a highly educated 
 gentleman, he must have derived from the hours spent among his books, 
 
 • " Books," says the ingenious editor of a periodical work, " are links in the chain 
 of our conscious being. They bind together the different scattered divisious of our 
 personal identity. Tbey are land-marks and guides in our journey through life. They 
 are pegs and loops on which we can hang up, or from which we can take down, at plea- 
 sure, the wardrobe of a moral imagiuatiou, the relics of our best affections, the tokens 
 and records of our happiest hours. They are ' for thoughts and for remembrance !* 
 They are like Fortuuatus's wishing-cap: they give us the best riches — those of fancy; 
 and transport us, not over half the globe, but, which is better, over half our lives, at 
 a word's notice ! " It will also be recollected, that the inscription on the great and 
 celebrated library, contiguous to the magnificent sepulchre of Osymandyas, king of 
 Egypt, expressed a sentiment which few people, not brutalized by ignorance, must 
 have occasionally experienced, the words were Íu^íjí tarfiiov — Physic for the soul. 
 
 + The title-page is as follows : " A Catalogue of Books, being the select and well- 
 chosen library of the late Richard Grace, esq., M. P., which will begin to be sold by 
 auction, by James Vallance, on Friday, March 13, 1801, at his sale-room, No. 6, Eustace- 
 street. They consist of a fine collection in various branches of literature, and are in 
 very superb and elegant biudings ; amoug which are the following." Here some of the 
 more rare, curious, and splendid works are enumerated. After page 9'5 commences a 
 catalogue of " Plate, Cabinet Pictures, &c. &c, the property of the late Richard Grace, 
 esq., M. P., which will be sold by auction, on Friday, March 20, 1801, by James Val- 
 lance, at his sale-room, No. 6, Eustace-street," viz. " eighteen spoons, six salt-sellers, 
 four dozen of forks, thirteen wine-labels, one .fish-tr^qwel, two pair of wine-coasters, five 
 pair of cruets, with tops, one pair of cruet-stands, one tea-pot, one coffee-pot, four 
 square dishes and covers, four round dishes and covers, ten dishes, sixty-eight plates, 
 two very large salvers, two tureens, four butter-boats, covers, aud spoons, one bread- 
 basket, three pair of candlesticks, one pair of lustres, and one epergne." Mrs. Grace 
 retained such aiticles of plate as accorded with her smaller establishment, aud this list 
 consequently enumerates what remained after her selection. The dishes and tureens 
 comprised theVilliers plate, which was presented to him, in 1793. Among the paintings 
 sold on this occasion are the following : "Cattle and figures, after Cuyp; Companion 
 to ditto, ditto; the inside of a Flemish kitchen, masked, Kalf; view on the Lake Al- 
 bano, P. Van Lint, called Studio; Ruins and figures, Viviani; view in Switzerland, 
 a waggon and horsemen, &c, Mom-pert; Philip baptizing the Eunuch, Rotenhamer ; 
 Bacchus at play, a capital picture of Willeborts ; a man singing, the expression admi- 
 rable, A. Brauwer ; Dutch politicians, a much-admired aud celebrated picture, pos- 
 sessing great humour and expression, the effect of candlelight excellent, G. A'chalken ; 
 Hainan's condemnation, painted by Beschey, from the design of Rembrant; a grand 
 and capital landscape, the aerial perspective beautiful, Carver; Fruit and insects, — the 
 works of this much-esteemed and exquisite painter are rarely to be met with, the name 
 is at the bottom of the picture, Van Huysum ; a laudscape and figures, A. Pynaker ; 
 Evening, a Flemish village and travellers, a lovely cabinet picture in his finished manner, 
 Van Goyen ; a landscape and travellers, on the second ground appears a number of 
 armed horsemen, most exquisitely paiuted, the landscape by Van Uden, whose mark 
 is inserted on one of the horses, and the figures by Teniers; " Joseph II, emperor of 
 Germany; field-marshal count Lacy; Richard Talbot, duke of Tyrconnel; a Madona 
 and child, after Carlo Dolci's Corregio, in the Ormonde collection, at Kilkenuy-Castle; 
 Thomas Wentworth, first earl of Strafibrd ; an earl of Kildare ; head of Oliver Crotn^ 
 well; head of James Butler, first duke of Ormonde, K.G. 
 
70 MEMOIR OF 
 
 he neither professed, nor led, the life of a recluse scholar. His cor- 
 respondence was extended over almost all the parts of Europe visited by 
 him ; and to society his eminent powers of conversation, marked by 
 taste, erudition, knowledge of general life, and a happy selection of 
 language, wholly untinctured by pedantry or affectation, necessarily 
 made him a very desirable accession. To this colloquial talent was 
 added the very pleasing and gentlemanly qualification of reading ele- 
 gantly, which, however it may occasionally subject the possessor to a 
 tax upon his time, and even upon his nonchalance, is not only in itself 
 highly decorative, but is also serviceable to the fame of those great men 
 who still live in their immortal pages. 
 
 When Thomson uudertook to read his " Winter" to Mr. Doddington, 
 with the view of obtaining a powerful patronage, he proceeded in so 
 slovenly a manna- with his task, that that gentleman, himself a reader 
 eminently elegant, snatched from him the manuscript, and exclaimed, 
 with some indignation, that the poet did not understand his own verses. 
 If, let it be said, the dramatic author's fame suffers so severely from the 
 inadequate or distorted representation of his language, the orator and 
 historian, the epic poet, the playful writer of amatory verses, and the 
 essayist, whether trifling or severe, all authors, in short, seem to lose half 
 their merit in the mouth of an ill reader. A just and beautiful enuncia- 
 tion is, in fact, only doing the same justice to an author, which a 
 painter requires, when, to use the French expression, he places his 
 labours in their day, or, as we say, in their proper light. 
 
 To painting Mr. Grace had himself given some attention, as well as 
 to music. His pencil incontestibly unites the touches of a master, with 
 the blemishes of insufficient practice and shortened labour. Here the 
 eye may still be appealed to ; while his talent in the latter accomplish- 
 ment, as it regards the German flute, and the general knowledge of a 
 science, in its production, so delightful yet so transitory, has now only 
 the testimony of memory to uphold it. 
 
 But an exact knowledge of painting, whether its principles or history 
 be regarded, may, however, be fully possessed, as is well known, without 
 any power of mechanical execution. This fact is no where more beau- 
 tifully illustrated than in the writings of the Abbe Dubois, who was 
 practically neither poet, painter, or musician. Even in this second 
 degree, the knowledge of painting may be said to be creative : and so it 
 is often felt to be. We read of an Italian artist, who, employed upon 
 the statue of Judith, after her manful treatment of Holofernes, fell back 
 at the end of his labours to survey the beautiful form which he had ex- 
 tracted from its bed of marble. With the work thus parentally brought 
 forth, he was so enthusiastically pleased, that, in the plenitude of his 
 rapture, he exclaimed, " Speak now, for I am sure you can ! " The 
 severe character of statuary, cold, eyeless, scarcely ever in combination, 
 and never in perspective, might well cause the artist to wish that the 
 daughter of his art, might not only speak, but descend " from her 
 pedestal, and take the air." In traversing a gallery of paintings, we 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 71 
 
 have scarcely an occasion to request this condescension, as motion, 
 groupings, the full expression of the eye, all in fact are there, as if they 
 had already received the touch of that Promethean torch, which first, 
 like the pencil of the artist, bestowed life upon man. Historical asso- 
 ciations also, sacred and profane, rise to the recollection ; moral impres- 
 sions may be adduced from the figures, which the painter's eye has 
 selected and drawn from the beau-ideal of the universe, and the display 
 of manners may on every side be seen. There is the tact, likewise, so 
 flattering to the connoisseur, which experience knows how to acquire, 
 that is pleasing not only in appreciating the subject matter of each pic- 
 ture and its classical excellencies, but the style of the author, the school 
 to which it belongs, and the very price which it may fairly claim, if ever 
 brought into the market. An innate purity of taste, and an assiduous 
 cultivation of it, in carefully analizing the finest paintings in every part 
 of Europe, gave Mr. Grace this perfect knowledge of, perhaps, the most 
 fascinating of all the human arts. 
 
 Neither did botany and chemistry escape the notice of a mind so 
 indefatigable in its labours, and so comprehensive in its range. Studies 
 like these take from our hours of seclusion the character and the listless- 
 ness of solitude ; and, while we admire the endless and curious combina- 
 tions, with their corresponding analyses, exhibited by chemistry, the 
 botanist enjoys the pure gratification of finding in a garden (a subject 
 of enjoyment to every taste not utterly vitiated) a school of science, 
 and a scene of poetical recollections. 
 
 It has been said, with not more point than truth, that a handsome 
 personal appearance, expressive countenance, and elegant carriage, ope- 
 rate as a letter of recommendation among strangers. All these Mr. Grace 
 possessed in a very peculiar degree; and the Roman character of his face, 
 so indicative of mental energy, was conspicuously observable, as well 
 as the commanding stature, which, regulated by graceful movements, 
 could not but attract attention and admiration. His manners, too, had 
 that peculiar felicity, that, while they admitted cheerfulness and the 
 gaieties of freedom, they effectually suppressed the trespass of offen- 
 sive familiarity. With a happy turn of expression, as forcible as it is 
 delicate, Gibbon, in his Memoirs, has styled this quality, not more 
 valuable in society than creditable to private dignity, " the invisible 
 line, protective of virtue and good sense;" or, to use lord Byron's 
 words, it is 
 
 " "What checks low mirth, but lacks not courtesy." — Corsair, 1. 542. 
 
 It was thus that, throughout one of the most turbulent and eventful 
 periods in our political history, during which he appeared the active, 
 efficient, and constitutional advocate of Whig principles, he was never 
 exposed to the smallest personal offence. On two political occasions he 
 was, it is true, the selected friend to deliver messages of honour ; the one 
 on the 22d of February, 1792, from John Toler lord Norbury to James 
 
72 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Napper Tandy, esq., M.P.; * and the other on the 7th of August, 1798, 
 from the right honourable Henry Grattan, to the right honourable Pa- 
 trick Duigenan. Unquestionably, the necessity of going into the field is 
 what every father of a family, or any man of sensibility, would avoid, if 
 it could be honourably avoided ; and this sentiment was by no one more 
 strongly felt than by Mr. Grace. But it is a principle, it may be stated, 
 that what the law cannot do for a man, he must do for himself. Doctor 
 Johnson seems to have recognized this principle ; though Adam Fitz-Adam, 
 in the paper of " The World," or lord Chesterfield, who wrote for it, 
 thought otherwise, or at least appears to have done so, when, in ridicule 
 of this practice, he says, " he has not read of Milo's sending a civil mes- 
 sage to Clodius, begging him to come and have his throat cut in the 
 Campus-Martius." No ; he did not ; for these two worthies only filled 
 all Rome with carnage, until by good luck Milo was enabled to beat 
 out what brains the agitator possessed. How much better, with all due 
 deference to his lordship, would it have been, that those antagonists had 
 met in single combat, whether to launch at each other the pilum, or try 
 their skill in the interchange of thrusts with their swords. With respect 
 to the citizens of Rome slaughtered in these feuds, it is quite plain that 
 these two combatants were just guilty of so many murders as there were 
 massacred victims. 
 
 With accomplishments, acquirements, and qualifications, so various, 
 extensive, and exact, the subject of a despotic government would be 
 well content to rest satisfied. A member of a free state must aspire to 
 much higher attributes for the due performance of the " duties," to 
 which his opportunities may invite, or which his relationships may 
 impose upon him. Richard Grace felt the obligation of these duties, 
 and he qualified himself for their performance. He became a student in 
 Gray's-Inn, and thus a member of a society, which boasts the proud 
 distinction of having to enumerate among those belonging to it the im- 
 mortal name of Bacon ; the man who stood between the old and the new 
 world of science ; aud, like another Moses, from Pisgah, pointed out to 
 his followers the way by which the region in prospect before them was to 
 be conquered and possessed.f His followers, under very gifted leaders, 
 have advanced already far forwards ; nor will they, in all probability, now 
 fail to advance until they are stopped by the limits of nature itself. But 
 while Bacon was thus, in prophetic character, throwing his view over 
 futurity, he was not the less diligent as a student, to whom the present 
 knowledge of his country's laws was to operate as the cause of his own 
 
 • See page 9 of printed trial of James Napper Tandy, esq., in King's-Bencb, Trinity 
 term, 32 of Geo. Ill — 
 
 Question by Mr. Prime-Serjeant.— Did you send any answer to him? 
 
 Answer by lord Norbury. — I requested Mr. Grace, an intimate frieDd of mine, a 
 gentleman of high honour, to call on him, and let him know, any message he had, 1 
 would receive at the bouse of Mr. Cuffe (afterwards lord Tyrawley). 
 
 + Cowley has this comparison aud illustration of the peculiar nature of Bacon's 
 merit, who saw and shewed the promised laud, but visited it nut. 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 73 
 
 preferment, and of his subsequent service to the state. In fact, the life 
 of Bacon was intended to be, and was, professional ; while his works, 
 which blazoned our literary character over continental Europe, where 
 it was previously unknown, sprang out of those leisure hours, which 
 were interposed between the labours of his legal occupations, and were 
 thus rescued from the destructive march of time. 
 
 It may assuredly be safely and generally affirmed, that, whether in 
 reference to professional purposes or otherwise, every independent gen- 
 tleman, or, in fact, every gentleman in the British empire, ought to pass 
 through that stage of education, which includes a systematic study of 
 the laws. If he chooses to repose upon his independence, the knowledge 
 thus acquired, will protect his privileges as a citizen, and his property 
 as the possessor of either land or money. If, in obedience to the precept 
 of Solon, he enters iuto the struggles of active life, as magistrate, or 
 senator, or public writer or speaker, this knowledge of the law is indis- 
 pensable to the correct direction of his conduct. That in the enactment 
 of laws the most mischievous mistakes have been continually made, 
 cannot be denied ; and the world (still young and inexperienced, if we 
 may believe lord Bacon) has ever rung with the monstrous abuses of 
 their administration. But the student employed in the investigation of 
 the principles, in which law was, at least, meant to originate, will, not- 
 withstanding these unhappy facts, find, as he proceeds in his researches, 
 that nothing can be more beautiful than the view, gradually unfolded of 
 all, that first impels and afterwards regulates the conduct of mankind. 
 In the philosophical consideration of legal systems their study will be 
 found to be its own reward, and a reward of no ordinary value. 
 
 But if the study of the laws be thus gratifying, and their knowledge 
 thus necessary to self-protection and advancement, it is not less contribu- 
 tory to the multiplied aud complex relationships of human life, in almost 
 every one of its walks. An occasion of this kind called forth, in a very 
 eminent degree, the application of Mr. Grace's legal knowledge, as well 
 as his temperate interposition. In 1782, he was called to the bar, but, 
 it appears, without any intention of entering upon active practice 
 beyond what his own affairs or his private friendships might demand ; 
 though his diligence and his high natural qualifications might have 
 carried him forward to all the honours of the profession. 
 
 With views thus disinterested, and with abilities thus solid and shin- 
 ing, he undertook the very important, confidential, and complicated 
 trust, of singly managing, and extricating from litigation, the great 
 Chandos estates in Ireland, vested in the late duchess, to whom he was 
 nearly allied ; as, in England, the administration there was committed to 
 the joint care of Sir Richard Gamon, bait., of Minchendon-House, and J f •*. /' 
 
 James Henry Leigh, esq., of Stoneleigh- Abbey, in Warwickshire, both jf-'l-'4' JOLjfjfe,, N 
 members of Parliament. Of Sir Richard Gamon, Mr. Grace was the ^~V^ 
 
 nearest male relative, inasmuch as upon him and his issue male was 
 entailed the English baronetcy, to which Sir Richard was raised in 1795, 
 by the patent, dated on the 11th of April, in that year. This gentleman 
 
 L 
 
74 MEMOIR OF 
 
 was the only son of Richard Gamon, of Datchworthbury, in the county 
 of Hertford, and of Elizabeth, the only child of John Grace, of the 
 Grange, in the Queen's County, by Anne, who was also the only child 
 of another John Grace, of Thomastown. The maternal grandfather of 
 Sir Richard Gamon, and of his sister Anna Eliza, duchess of Chandos, 
 was the younger brother of the first Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh, (now 
 Gracefield,) in the Queen's County, and the son of William Grace, of 
 Ballylinch-Castle, in the county of Kilkenny, by Eleanor, sister of 
 Edward Butler, second lord viscount Galmoy. Sir Richard Gamon 
 represented the city of Winchester in Parliament for above thirty years. 
 By his first wife, Grace, eldest daxighter and co-heir of colonel Jefiries 
 and of lady Augustus Fitz-Roy ,^- (mother both to Augustus, third duke 
 of Grafton, K.G., and to Charles, first lord Southampton,) he had no 
 issue. By his second wife, lady Amelia Murray, daughter of John, third 
 duke of Athol, K.T., he had an only child, Charlotte Amelia Gamon, 
 and dying on the 8th of April, 1818, without issue male, the baronetcy, 
 agreeably to the limitations of the patent, devolved upon William, now 
 Sir William Grace, bait., the eldest son of the subject of this memoir. 
 To James Brydges, duke of Chandos, Sir Richard Gamon's only sister 
 was married in the year 1777. This illustrious nobleman died on the 
 29th of September, 1789, leaving a character venerated by all who had 
 the happiness of knowing him, and entitled to the gratitude of many, 
 upon whom he had conferred the most substantial benefits. His refined 
 manners, however, as well as highly delicate mind, exacted no burthen 
 of acknowledgement, though his discernment in selecting the objects 
 of his friendship or beneficence could not fail to secure its ready pay- 
 ment. He was endowed with a strong sense of religion, as well emi- 
 nently distinguished by the practice of the duties inculcated by its 
 precepts. In short, every action of bis life, as it reflected honour on 
 him as a man, was characteristic of him as adescendent from, perhaps, 
 one of the highest born races in these realms:* for no one acquainted 
 
 + Lady Augustus Fitz-Roy was Elizabeth, daughter of colonel William Cosby, 
 the son of Alexander, and the brother of Dudley Cosby, both of Stradhally-Hall, in Hie 
 Queen's County, and was married first to lord Augustus Fitz-Roy, in 1733-4; and, 
 secondly, to colonel Jeffries, aud had issue, as above. 
 
 • The house of Chandos has been often and justly characterised by the epithet 
 " princely.'* Grey Brydges, fifth lord Chandos, possessed such local influence and poli- 
 tical power, and appeared at the feudal courts of Elizabeth and James with such nume- 
 rous attendants and extraordinary splendour, that he was commonly called " the king 
 of Cotswould." The unrivalled magnificence, likewise, of James, the ninth baron's and 
 first duke's domestic establishment, (which at Cannons exceeded 150 persons,) in the 
 reign of queen Anne, has, in an especial manner, entailed upon him the distinctive 
 appellation of " princely ;" while his numerous acts of beneficence, and of literary pa- 
 tronage, exhibited, at the same time, a corresponding grandeur. To meet the former of 
 these truly noble objects, a suitable portion of his great revenue was appropriated, as 
 well as clothing and subsistence liberally provided; and, in illustration of bis elevated 
 sentiments, with respect to the latter, it may be noticed that he presented Vope with 
 one thousand pounds, on receiving the first volume of his translation of Homer ; and 
 Mr. Basket, an eminent printer, with five hundred guineas, in return for a copy, on 
 vellum, of his folio edition of the Bible, published in 1717. This superb copy, bound 
 in purple velvet, with rich silver clasps, and his grace's arms beautifully engraved on 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 75 
 
 with the exploits of the Black Prince, in Fiance, will forget to asso- 
 ciate with them the name of Sir John de Chandos, who, like the Black 
 Prince himself, was one of the first knights companions of the Garter, 
 the most illustrious order that ever decorated the chivalry of Europe. 
 Iu the virtues and talents of his duchess, this accomplished nobleman 
 found, as it should be added, a partner in all respects worthy of him- 
 self. She died on the 20th of January, 1813, leaving an only child, 
 lady Anna Eliza Brydges, married, in 1796, to Richard Grenville, 
 second marquis of Buckingham, K.G., since created duke of Bucking- 
 ham and Chandos, whose only son, Richard Plantagcnet, marquis of 
 Chandos,* was married, in 1819, to lady Alary Campbell, daughter of 
 John, fourth earl of Breadarhanp. 
 
 plates of silver-gilt, affixed to the sides, the writer is informed, by his valued friend 
 lord William Fitz-Gerald, is now in the possession of his brother-in-law, lord Foley. 
 Bishop Nicolson's " Historical Libraries," and other works, have recorded the import- 
 ance of the " Chandos MSS., 1 ' comprising one thousand and sixteen volumes, as well as 
 perpetuated the celebrity of the vast and magnificent bibliographical collection at 
 Cannons-House, of which they constituted a part. In the late duke, also, every action 
 manifested the princely virtues of his descent, and proved him to be practically unac- 
 quainted witb a sordid or base principle. Through Cathariue, daughter aud heir of 
 Giles, third lord Chandos, a splendid inheritance passed from this family to her son, 
 William Russel, first duke of Bedford; and it has been already stated, that lady Anna 
 Eliza Brydges, the only child of the last duke of the house of Chandos, conveyed, by 
 her marriage, in 1796, all the representative honours of her illustrious lineage to the 
 house of Grenville. The circumstance of her right to quarter above seven hundred 
 coats with her paternal arms is, perhaps, without precedent in the annals of heraldic his- 
 tory : a fact which derives no ordinary lustre from her beiug the descendant and heir of 
 the princess Mary, second sister of Henry VIII, who married, first, Lewis XII, king of 
 France ; and, secondly, Charles Brandon, dnke of Suffolk ; and who, likewise, eventually 
 became a co-heir, with her elder sister Margaret queen of Scotland, to their niece Eliza- 
 beth, the last and greatest sovereign of the royal line of Tudor. 
 
 * If an unequivocal and flattering expression of public opiuion can alleviate domestic 
 calamity, the receut destruction of this nobleman's house, at Wotton, has not beeu un- 
 accompanied by consolatory circumstances. Few evils, excepting such as originate in 
 self- depravity, are without some solace to refresh the oppressed and wounded mind- 
 The esteem and affection which necessarily, follow high and honourable and manly prin- 
 ciples, upright conduct, and amiable feelings, seldom fail to be strongly and honestly 
 testified by Englishmen on suitable occasions. One of these occasions occurred on the 
 burniug of Wottou-House ; aud the general and lively interest which that dreadful 
 event excited in almost every individual from the highest to the lowest iu the county 
 of Bucks, must, unquestionably,, have proved as gratifying as it was creditable to the 
 noble occupier. If the exemplary worth and popularity of the marquis of Chandos (then 
 earl Temple) were to be measured by the general and unaffected anxiety which the 
 conflagration of his residence called forth, the result would indeed be flattering. The 
 circumstances of that event were copiously detailed in numerous contemporary public 
 newspapers, from which the following extracts and particulars are taken ; *' On Monday. 
 last, (the 30th of October, 1820,) the venerable mansion of the marquis (now duke) of 
 Buckingham, at Wotton, occupied by his son and daughter, the earl and countess 
 Temple, was almost wholly destroyed by fire. The flames burst forth about one o'clock, 
 from a room appropriated to papers, directly above the nursery, and in less than two 
 hours the entire of the interior was consumed, leaving nothing but the bare walls 
 remaining. It appears that the fire was caused by an old flue connecting itself with one 
 of the great beams designed for supporting the floor, and which, in most old houses, are 
 seeu to project across the ceilings. Captain Percy Grace, R.N., brother to Sir William 
 Grace, bart, happening to have come there on a visit, aud, sitting up later than the rest 
 of the family, was the first who discovered the fire ; on which he instantly awoke his 
 lordship, aud induced him and lady Temple to leave the house without a moment's 
 delay, He theu proceeded to the nursery, and had their only child conveyed to the 
 
7G MEMOIR OF 
 
 In this alliance of the families of Brydges and Grenville, it is in- 
 teresting to remark the union of two illustrious houses, each of them 
 distinguished by its literary celebrity. But noble as is the lineage, 
 magnificent as is the character of descent of these united races, the fame 
 
 parsonage; but before it had even left the house, the great burning beam, extending 
 across the nursery -ceiling, already noticed, fell in aud crushed the cradle from which it 
 had just been removed. Her ladyship having gone down the principal stairs, and the 
 child being carried down the buck stairs, passed each other; and the agonized state of 
 her feelings canuot be described, till one of her attendants, returning from the par- 
 sonage, incidentally mentioned her infant's safe arrival there. Fortunately no lives 
 were lost; but the rapid progress of the devouriug element was such as to render the 
 preservation of property hopeless and impracticable. The quantity of wood, used for 
 pauneling the rooms, and for other purposes, iu our older houses, present a prodigious 
 mass of iuflammable material, and frightfully augment the danger of fire. His lordship, 
 on being assured of the safety of every iudividual of his family, and finding that further 
 efforts to preserve his house, or any thing contained in it, were useless, contemplated 
 the awful and sublime spectacle with comparative tranquillity. During the period of 
 half au hour, the whole extent of this spacious edifice exhibited the appearance of one 
 vast furuace, with the flames arising in numerous forked columns from the centre. The 
 breathless serenity and extreme darkness of the night imparted a certain grandeur of 
 effect to the horrors of the scene. A more rapid or merciless conflagration can scarcely 
 be imagined. From the first discovery of the fire, by captain Percy Grace, to its total 
 extinction, an interval of two hours did not elapse. In that interval, however, several 
 instances occurred among the tenantry of heroic Intrepidity; aud an attachment of 
 above half a ceutury to the noble family of Grenville animated the venerable pastor of 
 Wotton, the rev. Thomas á Becket Turner, with a contempt of danger and of death, 
 and with a prompt efficiency of action that commanded universal admiration. But with 
 every exertion, little, very little, escaped uninjured, excepting the inmates of the 
 mansion, and its massive exterior walls. The entire library, a valuable collection of 
 pictures, plate, furniture, Sic. See. were consumed ; and all lovers of the fine arts 
 must lameut the destruction of a considerable quantity of exquisitely fine carving 
 by Gibbons, and of a magnificent walnut stair-case, painted by Sir James Thorn- 
 hill. Wot tou- House was 114 years old, it having been re-built, near the site of a 
 former mansion, in 1706; and it is now again rebuilt, on the same plan, under the 
 direction of John Soane, esq., R.A., whose architectural celebrity has been long and de- 
 servedly established. The hall has been fitted up in a manner suitable to the character 
 of the primitive seat of the ancieut and distinguished house of Grenville. Mr. Soane 
 has decorated it with twenty large shields; but the introduction of appropriate armorial 
 bearings, together with the geueral heraldic arrangement, which is universally admired, 
 has emanated from the taste and scientific knowledge of Sir Scrope Bernard Morland, 
 hart. M. P. Few people can contemplate, without interest, the brilliant effect which 
 even the mere display of numerous coats of arms is calculated to produce ; bnt that 
 interest assumes an intellectual character, when illustrated by names and exploits which 
 live, and must for ever live, in the proudesf pages of British history. Sir Scrope B. Mor- 
 land has accordingly compiled a very curious, learned, and elaborate work, embellished 
 with coloured lithographic drawings of all the shields, and their respective quarterings, 
 in one volume, quarto, exclusively for private distribution, eutitled a " Description of 
 the Shields of Arms recently put up iu the Hall of Wottou-House, in the County of 
 Bucks. London, priuted by William Nicol, 1823." 
 
 The enthusiastic and affectionate exertions of the neighbouring peasantry may be 
 inferred from the following letter, addressed by the duke of Buckingham and Chandos 
 (tbeu marquis of Buckingham) " To the iuhabitants of the parish of Wotton," and 
 which was read aloud by the rev. Thomas á Becket Turner, at Wotton-church, to his 
 rural congregation. 
 
 " My old and good friends, "London, November 6th, 1820. 
 
 " I return you my best and hearty thanks for your zealous and kind assistance, 
 when Providence was pleased to afflict us with the calamity of fire at Wotton. Many 
 of you have grown grey under the shadow of those walls which you saw burning. 
 1 trust you will all of you live to see the house arise out of its ruins, and again 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 77 
 
 derived from such a boast fades away iu comparison with the splendour 
 of its patronage extended to literature. Homer, embarked upon the 
 ocean of time, as long as time itself shall flow, bears along with him 
 the name of Grenville in the unrivalled edition of his works, by the 
 three brothers. The late marquis of Buckingham, K.G., the right 
 honourable Thomas Grenville, M.P., and lord Grenville, chancellor of 
 Oxford, have thus made a present to the literary world, which that world 
 repays, and will continue to repay, by a never-fading recollection. The 
 scale of political character, great as it has been, and continues to be, in 
 this family, flies up in the balance, when weighed against the impres- 
 siveness of their place in the world of letters, recorded in every royal 
 library and university throughout Europe.* Clarendon was undoubtedly 
 a learned judge and a good statesman; but his history, and bis founda- 
 tion of the press, at Oxford, obviously constitute his main passports to 
 the memory of posterity. The earl of Oxford's name is now but dimly 
 recollected as lord high-treasurer of Great Britain ; but to the name of 
 Harley, as the munificent founder of the Harleian collection, every lite- 
 rary association, or individual, throughout the globe, immediately 
 re-echoes. Second to Homer, if he be only second, Milton stands pro- 
 
 iiibabited by the same hearts, inseparably connected with you. At the same time that 
 I return my most humble thanks to Almighty God, for his mercies vouchsafed to me, 
 in the saving my son and daughter and their child from the flames, I cannot deprive 
 myself of the satisfaction of acknowledging how much we owe to your exertions and 
 activity. The re-building the house will find employment for you all j and I have the 
 comfort of feeling the proofs which you afforded my family of your attachment. Thus 
 out of this calamity arise, thanks to Almighty God, advantage to one party and com- 
 fort to the other. I have directed some money to be distributed amongst your families, 
 as a testimony of my thanks and satisfaction. 
 
 " Believe me, always, under all circumstances, 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 " Chandos Buckingham." 
 
 The man who peruses with indifference, or contemplates without profit, the senti- 
 ments here expressed, is surely not to be envied. Such a letter, and the circumstance 
 that occasioned it, afford subject for reflection rather than remark. 
 
 * The large paper copies of the Grenville Homer exhibit a magnificent specimen of 
 British typography. They are in four volumes, on the finest description of thick elephant 
 quarto paper, and are enriched with some exquisite engravings. The whole of this large 
 paper impression was disposed of in presents, as above stated, and to the immediate 
 connexions and friends of the illustrious house of Grenville. Since the printing of the 
 work, two copies only have appeared for sale, owing to the deaths of the possessors, and 
 one of these was purchased for the enormous sum of £80. But spleudid as the literary 
 patronage of the late representative of this noble family was on numerous occasions, an 
 early instauce may be adduced of a similar disposition in the present, most honourable 
 and laudatory in character; for its utility is practically extensive, while its noiseless, 
 beneficial, and uninterrupted course, is wholly unmarked by ostentations display. On 
 the duke of Buckingham's (then earl Temple) marriage, in 1796, with the heiress of the 
 house of Chandos, he acquired the estate of Avington, near Winchester, which soon led 
 to his acquaintance with the discipline of the Wykehamist College there, consisting of 
 200 boys, and with its want of suitable incentives to youthful emulation. This defect 
 he immediately supplied, by allowing an annual sum for the purchase of books, which, 
 on the close of each half-year, are given to the two boys of five parts, or divisions of 
 classes, who are found, by the daily return during the preceding period, to have con- 
 tinued the longest time at the head of their competitors for the prize. Twenty sets of 
 

 78 MEMOIR OF 
 
 niinenOy out in the ranks of fame : yet Whilelocke, ambassador from 
 the protector Cromwell to the eccentric queen Christina, of Sweden, 
 and, in truth, as Hume observes, of large intellectual powers, con- 
 descends to speak of this " master of song, 1 ' as " one Milton, a blind 
 old man." It Is amusing, adds the philosophical historian, to reflect 
 
 book?, handsomely bound, with the duke's arms stamped upon the cover, arc thus 
 anuually distributed; and a printed inscription, similar to the following, (excepting the 
 boys' name, academic rank, and date, which are added in MS.) is affixed to the inside : 
 
 hoc premium 
 sheffieldo grace 
 
 E senioré parte quinta? classia 
 COLLEGI1 YVINT0N1ENSIS COMMENSAL! 
 
 Quod 
 
 Uteris coleudis diligentissime incobuerit 
 
 Et in moribus optime se gcsserit 
 
 Adjudicatuni 
 
 D.D. 
 
 VIE HONORATISSIMUS 
 
 RICARDUS COMES DE TEMPLE, 
 
 Die decimo quiuto meusis Deccmbris, 
 
 A. D. 
 
 MDCCCV. 
 
 Three very beautiful views of Winchester college were, in 1823, admirably en- 
 graved in the line maimer, by Mr. J. Barnett, from drawings, by Mr. J. Buckler, the 
 first of which is dedicated to Richard duke of Buckingham and Chaudos, K. G., the 
 second to Richard Plantagenet marquis of Chandos, and the third to Sheffield Grace, 
 esq., F.S.A. In 1789, George Isaac Huntiugford, bishop of Hereford, was elected warden 
 of this college; and it is gratefully acknowledged, that the wisdom, moral worth, and 
 literary attainments, of this exemplary prelate, have largely contributed to the prosperity 
 of the important institution over which he still happily presides. His amiable and 
 esteemed nephew, also, the Rev. Henry Huntingford, a fellow of this college, has durably 
 enriched the world of letters, as well as aided Wyccamical education, by various classical 
 productions. But the high renown for sound scholarship, which Winchester college has 
 now reached, must in fairness be ascribed to the taleut for iustruclion, the discernment 
 of character, the unrelaxed, equable, and conciliating discipline, the impartial, unimpas- 
 sioned, and judicious conduct of the Rev. William Stanley Goddard, D. D., the late 
 head-master. On the resignation of Dr. Goddard's predecessor, the celebrated Dr. Joseph 
 Warton, Winchester school had only eighty-seven students, viz., seventy college-boys 
 aud seventeen commoners, instead of the allotted number of two hundred ; while, on his 
 own retirement, in 1816, the regulated number was not only complete, but nearly three 
 hundred names appeared upon his list of candidates for admission. In the long roll of 
 able men, who, duriug a period of four centuries and a half, have successively held the 
 office of head-master, the most important of any in this great and distinguished seat of 
 elementary knowledge, some may possibly have rivalled, but none, most assuredly, 
 could have surpassed, the Rev. Dr. Goddard in successful and indefatigable personal 
 exertion. And as he has unequivocally merited, so has he universally experienced, the 
 collective and individual respect, regard, and gratitude, of the Wyccamical body. In 
 the present head-master, the intuitive niceties of refined taste are united to extensive 
 erudition; and Dr. Gable has been pronounced, on the high authority of Dr. Parr, as 
 expressed to the writer, to be far superior to all his contemporaries in philological learn- 
 in"-. New College, at Oxford, the elder of the munificent William of Wykeham's two 
 prolific daughters, has recently had an opportunity of choosing its warden. The choice 
 thus exercised immediately singled out the Rev. Philip N. Shuttleworth as most entitled 
 to that flattering distinction; and the appointment of a man so estimable in every 
 relation of life, so pre-eminent in talent, application, aud judgment, so adorned with the 
 mental acquirements, and the liberal sentiments that characterize a gentleman and a 
 scholar, is not only highly creditable to the sound sense and good principle of the 
 college, but greatly contributes to the honour of the university. 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 79 
 
 upon the passage, when we recollect how little known is the statesman, 
 how universally celebrated is the bard. Can it then be thought merely 
 speculative to say that the taste and patrician munificence that directed, 
 and the cultivated genius that achieved,* the " Bibliotheca MS. Stow- 
 ensis," and the " Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores," must ever retain 
 an imperishable endurance j w r hile families the most numerous, and for- 
 tunes the most spleudid, will crumble into naught, and sink progres- 
 sively into undisturbed oblivion? 
 
 But though Mr. Grace was nearly connected by blood, he was still 
 more strongly bound by personal attachment to the noble owner of the 
 Chandos estates. A very general fertility, an opulent tenantry, and a 
 magnitude of extent, are the prominent features of these hereditary pos- 
 sessions. In the Queers County, they include the great manor of Vil- 
 liers, which, comprehending many thousand acres, and covering the 
 fairest portion of the barouy of Upper- Ossory, possesses, with its towns 
 and villages, nearly every advantage that hill, vale, or river, an improved 
 agriculture, aud a productive inland hade, can impart. Induced to ac- 
 cept the trust, he came to the management of this property under the 
 
 • The name of the Rev. Charles O'Conor, D. D., is thus appropriately identified 
 with the invaluable bibliographical treasures accumulated in the Stowe library ; and the 
 catalogue compiled by him exhibits the most important, as well as the most superb and 
 extensive, private collection of MSS. in these kingdoms. It fills two large quarto 
 volumes, and the same princely spirit that dictated to the late representative of this 
 distinguished house the unpurchased distribution of the Grenville Homer, has similarly 
 influenced the present in the disposal of these splendid catalogues. Though all scholars 
 must hail with applause aud gratitude the compilation here noticed, yet the historian, 
 or the searcher after historic facts, bearing on a particular subject, can alone appreciate 
 its full and just value. The author of this memoir experienced, on another occasion, all 
 the evils of uncertainty, of unnecessary inquiry, and of unavailing delay, owing to the 
 want of a perfect bibliographical reference to historical works relating to Ireland, from 
 which he was only relieved by the compilation of two very large folio volumes, in MS , 
 one of which, consisting of 518 pages, is entitled " Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptomm 
 de rebus Hibernicis, cum Indice Alphabetic©, cura et sumptibus Shetneldi Grace;" 
 and contains detailed notices of all the manuscript works on Irish history, literature, 
 &c. in the Carew, Cottonian, and Harleian collections, and likewise of all those iu the 
 other public and private libraries, as particularized in the MS. catalogue of the late 
 general Charles Vallancey. The other of these MS. volumes, consisting of 472 pages, 
 is entitled " Catalogus Librorum impressorum de Rebus Hibernicis, cum Indice Alpha- 
 betico, cura et sumptibus Sheffieldi Grace ; l * and contains similar notices of all printed 
 works on Irish history, &c, and comprehends the whole of general Vallaucey's biblio- 
 graphical collections ou the subject ; together with notices of such new works as have 
 been published since the death of that zealous and ingenious upholder of the ancient 
 lore and antiquities of Ireland. The dearth of knowledge, the absence of literary feel- 
 ings or of literary patriotism, and the extinction of all useful inquiry, respecting that 
 country, with the single and precarious exception of Shaw Mason's Statistical Survey, 
 are objects of remark, and sources of regret, to every reflecting mind. English writers, 
 who incidentally notice Ireland, view with contempt, or receive with suspicion, the 
 scanty shreds of information which tourists, the sojourners of a day, export. Native 
 exertion and local research, unassisted by native patronage, must necessarily languish. 
 "With the rising generation, it is hoped that a taste for letters will also arise in that ill- 
 fated conntry. The following paragraph, which occurs in a recent London publication, 
 fully illustrates these remarks : " It is scarcely to he believed how few of the literary 
 collections of our great men are stored with works relating to Ireland: if we except the 
 splendid library at Stowe, of the duke of Buckingham, and those of lord Aruodel, 
 Mr. Heber, Mr. Thomas Grenville, Mr. Peel, and Mr. Sheffield Grace, there is scarce a 
 book-collector in the country possessing a share of valuable information on this interest- 
 ing nationalsubject." 
 
80 MEMOIR OF 
 
 very untoward circumstances of a long and ruinous litigation, which had 
 then endured for no less than thirty years. Here was an occasion which 
 required not only firmness, assiduity, sagacity, and much legal know- 
 ledge, but a strict attention to that impartiality, which justice and honour 
 demand in a mediator. These qualities were exerted by him with such 
 success in the termination of this mischievous contest, that, by a rare 
 felicity, while every member of the Chandos family was loud in expres- 
 sions of applause and thanks, the opponents themselves of that family 
 presented him with a service of plate; the following inscription upon 
 which will shew the strong sense entertained by them of his distin- 
 guished merits upon so critical and delicate an occasion. 
 
 As a memorial 
 OF GRATITUDE AND ESTEEM, 
 
 For his persevering, steady, and honourable conduct, 
 
 In securing: to them and their posterity 
 
 The tranquil enjoyment of their property, 
 
 and 
 Relieving them from uncertainty and law, 
 
 THB TENANTS OP THB MANOR OF VILLIERS 
 
 have presented this service of plate 
 
 to 
 
 RICHARD GRACE, Esq. 
 
 M. P. for the Borough of Baltimore,* 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 November, 1793, 
 
 To such an extent had, in fact, this unfortunate contest grown, 
 that it had become necessary to originate a sufficient power to meet its 
 management by an act of the legislature. The billf for this purpose 
 was introduced into the Irish House of Commons, and carried through it 
 by Mr. Grace himself, who, as it must be supposed, was well acquainted 
 with all the bearings of the question. But his career, as a senator, 
 was not limited within the bounds of private transactions, however 
 important they might be. His political conduct may be inferred from 
 the circumstance of his being an original member of the Whig Club, J 
 
 * This borough is situated in the county of Cork, and, previously to its disfranchise- 
 ment, at the period of the union between the two kingdoms, in 1800, was the property 
 of Mr. Grace's nephew, Sir John Evans Freke, of Castle-Freke, hart., who, in 1807, suc- 
 ceeded as sixth lord Carbery. 
 
 + This bill was uot only remarkable for the very numerous, complicated, aud im- 
 portant interests it embraced, but for the extraordinary and perhaps unexampled mag- 
 nitude of its appearance. The writer can state, on the authority of his friend, John 
 Claudius Beresford, esq., who then represented the borough of Swords, and who was 
 present on Mr. Grace's bill passing into a law, that, instead of the Speaker holding it 
 up, as is usual, with one hand, on saying " that this bill do now pass," the strength of 
 two men was necessary to raise and exhibit it to the house. The Speaker, of course, 
 merely laid his hand upon it. 
 
 t He was also an original member of Daly's Club, the most splendid establishment 
 of the kind ever known in Ireland Prerious to the legislative union of that country 
 with England, this society consisted, with veiy few exceptions, of peers and members 
 of parliament. Amoug the earliest members of the Kildare and Sackvi lie -Street Clubs 
 his name also appears. In the British metropolis these social establishments exceed 
 twenty in number, of which White's as a Tory, and Brooke's as a Whig club, rank first. 
 The United-Service Club consists of officers of the army and navy, as the United -Univer- 
 sity does of gentlemen educated or entered at Oxford and Cambridge. The Alfred, which 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. §1 
 
 instituted in Ireland, in 1789, by the zeal of lord Charlemont,*— a name 
 never to be thought of by his country without veneration, or mentioned 
 without an accompanying expression of gratitude. As of this great 
 and good man Mr. Grace deserved, so he enjoyed, the friendship. 
 " Laudari a laudatis mris" has long been named among the highest 
 attributes of character which can be reached, ov even wished for. But 
 this is the praise of the head : that of the heart will be found in the 
 friendships of the good and great, where love and admiration exist 
 together, because both are merited. As the integrity of Mr. Grace's 
 conduct was always as much above temptation as it was without 
 blemish, so was he never suspected to flatter or to unjustly praise the 
 greatest manor dearest friend, or to servilely compromise his own 
 opinions. He was, indeed, altogether superior to hypocrisy or dis- 
 simulation ; yet such were his benignity, discernment, and address, 
 that no man of worth ever felt himself hurt or humbled, or the nicest 
 rules of courtesy infringed, by his frankness. In the early part of the 
 
 has been denominated a literary club, requires no political, official, or local qualification 
 for admission ; and, in 1821, the Union club was established on similar principles. The 
 original committee of thirty-six, or founders of this last institution, consisted of lord 
 Arundel, general Bayley, sir Charles Belson, lord "William Bentiuk, James Blair, esq. 
 M.P., earl of Breadalbane, honourable William Burrell, Henry Chambers, esq., marquis 
 of Chaudos, sir George Cockburn, M. P., John Wilson Croker, esq. M. P., sir Alexander 
 Don, M. P., sir Henry Englefield, bart., viscount Gage, viscount Glenorchy, Pascoe 
 Grenfell, esq. M. P., Sheffield Grace, esq., captain Percy Grace, R. N., A. C. Grant, 
 esq. M. P., William Haldimand, esq. M. P., George Hainmersley, esq. M. P., William 
 Holmes, esq., M.P., earl of Kingstou, viscount Lowther, William Mayne, esq., right 
 honourable Robert Peel, M. P., sir Peter Pole, M. P., sir Horace St. Paul, M. P., 
 lord Sherborne, sir John Shelley, M. P , John Smith, esq. M. P., William Stewart, esq., 
 G. Holme Sumner, esq. M. P., earl of Uxbridge, earl of Waldegrave, and general Wood. 
 The sub-committee selected out of this general committee, to expend the sum of one 
 thousand guineas ou books and maps, consisted of the marquis of Chandos, John Wil- 
 son Croker, esq. M.P., sir Henry Englefield, bart., Sheffield Grace, esq., and sir Horace 
 St. Paul, bart., M. P. 
 
 * The attachment of this excellent and accomplished nobleman to Mr. Grace was 
 not merely founded on a similarity of political sentiments. A congenial taste in the cul- 
 tivation of literature, in the estimation of the fine arts, and in an undeviating rectifu.de 
 of principle, formed the true basis of their mutual regard. Both had resided for a con- 
 siderable period abroad, both were intimately acquainted with most of the courts in 
 Europe, and with the chief personages in them ; and hence many subjects were interest- 
 ing to both, in which few other gentlemen then in Ireland could participate. All 
 foreigners, and strangers of distinction, who visited Dublin, were received at Charle- 
 mont- House; and Mr. Grace's society, so peculiarly distinguished by colloquial and 
 exhilarating talents, as well as by extent of knowledge and elegance of manners, was 
 always, on these hospitable occasions, earnestly solicited by his noble and truly esti- 
 mable friend. Lord Charlemont appears to have had a particular partiality for the people 
 as well as for tbe climate and literature of Italy ; and his voluminous MS. history of the 
 poetry of that country, commencing with Dante, and ending with Metastasio, furnishes 
 most pleasing, accurate, and critical accounts of their best poets. From this MS. the 
 rev. Edward Groves has edited a privately printed and highly interesting volume, en- 
 titled " Select Sonnets of Petrarch, with Translations and illustrative Notes, by James, 
 late Earl of Charlemont. Dublin, 1622." The writer has been presented with this 
 volume, in the advertisement to which, it is stated that " a limited number of copies has 
 beeu printed, for the perusal of his friends and admirers, at the desire of his nearest re- 
 lative, to shew that the leisure momeuts of a life devoted to the cause of his country, 
 were devoted with equal ardour to that of literature ; and to teach those who come after, 
 to what a height of elevation rank and talents can raise their possessor, by being unre- 
 mittingly applied to the purposes for which they are vouchsafed by our Creator." 
 
 M 
 
82 MEMOIR OF 
 
 year 1819, the compiler of this memoir passed some days with a gen- 
 tleman distinguished for high character, talent, and property, in the 
 neighbourhood of Mr. Grattan's seat, at Tinehinch, on which occasion 
 he understood that eminent and patriotic statesman to have replied to 
 an observation, by saying, that " He (his son) may well feel proud at 
 being descended from a man whose merits would dignify the proudest 
 ancestry." On another occasion, a considerable landed proprietor, in 
 the Queen's County, whose cultivated mind, candour, and philan- 
 thropy, command universal respect, thus personally addressed himself 
 to the writer, " If your father was the son of even the humblest pea- 
 sant, I should esteem it a greater honour to derive my being from him 
 than from any other man in the county." The lustre of virtue, so truly 
 great, was not clouded by obscurity. In what more brilliant frame 
 could, in fact, the merits of any person be set, than in the affectionate 
 intimacy and esteem of such men as the dukes of Norfolk,* Chandos, 
 and Leinstcr, lords Buckingham, Lansdown, Roslyn, and Charlemont, 
 Edmund Burke, Henry Grattan, George Ponsonby, Horace Walpolc, 
 Arthur Browne, Hussey Burgh, and Richard Fitz-Patrick ? f These arc 
 names for history to work upon and to record : but with the possessor 
 of the last of them, Mr. Grace must have found and enjoyed many 
 points of coincidence. They were both descended from an antient and 
 honourable lineage; both distinguished for their very peculiar excel- 
 lence in conversation ; both remarkable for the coolness, acumen, and 
 depth of their judgments. In their habits of life the same resemblance 
 might not be traced ; as the habits and associations in England of 
 general Fitz-Patrick led him, in early life, into scenes, which his more 
 matured experience induced him to abandon. The course pursued by 
 Mr. Grace was ever of a more domestic nature, and was passed in the 
 assiduous cultivation of the various endearing relationships of son, of 
 husband, and of father. The income of his mother, during the many 
 years in which she was his only surviving parent, was by him nearly 
 doubled, with the still more gratifying discharge of all that filial ten- 
 derness or duty could prompt or receive. During twenty years, the 
 affection, kindness, and respect, shewn to his wife, may be equalled, 
 
 • A remote but undoubted connection existed betweeu Mr. Grace aud this illustrious 
 house, by his descent from the second lord Sheffield, who married a daughter of the first 
 lord Howard of Effingham, a younger son of the second duke of Norfolk ; and he was 
 also related to this nobleman's first wife, Mary-Anne, daughter and heiress of John 
 Coppinger, of Barry's-Court, in the county of Cork, esq. The duke of Norfolk not only 
 did him the honour of always acknowledging this alliance, but, as a distinguished com- 
 plimentary testimony of it, appeared at the marriage of his sister with William Mid- 
 delton, of Stockeld-Park, esq., in the character of earl-marshal of England, and officiated 
 on that occasion, in all respects, precisely as be would have done if called upon by the 
 occurrence of a similar ceremony in the royal family. 
 
 + The right houourable general Fitz-Patrick was the only brother of the last earl of 
 Upper-Ossory, and was appointed secretary at war by the Grenville administration, in 
 1806. His talents, his accomplishments, and social qualities, are commemorated in 
 some extremely pretty verses writteu upon his death, and published in a volume, en- 
 titled, " Sylva: Poems, on several occasions, by Chandos Leigh, esq. London, 1S23." 
 This work possesses much typographical merit, and is highly creditable to the accuracy 
 and good taste of Mr. Richards's press. 
 
RICHARD GRACE, MP. 
 
 83 
 
 hut cannot be surpassed. He married, on the 10th of August, 1782, 
 Jane, (to whom he was previously related in the degree of third cousin,) 
 the youngest daughter of the honourable John Evans, of Bulgaden- 
 Hall, in the county of Limerick, who was himself the youngest son 
 of George lord Carbery,* by Anne, sister and co-heir of William Staf- 
 ford, of Blatherwick and Laxton, both in the county of Northampton.-^ 
 
 * Eyre Evans, of Portrane, Mrs, Grace's grand-uncle, was this lord Carbery's next 
 brother, and was grandfather of George, of that place, who married, in 1805, Sophia, 
 daughter of Sir John Parnell, bart., of Rathleage, in the Queen's Couuty; and Anne 
 Evans, her grand-aunt, this lord's third sister, married Chidley Coote, of Ash-Hill, and 
 had issue, — first, Robert, whose grandson, Sir Charles Coote, of Ballyfiu, in the Queen's 
 County, succeeded to the Irish estates and barouetage of the last earl of Mountrath ; 
 second, Charles, the second sou, was dean of Kilfeuora, and father of Charles Henry lord 
 Castle Coote, and of Grace, married to Henry Bathurst, lord-bishop of Norwich. 
 
 + A genealogical diagram, iu accordance with the facts, will, perhaps, be found to 
 supply the clearest illustration of these notices. 
 
 William Meade, of Ballintobber, in 
 the co. of Cork, married Elizabeth,, 
 daughter of Sir Robert Travers. 
 
 George Evans, of Caharas, 
 co. Limerick, ob. 1720, mar. 
 Mary, dau. of Johu Eyre, of 
 Eyre-Court, co. Galway, & 
 sist. of Elizabeth, the wife 
 of Frederick Treuch.of Gar- 
 bally, whose grandson was 
 created earl of Claucarty. 
 
 John Evans, created lord 
 Carbery, in 1715, married 
 Anne, 2d sister and co-h. 
 of William Stafford, 
 of Blatherwick and Lax- 
 ton, co. Northampton. 
 
 Sir John Meade,: 
 created a baronet 
 in 1703, and ob. 
 1711, grandfather 
 of Sir Johu, cre- 
 ated earl of Clan- 
 william, in 1776. í 
 
 Sir Ralph Freke,: 
 of Castle -Freke, 
 co. Cork, created 
 an English baro- 
 net, in 1713. 
 
 =Elizabeth,2ddau. 
 and co-heir of co- 
 lonel Daniel Red- 
 man, \ of Bally- 
 linch, co. Kilken- 
 ny, 2d wife, 8c sist. 
 of Eleanor, vis- 
 countess Ikerrin. 
 
 John Galway, of: 
 Lota - House, in 
 the couuLy of 
 Cork. 
 
 1 
 
 ;Elizabeth Meade, 
 of Ballintobber, 
 only child and 
 heir to her mo- 
 ther. II 
 
 -Elizabeth Meade, 
 of Ballintobber, 
 eld. dau. and sist. 
 of Eleanor, the 
 wife of Godwin 
 Swift, uncle of the 
 celebrated Dean 
 Swift. 
 
 Michael Grace, of=Mary Galway, of 
 
 Gracefield, in the 
 Queen's County, 
 Ob. 1760. 
 
 Lota - House, 
 1736. 
 
 ob. 
 
 George, 2d lord Carbery, 
 mar. Frances, daughter of 
 Richard, 5th viscouut Fitz- 
 Williara,and sisterof Mary 
 countess of Pembroke. His 
 male descendants extinct 
 on the death of John, the 
 5th lord, in 1807. 
 
 John Evans, of=Grace Freke, of 
 
 Bulgaden - Hall, 
 co. Limerick, 4th 
 and youngest sou, 
 ob. 1758. 
 
 Castle-Freke,only 
 daughter, and sole 
 heir to her bro- 
 ther, roar, in 1741. 
 
 William Grace, 3d: 
 son,resided chiefly 
 at St. Germain's, 
 in France, ob. in 
 London, 1777. 
 
 —Mary, dau. &h. of 
 Richard Harford, 
 ofMarshfield,near 
 Dublin, ob. in 
 London, 1799. 
 
 Sir John Evans Freke, created a baro- 
 net of Ireland, in 1768, mar. Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of Arthur Gore, first 
 earl of Arran, and died in 1777. 
 
 Jane Evans, of= 
 Bulgaden - Hall, 
 youngest daugh- 
 ter, ob. 1804. 
 
 =RichabdGrace 
 of Boley, M. P., 
 eldest son, ob. at 
 Southville, 1801, 
 
 1. Sir John Evans Freke, of Castle- 
 Freke, bart., succeeded, in 1807, as 
 sixth lord Carbery. IT 
 
 2. George Evaus Freke Evans, of Bul- 
 gaden and Laxton. 
 
 3. Percy Evans Freke, of Percy- 
 Lodge. 
 
 1. Sir William Grace, succeeded, in 
 1818, to the English baronetcy, of 
 Sir Richard Gamou. 
 
 2. Sheffield Grace, of Liucoln's-Inn, 
 F.S.A. 
 
 3. Percy Grace, a captain in the royal 
 navy, commanding bis M.S. Cyreue. 
 
 X He married, thirdly, Elizabeth, fourth daughter of Pierce Butler, viscount Iker- 
 rin, from whom the present earl of Clauwilliam descends. 
 
 \ Colonel D. Redman, from whom sir W. Grace is thus descended, was the person to 
 whom Cromwell granted the Ballylinch or Kilkenny estates, of which his immediate an- 
 cestor, W. Grace, of Ballyliuch, the sou of Gerald, of the same, (slain at the battle of 
 Kilrush, in 1642,) was dispossessed. See page 25, and note • at page 50. 
 
 II She married, 2dly, James King, of Mitchelstown, 4th lord Kingston, and hadan 
 only surviving child, Margaret, mar. to Richard Fitz-Gerald, esq., whose ouly dau. and 
 heir, Caroline, mar., iu 1769, Robert King, of Rockingham, 2d earl of Kingston. 
 
 TT In 1S11, Sheffield Grace, of Lincoln's- Inn, was sworn as an evidence^ by lord Wal- 
 singham, chairman of the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords, to whom 
 the petition of this nobleman, praying to have his right to vote on the election of the 
 Irish peers established, was referred. The claim has siiice been admitted, and the right 
 exercised. 
 
84 MEMOIR OF 
 
 Sir William Stafford, the founder of this branch of his illustrious house, 
 was next brother of Harvey, sixth baron Stafford, whose great-great- 
 grandson, Ralph, the eleventh baron, was, in 1350, created earl of Staf- 
 ford. Earl Ralph was great-grandfather of Humphrey, the sixth earl, 
 elevated to the dukedom of Buckingham,* in 1444. 
 
 The sweetness of Mrs. Grace's temper, her courtesy, and her general 
 excellence of character, in whatever way it can be analized, accompanied 
 as they were by great personal charms, at once endeared her to him, and 
 rendered her worthy of such a husband. The happiness of their union 
 was exceedingly promoted by the sense of religious obligation, which 
 was not more understood than obeyed by them ; although it was never 
 ostentatiously brought forward by them, and still less was suffered to 
 lead them into controversy, which, as has been most justly observed, 
 while it affects to vindicate the cause of heaven and its Almighty Ruler, 
 means, for the most part, little more than personal dispute. She sur- 
 vived him three years, with an income augmented by his affection, but 
 in deep sorrow for the loss of one, by whose side, at the end of that 
 time, and by her own express desire, she was laid in the Grace-Mauso- 
 leum, at Aries, in the Queen's County. 
 
 Of this marriage, thus distinguished by its happiness, while it conti- 
 nued, and by the grief of the survivor, upon its dissolution, five children 
 were the fruits, viz,, three sons, — first, Sir William Grace, who inherited 
 the English Baronetcy on the death of his relation, Sir Richard Gamon, 
 bart., on the 8th of April, 1818; second, Sheffield Grace, F.S.A.,t a 
 
 • This high and distinguished ducal title, which was conferred first upon Hum- 
 phrey Stafford, the sixth earl of Stafford, K. G., in 1444, became extinct by the attainder 
 of Edward, the third duke, in 1521. The representatives and next of kin of the ducal 
 house of Stafford is the ancient family of Jemingham, of Cossey, in the county of Nor- 
 folk. It was conferred, secondly, upon George Villiers, first marquis of Buckingham, K. G. 
 in 1623, and became extinct by the death, s.p., of George, thesecondduke,inl687. The 
 representatives and next of kin, in the male line, of the ducal house of Villiers, are the 
 noble families of Jersey and Clarendon, who are descended from Edward, the eldest 
 brother, by the half-blood of the first duke, whose issue has wholly failed. It was 
 conferred, thirdly, upon John Sheffield, third earl of Mulgrave and first marquis of 
 Nonnanby, K.G., in 1702, and became extinct by the death, s. p. t of Edmund, the 
 second duke, in 1733. The representatives and next of kin of the ducal house of 
 Sheffield, is the family of Grace, of Gracefield, in the Queen's County. It was con- 
 ferred, fourthly, upon Richard Grenville, second marquis of Buckingham, K. G., in 
 1822; that of Chandos being at the same time added, as derived from the duchess, 
 who is the only child and sole heir of James Brydges, the third and last duke of the 
 " princely house of Chandos." 
 
 + An admission to the society of Antiquaries of London must be preceded by an 
 official recommendation of three of that body personally acquainted with the candidate. 
 The following is a copy of the form drawn up on this occasion, by Nicholas Carlisle, esq. 
 the efficient and intelligent secretary of the society, in conjunction with Henry Ellis, 
 esq., of the British Museum, whose valuable acquirements and interesting pursuits are 
 as highly appreciated, as they are universally known. 
 
 " Sheffield Grace, esq., of No. 5, Kin g's-Bencb- Walk, in the InnerTemple, a gen- 
 tleman very conversant in the history and antiquities of this kingdom, being desirous 
 of the honour of becoming a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Loudon ; we, whose 
 names are hereunto subscribed, do, of our personal kuowledge, recommend him as highly 
 deserving that honour, and likely to prove a useful and valuable member. 
 
 C. Bathvjrst. 
 
 Clifden. 
 
 IlBNNIKER." 
 
RICHARD GRACE, MP. S5 
 
 member of the honourable society of Lincoln^ Inn, and formerly a stu- 
 dent at Winchester-College,* and a gentleman-commoner at St. Mary's, 
 Oxford ; third, Percy Grace,f a captain in the royal navy, commanding 
 
 The right honourable Charles Bathurst, of Lydney-Park, in Gloucestershire, M. P., 
 the first of these gentlemen, has long stood before the public as a cabinet-minister, 
 chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster, and president of the Board for Coutrol of the 
 Affairs of India, from which duties he retired, in 1823, to enjoy and to impart, in do- 
 mestic life, the pleasures inseparable from copiousness, diversity, and minuteness of 
 knowledge, refined literary attainments, varied accomplishments, active kindness, and 
 general philanthropy. Those who know him, and can admire intellect, and the social 
 virtues, must feel that such an enviable felicity of mental combinations seldom, alas! 
 too seldom, fall to the lot of man. The affection which an intimate and uninterrupted 
 friendship of twenty years has generated for his highly talented, and amiable son, 
 Charles Bathurst, can suggest words for neither a more perfect nor a more just character 
 of the latter, than to say, that he is in every respect deserving of such a father. Enco- 
 mium can go no higher. 
 
 • Those, whose feelings are not wholly blunted by a commerce with the world, 
 must have often perceived the lengthened influence of boyish recollections, and the 
 attractions with which partiality clothes them. They cling to the mind till slowly 
 effaced by the busy scenes of life, or by the absorbing tide of prosperous or adverse 
 fortune. To the impulse generated by the frequent indulgence of such recollections, 
 may be attributed the introduction of the following lines : 
 
 ON LEAVING ST. MARY'S COLLEGE, AT WINCHESTER. 
 
 Belgica Venta vale! nostram qu» docta juventam 
 
 Formasti studiis, Belgica Venta vale! 
 Itcbinus vitrei dum prsaterlabitur umU, 
 
 Teque colam sancta Viccamicosque fide. 
 Vos qnoque, qui castris mecum vigilastis iu isdem, 
 
 Pieriumque animis excoluistis opus, 
 Vivite felices, charissima turba, sodales! 
 
 iEtemum vultus pectora nostra gerent. 
 Sheffieldus sedenim vos inter gaudethaberi, 
 
 Gaudet et iusigni nomine Viccamici. 
 Gaudeat oh Venta? dulces venerásse Camceuas, 
 
 Et quas Roma tenet, Graecia quasque colit. 
 
 There are three Vent<E of Roman origin, viz., Venta Icenorum, Norwich; Venta 
 Silurum, Bristol ; and Venta Belgica^ Winchester. 
 
 The anniversary "Wykehamist dinner, on the first "Wednesday in May, at the 
 Thatched House, in St. James's Street, contributes to an association of ideas that re- 
 aui mates many a childish occurrence, which few revert to without pleasure; and the com- 
 parison of the past with the present can scarcely, under any circumstance, prove unsalu- 
 tary. For the meeting of 18*24, the eight stewards selected are the viscount St. Vincent; 
 the rev. R. Mant, D. D., lord-bishop of Down ; sir Philip Carteret Sylvester, bart. ; the 
 rev. Philip N. Shuttleworth, D.D., warden of New-College, Oxford; the rev. Edward 
 Maltby, D.D.; the rev. Henry Lee ; "William Hoskins, esq.; and Sheffield Grace, esq. 
 
 + Captain Percy Grace entered the royal navy at the unusually early age of ten 
 years, and was placed under the care of Sir Thomas Freemautle, bart., G. C.B., who 
 then commanded the Ganges, of seventy-four guns. He had not been many days on 
 board, when that ship joined lord Nelson's fleet, in the tremendous action off Copen- 
 hagen, on the2d of April, 1801. He was also on board the Greyhound, at the capture of 
 the Dutch frigate, Pallas, in the East-Indies ; and was severely wounded when engaged, 
 with the boats of the Piedmontese frigate, against the Malay pirate rows that then in- 
 fested the Indian seas. While lieutenant of the Semiramis, on the 25th of August, 1811, 
 he commanded one of the two boats of that frigate which achieved the very gallant and 
 remarkable enterprise of cutting out the Pluvier French sloop of war, mounting sixteen 
 guns and one hundred and thirty-six men, fully prepared for action, and in the middle 
 
85 MEMOIR OF 
 
 his Majesty's ship Cyrene ; and two daughters,— first, Jane, married 
 to George F. Brooke, esq., youngest brother of Sir Henry Brooke, 
 
 of the day, from under the batteries in Royan-roads, at the entrance of the river Gironde, 
 leading to Bourdeaux. His spirited and judicious conduct on these three latter occasions 
 iuduced the captains, under whose respective comraauds he served, to recommend him 
 in their official despatches to the lords of the Admiralty as entitled, by his merit, to fur- 
 ther promotion. It may be also added, that, besides the casualties of being once ship- 
 wrecked and taken piisoner, he was always employed in the most active service from his 
 first entering the navy to the termination of hostilities on the general peace in 1816; aud 
 that for ten years of that long and eventful period he served in the East and West Indies- 
 On the 15th of June, 1814, he was raised to the rank of commander, being at the same time 
 appointed to the command of the Minorca sloop of war; and, on the 17th of January, 1S22, 
 H. M.S. Cyrene, of twenty -four guns, which bad recently been put into commission, and 
 destiued for a very responsible, as well as a very dangerous and unpleasant service, was 
 entrusted to his command. The service alluded to is the suppression of the slave-trade, 
 which three out of the five nations formerly concerned in that most iniquitous and most 
 cruel traffic, still zealously, though clandestinely, protect; our French, Portuguese, and 
 Spanish allies supporting it, by every indirect possible method ; while the English and 
 American governments honestly endeavour to carry into full effect the measures of abso- 
 lute abolition, formally and publicly acquiesced in by all the powers. These remarks 
 are strikingly illustrated in the following paragraphs, which appeared in the Guardian 
 London newspaper, of the 19th of January, 1823 ; and also iu the Courier paper, of the 
 13th of the same month. " It rejoices us much to notice the successful efforts which 
 are making to extinguish this detestable and inhuman branch of mercantile traffic. In 
 carrying the views aud determination of the British governmeut into execution, every 
 thing depends upon the qualification of the naval officers selected for such a service; 
 aud we feel convinced that success must attend our endeavours, if this discharge of our 
 national duty is but entrusted to such men as we have the gratification to find employed 
 in confiscating promptly the property embarked, and the accumulations realized in these 
 nefarious engagements. Our readers will, with pleasure, peruse the following account 
 of captain Percy Grace's method of treating slave-dealers, and marking the reprobation 
 his country feels at the heinousness of these abominable speculations. It is to such 
 promptness and decision the friends of the abolition must trust for the fulfilment of 
 their wishes, and the completion of their prayers. From the Sierra Leone Gazette, 
 of November 9, 1822, we learn that — Yesterday evening arrived in this harbour the 
 Dutch schooner, Aurora, with 180 slaves, prize of his Majesty's ship, Cyrene, captain 
 Percy Grace, commander. This schooner was captured off the Gallinas, on the 23d ult. ; 
 she is one hundred and forty-two tons, four guns, twenty-six meu, and is well armed 
 with muskets, pistols, and cutlasses : was about a month upon the coast, and one death, 
 only has occurred among the unfortunate victims since the capture ; the others being 
 pretty healthy. The cargo consists of forty-three men, twenty-one women, seventy- 
 three boys, and forty-two girls. As the boats of his Majesty's ship, Cyrene, under the 
 command of lieutenant Courtenay, crossed the bar of the Gallinas, and proceeded up 
 the river, they were assailed by showers of musquetry ; and also from a battery, which 
 had been suddenly erected, of three twelve-pounders, landed previously from a French 
 slave-schooner, L'Hypolite. The guns were served by the master and several men of 
 the schooner ; but, from the intrepidity and bravery of our tars, they soon drove them 
 off, aud turned their guns against them. In this unprovoked attack the Cyrene had one 
 man killed, and two severely wounded. 
 
 " It clearly appears that the slave-trade is in a flourishing state in that quarter, three 
 French vessels having sailed with full cargoes in September last ; and, three days before 
 the arrival of the Cyrene, a Spanish schooner had sailed with 300 slaves. L'Hypolite, 
 an old slaver, from Martinique, of one hundred and ninety-five tons, twenty-two guns, 
 and one hundred and nineteen men, was in readiness to take her slaves from the shore, 
 where they were all nearly collected. 
 
 « In consequence of the cruel and wanton attack made upon our gallant tars, the 
 Cyrene burnt down several towns and slave-factories belonging to Siacca, the notorious 
 aud detestable slave-dealer, and chief of the Gallinas. Siacca afterwards thought it 
 prudent to reconcile matters with captain Percy Grace, and expressed his sorrow at ihe 
 uufortunate occurrence, alleging that, as he was absent at the time, he hoped the mis- 
 conduct of his people would be forgiven." 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. §7 
 
 bart., and son of Francis Brooke,* of Colebrooke, In the county of 
 Fermanagh, by Hannah, sister of Henry Prittie lord Dunally; and, 
 second, Louisa Caroline. Parental excellence can in no respect be 
 more strongly reflected than in filial attachment and admiration ; and 
 these Mr. Grace has secured, in a very eminent degree, by kindness, 
 attention, exhortation, and, above all, by example. 
 
 Grates peraolvere dignas 
 
 Non opis est nostra;. VlKG. 
 
 His high and various mental acquirements, grounded upon his natural 
 talents, must, in every point of view, have qualified him for the office 
 of instructor ; but the exemplary virtues belongiug to him, his remark- 
 able temperance, his evenness of temper, necessarily gave him all that 
 weight of authority, which should be the chief characteristic of a 
 monitor. Without evenness of temper, parent or tutor may, indeed, 
 instruct and admonish ; but the instruction will be very distastefully 
 received, and the admonition deprived of half its force. The first duty 
 of those who aspire to, or exercise, the command of others, is to prove 
 that they can command themselves. A higher and a more difficult 
 duty, though, perhaps, a less useful quality, in a father, is the exam- 
 ple of forbearance towards the injurious, and of forgiveness extended 
 to the ungrateful. These are difficult exertions of the human mind ; 
 but, as they were exercised by Mr. Grace in many instances, so they 
 constituted models for imitation, to which it should be the high ambi- 
 tion of every one, with such an example before them, to adapt their 
 characters and conduct. 
 
 But it was not in the circle of his family alone that these virtues 
 and excellencies were shewn or practised. It was his fortune to be 
 called to the discharge of his duties, in the House of Commons, at a 
 period stormy and shaken by those evils with which the history of 
 Ireland has, unfortunately, been so peculiarly overshadowed. The 
 very peace of the country had been nearly sacrificed to the calamities of 
 a civil war, which was, perhaps, only prevented by the timely conces- 
 sions of the British government. That these concessions were justly 
 and properly made, can never be doubted, when it is recollected that 
 Ireland asked nothing but what every community has the clearest right 
 to demand. But it would have been well, if the general interests of 
 the country had to contend with the British government alone. Unfor- 
 tunately, amidst the distractions, arising from wounded recollections, 
 actual evils, and the exasperations of continued contentions, the mind 
 of the whole island must be stated to have been, as was indeed but too 
 natural, in a most diseased condition. Amidst all this, Richard Grace 
 won his way, with a general popularity, founded upon the conviction 
 of almost every party, that as he was the enlightened advocate of rcli- 
 
 • Francis Brooke was younger brother of sir Arthur Brooke, of Colebroke, bart., 
 who died, in 1785, leaving issue two daughters, viz. Selina, married to Thomas viscount 
 De Vescy ; and Lctitia, married to sir John Parncll, bart., of Rathleague, in the Queen's 
 County. 
 
SS MEMOIR OF 
 
 gious freedom, and the dispassionate friend of civil liberty, so was he 
 the determined supporter of legitimate and constitutional government. 
 Mankind, in fact, amidst all their caprices, prejudices, and resentful 
 feelings, are rarely so unjust as not to render the tribute due to virtue, 
 when its existence is clearly made known to them ; and no virtue, 
 assuredly, can be greater than that of disinterestedly maintaining or 
 contending for the just, inherent, and indefeasible rights of a people. 
 But his political principles, though springing from an innate vigour 
 of mind and an acknowledged purity of feeling, and though immove- 
 ably confirmed by experience, and honourably illustrated by conduct, 
 did not, in any degree, expose him to the tainting influence of preju- 
 dice. He could admit that reason, virtue, and justifiable circum- 
 stances, might dictate opinious opposite to his own. As it was, in- 
 deed, scarcely possible for respect or love to be less mixed with alloy 
 of a sectarian cast, either in politics, religion, or country, so were 
 many of those with whom he associated and corresponded, with the 
 most unreserved intimacy, in these several respects, opposed to him. 
 Hence, therefore, he seldom felt a self-prohibition to mix with the 
 more select, enlightened, and attractive society, which often adorned the 
 vice-regal residence in Ireland. There have been many distinguished 
 individuals to testify that if, on these occasions, he did derive, so did 
 he also most unequivocally impart, much mental gratification, parti- 
 cularly during the Northington, Rutland, Fitz-William, and Cornwallis 
 administrations. A trivial, but very certain, proof of the estimation 
 in which his colloquial powers were held, may be further gathered from 
 a convivial society, to which he belonged, entitled, " The Monks of 
 the Screw." The right honourable J. P. Curran was prior of this fra- 
 ternity, which consisted of lords Charlemont, Clifden, and Avonmore, 
 judges Day, Chamberlaine, and Metge, right honourable Sir Hercules 
 Langrish, right honourable Henry Flood, right honourable Henry Grat- 
 tan, right honourable Dennis Bowes Daly, right honourable George Ogle, 
 Wogan Browne, esq., Dr. O'Leary, and some other persons of equal dis- 
 tinction. In the difficulty of admission, and in the fewness, acknow- 
 ledged talents, and high character of its members, this little brotlier- 
 hood has perhaps never been surpassed. 
 
 Though so pre-eminently qualified, by candour, disinterestedness, 
 intelligence, and unwearied activity, to efficiently protect local in- 
 terests the most complicated, and to creditably discharge public 
 duties the most important, it is painful to add, that he twice failed 
 in attempts, attended with very considerable expense, to represent the 
 Queen's County in parliament. His rival competitors, on these occa- 
 sions, were men of no ordinary note ; and defeat ceases to be humiliat- 
 ing, when, on the brilliant legend of victory, such names are to be 
 found blazoned, as those of the right honourable William Wellesley 
 Pole, now lord Maryborough, brother to the duke of Wellington and 
 the marquis Wellesley ; the right honourable Charles Henry Coote, now 
 lord Castle-Coote ; the right honourable Sir John Parnell, bait., chan- 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. S9 
 
 cellor of the Exchequer ; and John Warburton, of Garryhinch, esq. 
 He was also a candidate at the period of his decease ; and no doubt was 
 entertained of his success, if it had pleased Providence to prolong his 
 valuable life. The warm friendship, as well as the extensive influence, 
 of the duke of Buckingham and Chandos claims precedence for this noble 
 personage, among those to whom Mr. Grace would have been indebted for 
 the attainment of this honourable distinction ; and the late lords Lans- 
 down, Stanhope, and Upper-Ossory, and the late countess of Portarling- 
 ton, (whose son, the present lord Portarlington, was then a minor,) like- 
 wise gave him their powerful support. His near relatives, lord Carbery, 
 Morgan Kavauagh, George Putland, and Hamden Evans, esquires, 
 formed a strong and undivided interest in his favour ; and among his 
 most attached personal friends, may be mentioned William Cooper, of 
 Cooper's Hill, esq.; Sir George Pigot, bart., and John Pigot, of Cap- 
 pard, esq.; admiral Cosby, of Stradbally-Hall ; judge Kelly, of Kelly- 
 ville; general Walsh, of Ballykillcavan ; C. B. Ponsonby, of Belmont, 
 esq.; and the right honourable Henry Grattan. The ambition of repre- 
 senting a county^ with which the candidate is connected by the relation- 
 ships of property and residence; is unquestionably justified by its being, 
 perhaps, the highest political distinction to which a private gentleman 
 can aspire.* It is true, that in the contest a very serious expense is 
 often incurred ; that the passions of the people (who, with or without 
 reason, side with the different candidates) are inflamed ; and that, com- 
 monly, a wide indulgence in debauchery takes place. That there is much 
 evil in all this, must be granted ; but, on the other hand, contests like 
 these, and their consequences^ rouse a spirit of interest in public con- 
 cerns ; excite a sense of some importance in the persons who engage in 
 them ; and, above all^ prevent that last of political evils, — a stagnation 
 
 * No legitimate nátiouál occurrence does or ought to command a larger portion of 
 public attention than a general election ; and we accordingly find that the newspapers 
 always endeavour to describe the leading interests of the contested counties, and to detail 
 the support aud ostensible grounds ou which the respective candidates build their hopes 
 of success. The following paragraph appeared in the Dublin Journal newspaper, of the 
 17LhofJune, 1818, among others of a similar nature, on the general election that took 
 place in that year. " Queen's COUNTY.— The representation of few Counties has been 
 more warmly contested than this has formerly been ; and if zeal and exertion could en- 
 sure success, the three candidates, on the present occasion, ought in fairness to divide 
 the prize. The majority of the great landed proprietors are unquestionably in favour of 
 sir Henry Parnell and Mr. Wellesley Pole ; but sir Charles Coote possesses, perhaps, the 
 most considerable personal interest, as well as the most considerable estate of any indivi- 
 dual geutleman in the county. It is conjectured that lords Lansdowu, Upper-Ossory, 
 aud De Vescy, will support sir H. Parnell singly; and that lords Buckingham, Stan- 
 hope, and Portarlington, sirs R. Staples, W. Grace, A.Walsh, and G. Pigot, Messrs. War- 
 burton, Cosby, Pigot, Grattan, Cooper, and Trench* will support sir H. Parnell and 
 Mr. W. Pole jointly. Lords Drogheda, Rossmore, and Castle-Coote, general Dunne, sir 
 W. Hort, and Messrs. Weldon, Smith, and Moore, are reckoned among sir C. Coote's 
 friends, who likewise possesses a larger portion of the secondary interests of the couuty, 
 than, perhaps, either of the other two candidates. The memorable contest for this 
 county in the year 1795, in which the late sir John Parnell, colonel Warburton, Mr. Grace, 
 aud the present lord Castle-Coote were candidates, could scarcely have been more distin- 
 guished by zeal aud exertion than the present is likely to he. Since that period no third 
 candidate has offered himself. The strong contest that was expected, in 1801, between 
 sir J. Parnell, Mr. W. Pole, and Mr. Grace, was prevented by the premature aud la- 
 meuted death of the, latter gentleman, a short time previous to the election."- 
 
 N 
 
90 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of the general mind. The experience of the world, hitherto, has shewn, 
 that a state, to he free, must occasionally be tumultuous. The king of 
 Great Britain, observes Montesquieu, is insubversibly seated upon a 
 throne always tottering. Without tying down this able writer to the 
 exact letter of his expression, the most loyal Englishman may admit 
 that there is considerable truth in its spirit. 
 
 Distinguished as is the character of an active and able member in a 
 free legislative assembly, it is yet, perhaps, surpassed in practical utility 
 by that of a zealous and upright magistrate.* The House of Commons 
 
 • The proudest boast of England is the body entrusted with the immediate admi- 
 nistration of its laws. This trust gives them the highest consequence among the middle 
 class: they hence possess the greatest influence and most preponderating weight, and 
 they are the mean of insuring protection to our persons, and security to our properties. 
 All good and wise men unite in supporting their authority and in ackuowledgiug their 
 value: even the nobility, and gentlemen of overgrown fortunes, are proud to he mem- 
 bers of this body ; for, independently of a sense of duty to their country, they well know 
 the estimation which society fixes on their unpurchased and patriotic services. The ad- 
 vantage arising from the admission of hired assistance to the laborious duties of the ma- 
 gistracy, where the necessity of the case does not most peremptorily require it, has been 
 often canvassed, particularly when it is sought for in characters, however highly gifted 
 and respectable, selected from the bar. It has been almost uniformly found that lawyers 
 on the bench at quarter or petty sessions have been too much given to the introduction 
 of legal subtlety and disquisition. The practice of a country justice is facilitated by 
 neither. They are impediments to the distribution of convictions, aud the arbitration 
 of disputes, and too frequently lead the lower classes into the belief that what in reality 
 is simple and unsophisticated, is made abstruse by its technicality, on purpose to defraud 
 them of the palpable justice they demaud. Speaking generally, the duties of a couutry 
 magistrate are so clearly laid down, and by books of reference so simply detailed and 
 explained, that there is no occasion for the general assistance of legal education and 
 experience. If such assistance be necessary at all, it follows, a fortiori, that it is neces- 
 sary every where. The bad cousequences of this magisterial power, as existing in 
 Ireland, (with reference to assistant barristers,) show themselves in the relief which the 
 niagistracy feel from the responsibility and high trust of their situation. It is of im- 
 portance to state that, while in Ireland the appointment of a stipendiary assistant bar- 
 rister to fill the chair at the quarter-sessions proceeds from the crown, in England this 
 highly dignified and unsalaried appointment is elective. A reciprocal feeling hence 
 exists in the latter country between the magistracy and their organ, which shows itself 
 in every act advantageous to the working of the system. The electors, with laudable 
 anxiety to support the authority aud assist the decisions of the chairman, consider that, 
 in doing this delicately and cautiously, not in the spirit of officiousness and presump- 
 tion, they are themselves displaying the propriety of their choice, aud the wisdom of their 
 representative; while the elected, having, from his comrades on the "bench, received the 
 highest compliment aud most flattering trust which his neighbours could bestow, feels it 
 his sacred and imperious duty that neither labour, reading, patience, or urbauity, shall 
 be spared iu convincing his auditory and the county that the important seat delegated 
 to his prowess shall receive at his hands neither indignity, neglect, nor degradation. 
 Nay, it goes further in its good effects : the gentlemen of England consider their cour- 
 tesy of attendance at the sessions as a complimentary respect to their chairman, who 
 sacrifices, more than any other of them, his time and services to the public weal. In the 
 election of a chairman of the quarter-sessions, character, talent, and rank, are essential 
 qualifications ; as both the utility and the dignity of the magisterial office are thus com- 
 biued. Hence we find Mr. Bathurst, of Lydney-Park, (see p. 85,) presiding over the 
 quarter-sessions of Gloucestershire ; while lord Middleton acts in the same capacity in 
 the county of Surrey ; and the duke of Buckingham and Chandos in that of Bucks. But 
 in truth no practical effort is wanting in England to render effectual, as well as to elevate 
 and to honour with public reverence, the administration of justice. The habitual high 
 respect also which judges at the assizes experience, during their circuit, is surely as dis- 
 tinctly called for by political prudence as by good feeling. Among the numberless 
 laudable instances that periodically occur of a wise and open display of this respect for 
 the judicial character, the following paragraph may be quoted, which accidentally 
 
RICHARD GRACE, MP. 91 
 
 has been justly entitled " the grand inquest of the nation : " and Mr. Fox 
 was undoubtedly correct, when he asserted, that in no respect had that 
 body been more serviceable than in its inquisitorial capacity. It hears, 
 examines, and, itself controlled by the popular voice, controls. For its 
 vigilance and care, there exists not a more important object than the 
 magistracy, which, though gratuitously undertaken and managed, yet 
 requires, both in its appointment and subsequent conduct, all the jea- 
 lousy of constant inspection. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to observe, that of any such jealousy, however 
 necessarily entertained with respect to the aggregate body, Mr. Grace, 
 personally, could never be the object. In every part of his character 
 he was the friend and protector of the poor : as a justice of the peace, he 
 was more particularly empowered to save them from oppression. To 
 this oppression of the poor, at one time, in Ireland, many causes unfor- 
 tunately contributed; though none was, probably, of more powerful 
 operation than the want of a free and extensive press, which might at 
 once give publicity to all that passed, and serve as the organ of popular 
 feeling. The despot may instruct his police to watch and to inform ; 
 but, for the purposes of self-respect and general good conduct, the free 
 state does better in committing all its members to the eye of general 
 observation. It may, perhaps, be conceded, that this extension, pub- 
 licity of occurrence, and expression of popular feeling, have now ex- 
 ceeded the desired limits. Discussion is most certainly, at present, 
 every where free even to licentiousness ; but, without some licentious- 
 ness, the freedom of the press cannot probably be enjoyed. Not only is 
 the provincial press very generally extended, but so rapid is the com- 
 munication every where, that the pettiest theft, outrage, or act of op- 
 pression, committed in the extremities of the island, vibrates in its re- 
 port throughout the whole country up to the metropolis. While this 
 improved communication thus collects and distributes intelligence of 
 every sort, it also gives the high advantage of rapid transport for pas- 
 sengers ; thus affording to every man, whether for the purposes of com- 
 merce or other business, or mere curiosity itself, the opportunity of 
 doing and seeing all that is to be seen or done. Another incalculable 
 good has resulted and is resulting from the breaking down and distri- 
 bution of so many great properties, thus forming an intermediate gentry, 
 where before there were little more than princes and paupers ; and, above 
 
 caught the writer's eye while engaged on the subject: " On Monday last, the 14tU 
 instant, the lord chief-justice of the King's Bench and Mr. Serjeant Bosanquet, (in 
 the absence, through illness, of Mr. Justice Richardson,) arrived at Buckingham, and 
 opened the commission of assize for that county. The whole business of the assize was 
 concluded on Wednesday, when their lordships the judges, the high sheriff, 'William 
 Selby Lowndes, esq., the grand jury, the magistrates of the county, and all the gentle- 
 men of the bar, proceeded as usual to Stowe, to dine with the duke and duchess of 
 Buckingham. One hundred and ten gentlemen and ladies sat down to dinner; sixty iu 
 the state dining-room, and fifty in the state drawing-room. In the former room the 
 table was wholly served and ornamented with gilt plate, excepting the desert-service, 
 which was of pure gold; in the latter room, with silver. Seven of the finest bucks in 
 his grace's parks of Stowe, Avingtou, and Gos6eld, were shot for the occasion. The 
 judges slept at Stowe-House that night, and proceeded on thursday to open the com- 
 mission at Bedford." — Courier Newspaper of July 19, 1823. 
 
92 MEMOIR OF 
 
 all, securing the residence of a proprietary; the want of which has 
 constituted the crying evil of the country. Does nothing, it may be 
 asked, remain to be done ? Much : — and much is doing. The impulse 
 upon the human mind has been given, and it has been felt along the 
 line of existence throughout all Christendom, in which is now happily 
 included a great part of the Americas. Nothing political is here in- 
 tended, though new political arrangements may doubtless arise in con- 
 sequence, and, in despotic states, some are doubtless required. The 
 example, however, of France, as well as of the commonwealth of 
 England, will always testify that a change of dynasty may prove a 
 remedy worse than the disease. It cannot be denied that the brilliant 
 reign of Napoleon Bonaparte effected the utter extinction of even the 
 semblance that remained of civil rights and individual security, and 
 established a power more undisguised and uncontrolled than any mi- 
 nister of the unfortunate and guiltless Lewis would have dared to con- 
 template. Though the mighty genius of this great man could seize 
 upon circumstances to consolidate a system solely calculated to second 
 his gigantic views, he coujd not control the progressive conquest that 
 intellect was universally achieving over despotism. But, with a bene- 
 volent government, and the most enlightened assemblies in the world 
 for their legislature, the British islands want no practical improvement 
 in their constitution. JEsto perpetua. 
 
 Previous, however, to the arrival of that wholesome period, when 
 the conduct of high individuals was, through a vigilant press and its 
 enlarged communication, liable to the scrutinizing ordeal of the public 
 eye, Mr. Grace stood before the tribunal of his own mind ; and at no 
 time could he have needed a higher one. The same authority incul- 
 cated the important duty of residence ; as, with the exception of a few 
 years, spent after his marriage at Hartingfordbury-Lodge,* in Hertford- 
 
 • The following lines on Hartingfordbury-Lodge are from the pen of the late 
 countess of Bath, by whom they were presented, in 1783, to its accomplished and ami- 
 able proprietor. 
 
 A seat, by art and nature made 
 
 Commodious, neat, and pleasing; 
 A private place, yet full display'd 
 
 To distant mortals gazing. 
 High tow'ring o'erthe plaius about, 
 
 Refresh' d with purest air, 
 Luxuriant pastures all "without — 
 
 Within delicious fare. 
 There may the wearied stranger find 
 
 Retreat, relief, repose; 
 Secure in body, safe in miud, 
 
 From maladies, from woes. 
 
 Blest habitation ! sweet abode! 
 
 Where silence reigns around; 
 Where raptured thoughts may fly to God, 
 
 Where health and peace abound : 
 Where hospitality, full glad, 
 
 Presents her cheerful face, 
 Sedately sociable, not sad: 
 
 It is the house of Grace. 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 93 
 
 shire, and occasional visits to England, where, in Weymouth-street, in 
 London, his mother had passed nearly the last thirty years of her life, 
 he divided his time between his country-seat in the Queen's County, 
 and his town-house in North Great George-street, Dublin, in the dis- 
 charge of all that his situation in life demanded. 
 
 Ireland, still almost unknown in topographical history,* and then 
 only known in general geography, is indebted to him for a measure 
 
 • Are we to attribnte to a prevalent defective education, or to a prevalent want of 
 patriotic feeling:, the neglect of investigation, and the scantiness of knowledge, which 
 exist in this inquiring and enlightened age, respecting the past history and present state 
 of Ireland? That a country abounding in natural genius, and inconceivably rich in 
 local incident, should possess so little recorded information of the events, of which it 
 has been the scene, is not less surprising than lamentable. Since the publication of 
 Smith's and Harris's topographical works, about the year 1750, half a century elapsed 
 before a further effort was made, (with the exception of the single volumes by Archdall, 
 Ledwich, and Grose,) to rescue from oblivion the perishing memorials of the country. 
 In the year 1801, the statistical surveys of twenty-one countries, drawn up by the direc- 
 tion of the Dublin Society, commenced: but these are principally directed to the 
 " means of improvement," and the agriculture of the country ^ and only one short 
 chapter is appropriated to its history. When this work expired, frorn the want of 
 patronage, eleven of the counties were wholly unnoticed. In 1814, the " Statistical and 
 Parochial Survey of Irelaud" was undertaken by Mr. Shaw Mason; and the third and 
 last volume appeared in 1819. It might, perhaps, be supposed that the facility of 
 drawing up an'account of a single parish would have been occasionally considered as an 
 agreeable and no inelegant occupation for some of the leisure hours of a resident indi- 
 vidual; and that, as each volume contained nearly thirty parishes in various parts of 
 the country, a general interest would be excited, and a general patronage secured. The 
 indefatigable exertions of the compiler have already amassed materials for many more 
 volumes; but national apathy renders these collections fruitless ; though the great im- 
 portance of a work intended, by its researches, to display Ireland to itself and to Great 
 Britain, is universally admitted. If, then, this undertaking is (as it surely is, and ever 
 will remain) a proud monument of the public spirit, sound judgment, and superior 
 intelligence of the author, what must we say of a gentry who suffered it to languish 
 in its progress, and immaturely to expire, in consequence of insufficient encouragement? 
 It is true that, in 1S19 and 20, the " History of the Cathedral of St. Patrick," by 
 Mr. Monck Mason, and the " History of Gahvay," by Mr. Hardiman, were published, 
 both of which are admirable productions, and highly honourable to the literary attain- 
 ments and the local researches of their respective authors. But the sale has been lament- 
 ably circumscribed in Ireland; while in England the avidity (in reference to the coun- 
 try) with which they were received, affords the most conclusive testimony of their 
 merits. In like manner, a copy of the " Historical Account of the Family of O'Conor," 
 by the Rev. Charles O'Conor, D. D., was sold, in 1818, by Mr. Robert Triphook, in 
 Old Bond-Street, for the sum of nine guineas, to sir Mark M. Sykes, bart. ; while, in . 
 Dublin, it has been purchased for as many shillings. The author of these memoirs com- j 
 piled accounts of '* Tullaroan, or Grace's Parish," in the County of Kilkenny, and of ■ 
 the " Grace's Mausoleum," in the Queen's County, of which he printed a limited num- ; 
 bcr of copies, numerously illustrated, for private distribution. One of these was sold \ 
 on the 9th of Juue, 1823, at Mr. Evans's auction sale, in Pali-Mall, to the right honour- j 
 able Thomas Grenville, for the sum of eight guineas ; and another was purchased at I 
 Mr. R. Triphook's, on the 5th of July following, by Mr. Constable, for the sum of ten 
 pounds, which two are the only copies that have hitherto been thus disposed of, and it 
 is probable they would with difficulty have found purchasers at the price of a few shil- 
 lings in Ireland. The apathy that prevails there with respect to local history is truly 
 lamentable, as every year necessarily diminishes the architectural remains, written do- 
 cuments, and traditional information, which constitute some of its most interesting and 
 important details. No English traveller in that country, who has either written or 
 spoken ou the subject, has ever failed to make the same remark. Among the numerous 
 instances of this prevalent sentiment that might be adduced, the peculiarly high and un- 
 exceptionable authority of that one which we will select must be deemed fully sufficient ; 
 for when we find national virtue, frailty, and misfortune; a peasantry degraded, destitute, 
 
94- MEMOIR OF 
 
 which contributed essentially to its more general and specific display. 
 The measure alluded to as originating with him, and which afterwards 
 became an act of the legislature, was that of enabling the grand juries 
 to have surveys taken, and maps engraved, of their respective counties, 
 
 and cheerless, beyond the power of further depression ; and the mutual evils of party vio- 
 lence, contemplated with the feeling which should characterize a man, a gentleman, 
 and a scholar, it will readily be conceded that the observations of such a person spring 
 from a taintless and unprejudiced source. " Whilst the opposite coasts of Wales and 
 Scotland," says Sir Richard Colt Hoare, in his ' Journal of a Tour in Ireland, A. D. 
 1606/ " have for many successive years attracted the notice and admiration of the 
 man of taste and the artist ; whilst the press has so teemed with publications, point- 
 ing out their natural beauties, and works of military and monastic art, that little 
 more is left to be described ; whilst Wales and Scotland, I say, have had the assistance 
 of the historian's pen to record their annals, and of the artist's pencil to pourtray their 
 natural and artificial curiosities ; the island of Hibemia still remains unvisited and 
 unknown. And why ? Because, from the want of books, and living information, we 
 have been led to suppose its country rude, its inhabitants savage, its paths dangerous." 
 '' Were we to take a view," adds the historian Harris, « of the wretched condition in 
 which the history of Ireland stands, it would not be a matter of astonishment that we 
 should be considered as a people in a manner unknown to the world, except what little 
 knowledge of us is communicated by merchants, seafaring men, and a few travellers ; 
 while all other nations of Europe have their historians, to inform their own people, as 
 well as foreigners, what they were, and what they are." It has long also been a subject 
 of complaint, that of most of the counties no separate maps are extant, excepting the 
 large maps on rollers, which have been given, and are still giving, to the public by the 
 grand juries. These, no doubt, are admirably executed ; but, iu common occurrences, 
 single-sheet maps are infinitely more frequently wanted than those on a larger scale. 
 What a bright and exemplary contrast is exhibited by the highest and best description 
 of gentry in England. It may, in illustration, be briefly noticed, that the accomplished 
 writer first quoted, has, within these few months, published, in folio, an historical 
 account of the Hundred of Mere, in Wiltshire, in which his beautiful and admired 
 residence of Stourhead is situated. A similar work on the Hundred of Dunworth, in the 
 same county, is also now about to be presented to the public, by lord Arundel, F. S. A., 
 whose magnificent seat of Wardour-Castle constitutes the splendid ornament of that 
 district. The historical importance of the ancient house of Arundel affords a rich mass 
 of interesting materials for local and biographical detail ; and no man can participate iu 
 the frieudship of its present representative, without recognizing the elevated sentiments 
 of au illustrious ancestry, associated with all the amiable and kindlier feelings that 
 adorn social life. In this year has been likewise published, in quarto, by John Gage, 
 esq., F. S.A., the H History and Antiquities of Hengrave-Hall, in the County of Suf- 
 folk," the family residence of his brother. Sir Thomas Gage, bart. Besides the pre- 
 eminent excellence of the engraved portraits, views, Etc., this work, as an account of 
 a single mansion, has been pronounced, by no incompetent judge, an example for all 
 similar compilations. Attractive, numerous, and great, as its merits are in the eyes of 
 the writer of these pages, he forbears to say more than that, in the opinion just quoted, 
 he fully acquiesces : he feels that his esteem and regard for the accomplished and amiable 
 historian of Hengrave must, and he hopes always will, prejudge his sentiments. Haw- 
 stead, in the same county, has also supplied materials for an interesting history, pub- 
 lished, in quarto, by Sir John Cullum, bait., F. S. A., the proprietor of that place. But 
 to return again to Ireland, it is mortifying to be obliged to remark that, of the surveys 
 already noticed, of twenty-one out of her thirty-two counties, drawn up by the direction 
 of the Dublin Society, the county of Kilkenny surrey, by William Tighe, of Woodstock, 
 esq., is the only one compiled by a resident unprofessional gentleman of independent pro- 
 perty. Four of the remainder are drawn up by clergymen ; nine by two gentlemen wholly 
 unconnected by property with the districts they describe; two by the author of the Agri- 
 cultural Surveys of Devon and Cornwall ; and the rest, by writers nearly as ill-calculated 
 as the last-named English statist to elicit local knowledge; which, it must be obvious, 
 can only be progressively acquired, and rendered applicable, without diminution or error, 
 by a resident gentry or clergy. But, however deficient some of these volumes may be 
 deemed, the authors must surely be considered almost blameless, when, in addition to 
 the disadvantage of a stranger undertaking what au occupying native has declined, cir- 
 
RICHARD GRACE, MP. 95 
 
 on scales sufficiently large to exhibit even every rivulet, cross-road, 
 house, and natural feature or artificial division, and thus conjointly to 
 describe with accuracy and minuteness the face of the whole kingdom. 
 His intimate knowledge of every particular of this branch of science 
 well qualified him to mark defects and suggest improvements in the . 
 early exemplification of the measure on his own county. But it had 
 made an insufficient progress at the time of his decease: it was then 
 attended to only by the engineer who had been employed on his recom- 
 mendation, and was not published till four years afterwards. 
 
 Geography constituted, as has been just observed, a very favourite 
 study with Mr. Grace ; and it must be confessed that a study more in- 
 teresting cannot be conceived. Dr. Johnson, in examining and classing 
 the stock in trade of his friend Thrale, observed, that it was not merely 
 butts, casks, and pails, that they were scrutinizing, but the " poten- 
 tiality of getting rich beyond the dreams of avarice, or the wishes of 
 cupidity." The same, mutatis mutandis, may be said of geography. 
 It is not composed merely of mountains and rivers, and cities and vil- 
 lages ; but it exhibits, in high relief, the moral, martial, and commer- 
 cial history,* which, without such an assistant, must lose herself at every 
 step she ventures to take upon the field before her. Thus, as rivers 
 and canals are called the veins of a country, so may roads be deno- 
 minated its sinews ; for, without them, in what possible way can the 
 strength and resources of a land be brought into action ! For this most 
 useful, though unostentatious service, Ireland, as well as his native 
 county, must be reminded to consider herself largely the debtor of 
 Mr. Grace ; nor was a less active zeal, even to the advance of pecuniary 
 subscription, as we shall shortly have an occasion to notice, shewn by 
 him in the encouragement of her canals. But it is not merely at home, 
 or in practical cases alone, that geography is thus advantageous to us ; 
 for the interest taken by the literary world in the examination of the 
 Troad, by Chevalier, by Gell, and others, has proved that the poetry even 
 
 cumstances aud experience could justify such a statement as the following: — " Had I," 
 says Mr. Dutton, in his preface to the County of Clare Survey, " not considered myself 
 bound to fulfil my promise to the Dublin Society, this survey of the county of Clare 
 would never have been published ; that ungracious illiberal silence, with regard both 
 to the hundreds of letters I wrote, and to the reiterated verbal applications I made, (and 
 which, to the disgrace of Ireland, is complained of in almost every survey that has been 
 published,) would otherwise have urged me, at an early period, to decline all further 
 progress. Some, to whom I applied, (whose rank in life should have placed them above 
 such gross ignorance,) asked me what a survey was, what it was about, &c. ; and some, 
 very wittily, wished to know, was it to take an account of all the pigs in Ennis and Kil- 
 laloe, with a multitude of other remarks equally sagacious aud liberal. With the most 
 sanguine hopes of success, I wrote and applied to many of the clergy, who, from their 
 local knowledge, liberal education, habit of putting their thoughts on paper, and great 
 leisure, were, I fondly imagined, perfectly competent to give me the fullest information. 
 The only written answers 1 received are detailed in the work ; I need not disgust the 
 reader with a repetitiou." 
 
 • The reader may recollect that Clio, the muse of history, has had many a weary 
 step to take from the Chaldean plain with Abraham, down to the " ravaging of rich 
 Peru," by the fierce Pizarro, as the brothers Wavtons, both Wykehamists, have told 
 us was the case. 
 
96 MEMOIR OF 
 
 of the first and the greatest of bards may derive illustration from its 
 researches. Nor can, even at the present day, the extensive empire of 
 British influence, whether directly exercised, or derivatively enjoyed, as 
 in North-America, he at all understood, without a very great intimacy 
 with this most delightful or, at least, most popular of the sciences. In 
 returning to the ancient world also, and pausing a while upon the 
 Spanish peninsula, to enjoy the renown of British achievement, we may 
 proceed to wander with Rennel over Hindostan and the adjacent coun- 
 tries ; where we may, by this study, discern the causes of that commer- 
 cial prosperity, which every people, ever trading there, have not failed 
 to obtain and to enjoy. It was thence that king Solomon, in all his 
 glory, derived " very much gold and precious stones,"* not to mention 
 the spices, which modern knowledge assigns to the islands to the Indian 
 Archipelago, whence the spice-merchants-)- must have obtained them. 
 Thence, too, must have come the materials for the " great throne of 
 ivory, overlaid with the best gold," J on which sat this illustrious mo- 
 narch of Judah. But this whole matter has been embalmed by the 
 labours of Dr. Vincent, who has shewn, that, in the case of trade, as in 
 so many others, " there is," to refer to king Solomon again, " nothing 
 new under the sun." 
 
 We will now return to the local exertions of Mr. Grace, for the 
 internal improvement of his country, which have been just alluded to, 
 and mention the measure of constructing a noble canal through the 
 heart of the Queen's County, from the town of Athy, in the county of 
 Kildare, to that of Castle-Comer, in the county of Kilkenny. The com- 
 mittee constituted, on the 14th of March, 1800, for the government 
 and management of the affairs of this canal, consisted of the right ho- 
 nourable William Wellesley Pole, now lord Maryborough ; the honour- 
 able John Vesey, now viscount De Vescy ; Charles Henry Coote, now 
 lord Castle-Coote ; John Rochford; Richard Grace; and Henry Parnell, 
 now Sir Henry Parnell, bart.§ To the advancement of an object of 
 such obvious and permanent utility he subscribed the sum of three 
 hundred pounds : but; on his decease, in the following January, this 
 patriotic undertaking was at first suspended, and ultimately abandoned. 
 For the formation and improvement of the county roads, he was always 
 a zealous and efficient advocate. On this point, also, it was his pa- 
 triotism as well to uphold the national character, as to facilitate inland 
 commerce and general convenience. He felt, likewise, that the land- 
 holder pays no tax, from which he derives such a certain and constant 
 beneficial return. His weight of personal attachment and character, 
 even while opposing in parliament many political measures of govern- 
 ment, enabled him advantageously to establish, many young men, on 
 the threshold of life, by obtaining for them either civil situations at 
 
 • I. Kings, x. 2. + I.Kings, x. 15. f .1. Kings, x. 16. 
 
 5 Survey of the County of Kilkenny, by William Tighe, of Woodstock, esquire. 
 Appendix, pages 51, 54, and 79. 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 97 
 
 home, and in our colonial possessions abroad, or commissions in the 
 army and navy. He frequently assisted the poorer peasantry with 
 cattle, farming implements, and small loans of money, distributing also 
 flax-seed, wheels, and reels, to ensure female employment. As no true 
 lover of his country, who combines an enlightened understanding with 
 beuevolent feelings, can be insensible to the numberless advantages 
 resulting from national or general education,* it is scarcely necessary 
 to state that his sentiments and conduct were uniformly directed to its 
 
 * In furtherance of this most valuable and important object, a CHEAP BOOK 
 society was contemplated and established in the years 1817 and 18. The objects of 
 this institution may be seen in the following extracts from the prospectus, or first 
 printed report of the committee. " That NATIONAL EDUCATION in this country has 
 of late been attended to with considerable zeal and diligence, is matter of as much 
 notoriety as it is of congratulation to all true lovers of their country. The avidity 
 amongst the lower orders of the people for mental improvement keeps full pace with the 
 generous labours of their benefactors and instructors. The unthinking aud the selfish, 
 who would have obstructed the rays of knowledge from the cottages of the poor, are 
 now obliged to be silent; while the labours of those who have sought to extend and 
 communicate its useful light are about to be repaid, by witnessing a generation of in- 
 structed peasantry. Conceal it as we may from ourselves, it is an indisputable fact, that 
 the progress of knowledge has now spread so far and so widely in Ireland, that it cannot 
 (to use the language of one of the commissioners of education, in his letter annexed to 
 the fourteenth report) be stopped, without destruction to those who attempt to arrest 
 its course. 
 
 " The people will read and think ; and it can only be from a well-directed collection 
 of books, liberally distributed, that the happiness of the lower, and the security of 
 the higher, orders in Ireland can be pennanently established. 
 
 " It is a common observation, that to teach the lower orders of the people to read 
 may he the means of disseminating vice and immorality ; of injuring instead of benefit- 
 ing the poor. Without entering at large into a defence agaiust this assertion, it is quite 
 enough to say, that the time has passed for making it: besides which, no rational man 
 will venture to argue, that the abuse can ever become an argument against the use of 
 any thing, which, when well directed and limited to its proper objects, is advantageous. 
 That every thing valuable in life can be acquired in no other way than by knowledge, 
 and that knowledge can best be afforded by giving to the people the power of reading, 
 is a truth too long and too well established to be now disputed. 
 
 " As well, therefore, might it be urged, that to no situation or rauk should this 
 blessing be afforded ; for in every rank, and in every situation, the same evils may follow 
 the acquirement : perversion of principle and immorality will as certainly follow from 
 the mis-use of the art of reading, amongst the great as amongst the poor -. but were the 
 lower classes to receive a portion of education fitted to their situation ; were the benefit 
 offered to them not to rest in affording them merely the power of reading; were the 
 books employed for that purpose to consist of portions judiciously selected from history 
 and from rational tales , were treatises on horticulture, agriculture, the rearing and feed* 
 ing of cattle, and planting ; above all, were the poor, in addition to their Bible, to he 
 supplied with treatises on moral subjects, of a nature, which, whilst they were adapted 
 to the improvement of the moral faculty amongst them, might incite to practical im- 
 provement, aud dissuade from general profligacy ; as treatises in favour of cleanliness 
 and domestic regularity, and descriptive of the misery of drunkenness and filth; and 
 were such works to be circulated at a cheap price throughout the schools and cottages 
 of the poor, what improvement, what happiness should we not witness ? 
 
 " The evenings of the poor would be usefully employed in their perusal. Education 
 would then indeed become to the lower orders a mean of rational and instructive amuse- 
 ment ; tin assistant in their employments, and a solace in their hours of relaxation. The 
 possibility of education being au injury to the public would thereby be effectually coun- 
 teracted : their general improvement as certainly secured. 
 
 "The committee will not interfere with any establishment intended for the dissemi- 
 nation of religious knowledge; and they know of none, which supplies the glaring 
 chasm in the system of education now pursued in Ireland, arising from the want of 
 
 O 
 
98 MEMOIR OF 
 
 advancement. Among the other gratifications of his philanthropic 
 heart, he often indulged in that of seeing fifty or sixty of the more 
 industrious of his humble neighbours enjoy a substantial dinner of beef 
 and vegetables in some of the large apartments of his out-offices. Their 
 days of sickness, also, were abridged or soothed by the medicine, wine, 
 food, and clothing, which were distributed from his house with an un- 
 sparing hand. The fatherless, the widow, the orphan, and, in short, 
 all who were in real want, experienced his beneficent assistance. 
 
 The period at length arrived, when the causes, so long in the course 
 of fermentation, were to explode into effect, and many thousand 
 victims were to expiate by their fall the ignorance and the passions 
 of former times. The rebellion of 1798 broke out. Here was an active 
 scene opened, and actively it was entered upon by Mr. Grace. In the 
 metropolis he was a member of the lawyers' corps ; in the Queen's 
 County he made one of the Ossory cavalry. But his military character 
 did not deprive him of the love and veneration which the whole tenor 
 of his conduct had previously established among the peasantry around 
 him. Disaffected as they were, he scrupled not to traverse the country 
 unarmed and without attendance ; nor was his confidence misplaced in 
 a people warm-hearted and grateful when gratitude has been deserved. 
 He exhorted them to repentance, and, in listening to his exhortation, 
 they shewed the sincerity of their contrition, by the delivery at once of 
 700 stand of arms, which, for the most part, very wrongfully obtained 
 in the first instance, were destined for the worst of purposes. He also 
 individually effected the peaceable dispersion of a formidable body of 
 these misguided creatures, who occupied, with an encampment, the 
 hills of Boley, on his estate, adjoining Gracefield Woods. 
 
 But these poor people, though thus reclaimed from the delusions 
 which must have drawn down ruin upon them, would have suffered a 
 still worse fate, if possible, unless they had been relieved by the same 
 benevolence already exerted in their behalf. The rebellion was followed 
 by a winter rendered but too remarkable by the dearth, and consequent 
 severe distress, which it brought with it. The charities of Mr. Grace, 
 though silently and unostentatiously performed, had always been very 
 bountifully distributed, with reference to the extent of his fortune ; but, 
 upon an occasion so pressing, he applied himself strenuously to the 
 remedy of the evil, and nearly five hundred people were indebted to him 
 for their daily supply of food, throughout this trying season. 
 
 Though a perverse hostility to all conciliation, and a predominance of 
 ignorance and selfishness in the public councils, might have existed and 
 
 useful and instructive books for the poor. A society is therefore established for that 
 purpose. Its object Í9 to provide for the poorer schools in Ireland, and for the use of the 
 lower classes in general, cheap editions of books, the purport of which shall be solely to 
 cultivate moral principles and useful knowledge." 
 
 The founders and original committee of the Cheap Book Society, were lords De Vescy 
 and Lortou, honourable C. Vesey, sir Richard Steele, bart, H. Arabiu, Samuel Bewley. 
 Sheffield Grace, H. Hamilton, James Hall, R. Jebb, T. Lefroy, W. Monsell, James and 
 Edward Scott, Cham. Walker, J. D. La Touche, William and Thomas Paruel), George 
 Evans, and the secretary, James Bessonnet, esquires. 
 
RICHARD GRACE, MP. 99 
 
 might have even influenced every act of government, the dreadful mea- 
 sure of rebellion must nevertheless be deemed wholly unjustifiable. No 
 unprejudiced person, no upholder of the constitution, no attached father 
 of a family, no wise or discerning man, can possibly entertain other sen- 
 timents on the subject. The biographer of the late lord Charlemont, in 
 enumerating the prominent causes that actuated the popular leaders on 
 this occasion, states, that " redress of public grievances, the former 
 boundary of the desires of many who engaged in it, had been long passed 
 over, and the visionary fabric of an Irisb republic appeared to their 
 heated imagination. But the columns of that fabric were not the work 
 of any catholic deception, nor had religious zeal any share whatever in 
 the original formation of the rebellion, though it afterwards, in some parts 
 of Ireland, (and, thank God, but very few parts), tinged that rebellion 
 with colours, above all others gloomy and terrific, and which in every 
 age seem to have belonged to fanaticism aud ignorance alone. A detail 
 of the miseries which, wherever that rebellion raged, desolated this king- 
 dom, will not, I am sure, be expected here. It was extinguished ; but 
 if its extinction must always be the subject of national exultation and 
 gratitude, the horrors which accompanied it must also preserve their 
 place in our recollection; and teach us to point out to those, who come 
 after us, those sad errors in some, and that mass of rebellious guilt in 
 others, which led to such an accumulation of evil." This impartial 
 and manly writer has, however, omitted to notice, among the instru- 
 ments of violent innovation, or rather the causes that prepared them, 
 the neglected, the uneducated, the hopeless, and truly desperate condi- 
 tion of the peasantry, with whom any change must necessarily have been 
 a chance of amendment. The amelioration of their hapless state, as 
 well as the alarming consequences that despair might be expected to 
 generate, had long been a subject of the deepest and most heartfelt soli- 
 citude with Mr. Grace ; and no personal exertion was ever wanting, on 
 his part, to exhibit to them a cheering prospect of better times. He 
 thus endeavoured to allay by hope, when he had not the power to remove 
 or otherwise mitigate their sufferings, their wants, and the absence of 
 every connecting tie, excepting that of fear, which could attach thein 
 to the existing order of things. 
 
 Too soon came the hour, in which the last opportunity for the dis- 
 play of gratitude towards such practical kindness and extensive virtue 
 was afforded to their objects, as well as to a large portion of the general 
 community. Mr. Grace died, at Southville, in the Queen's County, on 
 friday, the 9th day of January, 1801, at the premature age of forty 
 years, one month, and ten days.* This calamitous event, for such 
 
 • The original printed paper which records the following statement is in the writer's 
 possession, and was cut out of some of the contemporary news-journals published in Dub- 
 lin. To his immediate relatives it may, perhaps, be deemed unworthy of the subject to 
 adduce an extract from productions of so ephemeral a character, and of so questionable 
 an authority, as public newspapers are sometimes considered ; but, as no political or per- 
 sonal interest could have influenced the statement alluded to, it may fairly be received 
 in testimony of an extensive and unaffected participation in the sentiment of love, 
 respect, and sorrow, that actuated his family on this afflicting occasion. " Richard 
 
IQQ MEMOIR OF 
 
 surely may be considered the loss of so much worth to his family and 
 country, emanated from an injury which the spinal part of his back sus- 
 tained from a fall. The trivial character of the circumstance which 
 occasioned this fatal accident, affords an admonitory lesson to the proud 
 hopes of man. In making a private entrance from a plantation near his 
 house to an additional garden, of a measured acre's dimension, which he 
 had recently constructed, and of which he had personally superintended 
 the formation, it was necessary to remove several young trees. Those 
 that were marked for that purpose were accordingly taken away ; but, 
 on Mr. Grace's inspection, the absence of one more appeared desirable. 
 The repeated and languid strokes of a sluggish labourer in cutting it 
 down, roused him to snatch the axe from his listless hands. On the 
 second effort of his more muscular arm, the instrument unexpectedly 
 passed through the opposing timber ; and, sinking deep into the yielding 
 earth, he lost his balance, and fell against the prostrate trunk. He was 
 raised from the ground in a state of insensibility ; but, on recovering his 
 senses, he desired to be again restored to a lying posture, and calmly di- 
 recting his attendants to place him on a level platform of wood, he was 
 thus conveyed to his chamber. In his progress thither, the acuteness of 
 his internal pain overcame a second and a third time his vital powers ; 
 and though his countenance, as well as exhausted nature, evinced the 
 dreadful extreme of agony which he endured, his lips never once disclosed 
 it by a voluntary expression. The perspiration burst from his pallid fore- 
 head in large and chilly drops, while his hands became clenched with a force 
 so uncontrollable and great, that his palms displayed, in lacerated impres- 
 
 GRACE, esq. — We did not conceive any domestic event capable of commanding so large 
 a portion of public sympathy, as the death of this distinguished and amiable man most 
 justly has. His dissolution took place at his house, in the Queen's County, on friday, 
 the 9th instant, after a short illness of a few days, and while even yet in the prime of 
 life, and in the habitual enjoyment of uninterrupted health, and in the active exercise of 
 brilliant talents and of the most benevolent feelings. 
 
 " Mr. Grace's literary attainments were of no ordinary cast. Latin was to him as 
 much a living language as French, Italian, Dutch, or German; and there are many 
 names besides those of Charlemont, Grattan, Ponsonby, Browne, and general Fitz- 
 Patrick, to mournfully testify the fascinating influence of his accomplishments, and the 
 charms of his society. His acquaintance with foreign countries made him feel the 
 physical excellencies of his own ; and his exertions were accordingly directed, both in and 
 out of parliament, to the removal of every obstruction to their growth. He was empha- 
 tically the poor man's friend, and in every instance the 6rm advocate of justice. While 
 the estates of the Cbaudos family in England were intrusted jointly to Sir Kichard 
 v • .imon and Mr. Leigh, of Adelstrop, their great possessions in Ireland were, by Act of 
 Parliament, confided to the sole management of Mr. Grace. That family, and their 
 opulent tenantry in the Queen's County, can never forget the essential advantages they 
 have mutually derived from his wise and honourable conduct. 
 
 " The remains of this highly-gifted, accomplished, and most excellent man were 
 yesterdav interred at Aries-church, the burying place of this ancient family, attended 
 by one of the most numerous and truly mournful processions perhaps ever witnessed in 
 this country. The hearse was followed by the carriages of the deceased, and by nearly 
 forty other carriages. There were, likewise, considerably more than a thousand horse- 
 men, and about seven thousand people on foot, whose voluntary attendance aud bitter 
 tears, on this occasion, were the testimony of their mourning for the loss of a friend. 
 Mr. Grace married a sister of the late Sir John Evans Freke, bart., and left five chil- 
 dren, the eldest of whom, a son, is yet a minor. By this melancholy event, it is pro- 
 bable that Sir John Paruell and Mr. Wellesley Pole will be the only candidates to 
 represeut the Queen's County on the approaching election." 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. J01 
 
 sions, the places where his nails met them in contact. He languished for 
 a short time ; but he did not endeavour to disguise from himself, or from 
 those around him, his instant conviction that the accident must prove 
 fatal ; and he met his fate with sentiments of Christian hope, resignation, 
 and firmness. Lord Carbery, then Sir John Evans Freke, with that 
 kindness of feeling which adorns his character, immediately on hearing 
 of the event, hastened from Castle-Freke to Southville, where he re- 
 mained till he accompanied Mrs. Grace to her house in Dublin. His 
 effective and affectionate attention to his aunt led him to take the sole 
 management and direction of every thing that was necessary to be done 
 on this melancholy occasion : her poignant anguish, combined with a 
 delicate frame and habitual ill-health, having wholly disqualified her 
 for exertion. So admirable was Mr. Grace's natural constitution, 
 unimpaired as it was by even a single excess of intemperance, that 
 the vigour of his health was, from his childhood, never interrupted 
 by a day's serious illness. The use of a physician was practically 
 unknown to him ; and he continued to preserve a regular and most 
 beautiful set of the whitest teeth, ignorant of the slightest pain or 
 decay. His remains, after an interval of eight days from his decease, 
 were conveyed, on Saturday, the 17th of the same month, to the family 
 mausoleum, at Aries, where they were laid among those of his ancestry. 
 We are taught to believe that " a good name is better than great 
 riches," and that " the righteous shall be had in everlasting remem- 
 brance." It was exquisitely gratifying to the writer of this memoir to 
 contemplate, in the instance before us, an illustration of these asserted 
 truths, so favourable to the cause of virtue, and so honourable to the 
 character of man. Though the generation of Mr. Grace's contempora- 
 ries had nearly passed away in the long lapse of eighteen years, the 
 marble which entombed him might be justly said to be " still wet with 
 the tears of his countrymen ;"* for while the writer was in Ireland, during 
 the years 1818 and 1819, he felt assured, by what he witnessed on numer- 
 ous occasions, that their affections continued, almost with their original 
 force, to adhere to his memory. Not less than eight thousand people are 
 stated to have formed his funeral procession ; and although this custom, 
 whether derived from feudal feelings, from religious motives, from per- 
 sonal kindness, or merely from an idle disposition, may by some persons 
 be impugned, it is certain that, on this occasion, the attendance of such 
 a multitude was the testimony of a very true mourning for the loss of a 
 friend ; the first, the last, and the greatest blessing which the poor can 
 have or can hope for among their superiors. The duties of such a man 
 arc many; and no man ever discharged them more fully and benevolently 
 than Mr. Grace. He at once reproved and encouraged ; repressed 
 offences, and assisted where assistance was wanted ; maintained his 
 kindness, while he supported his authority; and, above all, in exten- 
 sively indulging his own unwearied beneficence, he taught them to be 
 beneficent towards each other, in despite of conflicting interests and 
 
 • The words on his raonumeut arc, " Hoc marmor civium I acrymis adhuc maueus." 
 
103 MEMOIR OF 
 
 opposite opinions. Of him it may truly be said, that " when the ear 
 heard him, then it blessed him ; when the eye saw him, it bore witness 
 of him." 
 
 His will is dated on the 17th of March, 1800, and was proved on the 
 7th of the following February. The guardians appointed by this last 
 solemn act of his life, for his children, who were all minors,* were his 
 lady, Sir Richard Gamon, bart., M.P., and John Harford, esq.; and the 
 trustees, for the purposes of the will, were the present duke of Buck- 
 ingham and Chandos (then earl Temple), and George, the fourth lord Car- 
 bery. Of these two noblemen, the former was, by his marriage, of near 
 relationship to the testator, and the latter to Mrs. Grace.f The various 
 entails introduced into this instrument necessarily added considerably to 
 its length, which extended over many sheets of parchment. The exces- 
 sive length of our modern wills, with their settlements, limitations, and 
 appointments, forms, in truth, a wonderful contrast to the brief and 
 pithy dispositions of property among our earlier forefathers. The 
 stoutest warrior could scarcely now dictate " in procinctu'''' a testa- 
 ment of the modern dimensions, and be afterwards prepared for the 
 combat. For the evil of such protracted instruments, we are chiefly 
 
 • His eldest son, Sir William Grace, was, at thisperiod, a fellow-commoner at the 
 University of Dublin; and haviug already noticed the duke of Buckingham's prize-books, 
 distributed at Winchester College, it may not be uninteresting to also transcribe the 
 iuscription affixed to those awarded by this University, of which Sir William Grace 
 obtained several, in testimony of his distinguished literary attainments and general su- 
 periority in successive public examinations, by the fellows of the college, in presence of 
 the provost. 
 
 Ingenuo magnceqne spei adolescenti, 
 
 Gdlielmi J. Ghace, 
 
 Sociorum CommensaU, 
 
 Propter insignes in artibns progressns in classe prima. 
 
 Premium hoc literarium dederunt 
 
 Propositus et Socn Seniorbs 
 
 Collegii Sacrosanctae, et individual Trinitatis juxta Dublin. 
 
 Examinatione habita initio Termini Hillarii, A. D. 1800. 
 
 On the medal presented to him by the HISTORICAL SOCIBTY of the University 
 
 1 
 
 of Dubliu, the following inscriptions appear. 
 
 Historica Societas Collegii Dubliniensis. 
 
 Nee Facundia deseret nunc. 
 
 Gdlielmo J. Grace 
 
 Egregie merenti 
 
 IN ARTE ORATORIA 
 
 6 July 1803. 
 
 The reverse exhibits three figures, emblematic of history, oratory, and poetry, 
 encircled with the following inscription: — 
 
 " Vos lene consilium et datis et dato gaudetis Almse." 
 " Inst. A.D. MDCCXCIV." 
 
 + This most justly beloved parent, whose mind was clothed with purity, whose life 
 was the testimony of her faith, whose every thought, word, and deed, glowed with the 
 tenderest maternal feeling, executed her will ou the 21st of January, 1804, and died on 
 the 24th of the following March, having appointed Charles, first marquis of Ely, and 
 Johu Harford, esq., her executors, to whom a probate, bearing date the 18th of April, 
 was granted accordingly. 
 
RICHARD GRACE, M.P. 103 
 
 indebted to what Blackstone has designated as the stubborn statute 
 " de donis ;" and it must be confessed that, to both sovereign and sub- 
 ject, with the exception of its patrons and protectors, the nobles, it was 
 most hatefully obnoxious. The celebrated commentator has enumerated 
 not a few of the mighty mischiefs which sprang from it, and the ques- 
 tion is undoubtedly one of great difficulty. If we are to have a nobility 
 at all, it must be the interest of every man in the state that the inde- 
 pendence of the order be preserved ; for a needy noble is precisely the 
 very fittest instrument, which an aspirant after despotism upon the 
 throne could lay his hands upon, for the promotion of his purposes. 
 The nobility are undoubtedly the natural satellites of the throne, around 
 which they have, upon fitting occasions, ever been found ready to rally : 
 but the interposition of themselves, as its defenders, would immediately 
 be deprived of its efficacy, if they were to be stripped of both the reality 
 and the opinion of their independence. It was the want of both these 
 requisites which brought to the ground, with such violence, the whole 
 body of the nobility in France. Well and strongly has it been observed, 
 by the most popular of our literary journals,* that the French nation, 
 however willing to pay every due deference to the descendents of the 
 Montmorencys and the Du Guesclins, revolted with anger and disdain 
 from the contemplation of an upstart band, enobled for a money-price, 
 and carrying their new-born insolence into every quarter of the land. 
 
 The private feelings, which are fondly and indissolubly linked with 
 the subject of this memoir, might palliate the frailty of a more minute 
 detail ; but the possibility of this error has been guarded against, 
 perhaps too scrupulously, by sternly rejecting every domestic anecdote, 
 touching incident, or affectionate sentiment. The head has, indeed, 
 successfully exerted itself to govern the heart, when the latter, clinging 
 to numberless recollections of the tenderest parental solicitude, would 
 indulge the sensibility of love and gratitude. Affection, justly begotten, 
 caunot easily be satiated ; or feelings, from a pure and full source, 
 speedily exhausted. He who now acknowledges this affection and these 
 feelings, must eventually join him by whom they are excited; and when 
 those few also, for whose individual gratification is designed this im- 
 perfect delineation of high and amiable character, shall follow both the 
 father and the son where all human attachments cease, then will this 
 memorial of unsullied practical worth usefully survive, if, haply, with- 
 out machiavilian distinctions between a public and a private conscience, 
 it ever quickens in any of their descendents f one spark of expiring 
 virtue, or plants one opposing thorn in the path of meditated vice. 
 Nunc non é tumulo fortunataque favilla 
 Nascentur violse t Pers. Sat. i, v. 38. 
 
 To his countrymen, to those who knew him only by name, and even 
 to the stranger, it must, it cannot fail to, suggest a solemn, a melau- 
 
 • Edin. Review. 
 
 + The biographer of Richard Grace cannot refrain from addressiug himself to these 
 descendents in the words of a highly gifted writer of the present day, whose amiable 
 feelings are surely as estimable as the strength and versatility of his talents. In the 
 
1Q4 MEMOIR, &c. 
 
 choly, and, perhaps, a salutary train of reflections, to know that a man 
 so gifted, so adorned, so active in the cause of virtue, so eminently 
 valuable in every relation of life, should have descended so immaturely 
 to the grave. He lies there indeed embalmed by the tears of his surviv- 
 ing friends, and the numerous objects of his benevolence; and society, 
 in all its degrees, may and must lament, that, in counting over the 
 bead-roll of life, such a one should, at so early a period, be missed. 
 But it is society alone that can thus mourn. For himself, the same 
 virtues and excellencies, which embellished and exalted his life in this 
 world, may well justify the pious hope, that in the next, which is to 
 have no eud, they will secure that reward which is eternal, and which 
 can never be too soon reached for its infinite enjoyment. 
 
 portrait exhibited by him, the similitude, as far as he has gone, is strikingly apposite; 
 but it is hoped the observation which immediately follows that pictnre can never prove 
 so. In his " Essay on Sepulchres," Mr. Godwin says, " A person of decent character 
 honours liis father and mother; but all beyond he regards with the most frigid in- 
 difference. We are more inclined to the miserable mummery of a funeral, the pageantry 
 of a day, than to preserve the memory of our progenitors. A human creature of the 
 most admirable endowments, whose dispositions were the subject of universal enco- 
 mium, whose gracious demeauor won all hearts, who spoke, and the ear of every oue was 
 delighted, who acted, and happiness every where followed and benedictions resounded, 
 as soon as a generation is gone by, and the eyes that witnessed these virtues and graces 
 are closed, is thought of no more, but as a simple link in the ostentatious chain of a 
 pedigree. We look on with the idle gaze of the Levite in the parable ; and the marble 
 that covers them is no longer any thing but common stone. The person who detects 
 himself in this apathy, should at least remember tbat his turn is hastening on, and that 
 he will shortly be spurned, maltreated, and thought on with unshrinking indifference, 
 even as be spurns those that went before him. 
 
 " Virtue is virtue still, though a thousand years should have passed away since it 
 was alive; and there is something in the noblest impulses of the heart, that should 
 enable theni to flourish for ever in perpetual youth." 
 
 On the compilation of the foregoing memoir, the writer cannot forbear making a 
 remark. In concluding it, he acknowledges that he rises as little pleased as the most 
 dissatisfied of his readers. The result has proved that the diffidence with which he 
 approached it was not ill-founded; for he most sincerely believed, as well as avowed, 
 himself to be incapable of rendering justice to the character which he was desirous of 
 pourtraying. But, though conscious of his inability to delineate a perfect likeness, a 
 controlling impulse, an emotion to be conceived rather than expressed, impelled him to 
 attempt a slight sketch, a mere outline. The preceding details, however, distinctly 
 show that these pages are not intended to meet the public eye ; and he cheerfully 
 throws himself on the indulgence of those relatives and friends for whose gratification 
 they are designed. Of these, some have witnessed the anxious care and chilling restric- 
 tion, as well as the limited period, in which they have been drawn np. But he antici- 
 pates, with impatience, an early opportunity of re-compiling the whole more leisurely 
 and unreservedly from the materials which he possesses, of thus developing more fully 
 the worth, intellect, and amiable disposition of its accomplished subject. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by Weed and Rider, Liltle Britain, London. 
 
DESCENT OF THE FAMILY OF GRACE. 
 
 I. — OTHOERB, an Italian baron, descended from 
 the lords of Tuscany, passed from Florence into 
 Normandy, and thence into England, about 
 the time probably of K. Canute's marriage with 
 Emma, dau. of Richard, 2 D. of Normandy, 
 and widow of K. Ethelred, who ob. 1016. 
 
 II.— Other Fitz-Othoere appears, by Doomsday- 
 book, to have been a baron of England in 1056, 
 16 of K. Edward the Confessor. 
 
 1 
 
 III.— Walter Fitz-Other or De Wind-=pGLADYS, d. & h. of Rywalhon ap 
 
 sor, gov. of Windsor, during the whole 
 reign of William the Conq.,andwas hence 
 denominated de Windsor. He wasalso war- 
 den of the royal forests in Beikshire in 1080. 
 
 Couvyn, joint prince of N.Wales,2d 
 son of Convyn ap Gweryston, P. of 
 Powis, by Anghared, onlv child of 
 Meredith ap Owen, P. of 'S.Wales. 
 
 IV.— Gerald Fitz-Walter de Wind-=Nesta, d. ofRhese apTewdor, P. 
 
 SOR, 3d son, surnamed de Carew, as lord 
 of Carew, jure uxoris, gov. of the castle 
 and co. of Pembroke, and chamberlain to 
 K. Henry I, who granted to him the manor 
 of Moulesford, in Berks., ob.1135. 
 
 of S Wales, who gave with her in 
 marriage the great lordship of Ca- 
 rew. She was widow of Stephen de 
 Marisco, gov. of Cardigan, St mother 
 oi Rob. Fitz-Stephen, lord of Cork. 
 
 William de Windsor, eldest 
 son, gov. of Windsor, ancestor 
 to the family of WINDSOR.— 
 Robert Fitz-Walter, 2 son, 
 surnamed de Estaines. His male 
 issue extinct in his son William. 
 
 V.— William de Carew, eld. son, lord of=^= Catharine, d. fit h. of Sir Richard 
 
 Carew and Moulesford, accompanied, in 
 1171, his 3d son Raymond to Ireland ; but 
 returning to Carew-Castle, died there in 
 1173. 
 
 de Kiugsley, lord of Kingsley, in 
 the county of Chester. 
 
 Maurice Frrz-GERALD,2son, 
 lord of Offaley, in Ireland. He 
 died in 1177, and was ancestor to 
 the families of FrTZ-GERALD, 
 Mackenzie, 8c Fitz-Gibbon. 
 
 VI.— Raymond Fitz-William de Ca- 
 rew, 3d son, surnamed Crassus, le Gros, 
 8c le Gras, landed iu Ireland, in 1169,lord of 
 Lereton 8c constable of Leinster^'wre ux- 
 oris, commander of all the Eoglish forces, 
 8c viceroy of Ireland in 1176. He erected 
 the castles of Eniscorthy & Fethard, in co. 
 Wexford, 8c was a benefactor to the monas- 
 teries of Christ's Ch., St of St. Thomas, in 
 Dublin, 8t of Molana, in co. Waterford, 
 where he was interred in 1184. 
 
 ■Basilia, d. of Gilbert de Clare, E. 
 of Pembroke, and sist. of earl Ri- 
 chard, surnamed Strongbow, the 
 first English invaderof Ireland, and 
 lord, ^ure uxoris, of the palatinate 
 of Leinster, in which Grace's Coun- 
 try, and the other lands he gave 
 with her iu marriage, are situated. 
 
 Odo de Carew, eldest son, 
 lord of Carew and Moulesford. 
 Ancestor to the family of CAREW. 
 —William Fitz-William, 
 2d son, lord of Kingsley, co. 
 Chester, jure matris. Ancestor 
 to the family of Gerard. 
 
 VII.— William Fitz-Ra ymond le Gras= 
 jun., heir to his brother " Willelmus pri- 
 mogenitus," baron of Courtstown, als. 
 Tuflaroan, and lord of Grace's Country, in 
 the co. of Kilkenny, gov. of Leinster in 
 1197 and 1202, built Grace's castle, in the 
 city of Kilkenny, and Courtstown or Tul- 
 laroan castle, in the cantred of Grace's 
 Country, ob. ante 1219. 
 
 Margaret, dau. 
 of Robert Fitz- 
 Warren, of Wales. 
 
 William Fitz- Ray- 
 mond le Gros, eldest 
 son, granted a charter to 
 *' his burgesses of Sod- 
 bury," before 1190, and 
 assuming the habit of 
 St. Augustin , became 
 prior of Christ-Church, 
 Dublin, and ob. 1212. 
 
 MadriceFitz-Ray- 
 MOND, youngest son, 
 lord of Clanmaurice in 
 co. Kerry, and heir to 
 all his father's lands in 
 Munster. Ancestor to 
 the family of FlTZ- 
 
 Maurice. 
 
 VI11.— William le GRAS.baronof Courts-= 
 town and lord of Grace's Country, con- 
 firmed the charter of " his uncle William 
 le Gras, the elder," to the burgesses of 
 Sodbury , 8t granted lauds in Wales to Bra- 
 denatoke Priory, in co. Wilts, circa 1219. 
 In 1223, he witnessed the 2d William E. of 
 Pembroke's charters to the city of Kil- 
 kenny fit the abbey of Tiotern, in S.Wales. 
 
 Isabel de Carew, the daughter 
 probably of William de Carew, lord 
 of Carew, in co. Pembroke, by his 
 wife Alice, dau. and heir of Edward 
 Digon, baron of Hydron, in the 
 co. of Carlow, in Ireland. 
 
 Anselm le Gras, treasurer of 
 Exeter, and, in 1230, bishop of 
 St. David's, and ob. 1247.— Wil- 
 liam HAMON, and AMNAR LE 
 Gras, from whom several fami- 
 lies of note, now extinct, both in 
 England and Ireland, descended. 
 
 IX.— Edmund le Gras, baron of Courts- 
 town, 8cc. In the deed of partition, 3d of 
 May, 1247,bet ween theco-h. of Anselm, the' 
 last E. of Pembroke, of the cos. of Carlow, 
 Wexford, Kilkenny, &c Kildare, " lord Ed- 
 mund le Gras," fit " James, the butler of 
 Ireland," are mentioned among the few 
 great proprietors of land in these cos. He 
 founded, in conjunction with bis son, Will. 
 le Gras, fie Walter Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, 
 the noble monastery of Rossibercon, into 
 which friars were admitted Sept. 19, 1267. 
 
 ==SlBIA, daughter of Mac-Gill Pa- 
 trick, als. Fitz-Patrick, dynast or 
 prince of the territory of Upper- 
 Ossory, now incorporated with the 
 Queen's County. The representa- 
 tives of this very ancient and dis- 
 tinguished house were barons of 
 Gowran, and barons aud earls of 
 Upper-Ossory. 
 
 Richard le Gras, lord-abbot 
 of Evesham, in co, Worcester, 
 and keeper of the great seal of 
 England, ob. 1262. 
 
A 
 
 I 
 
 i ■ — 
 
 X— WILLIAM le GRAS, baron of Courts-—! 
 town, ficc. founded aud endowed the mo- 
 nastery of Tullaroan, Dear his castle of 
 Courtstown. A witness to the charter of 
 Roger Bigott, E . of Norfolk, to the town of 
 Ross. Gov. of the co. palatine of Carlow, 
 in 1268 & 75. Built Castle-Grace, near Tul- 
 lowrinthatco. Sheriffof Tipperary in 1279. 
 
 XI.— EDMOND le Gras, baron of Courts-: 
 town, &c. was one of the twenty-one 
 11 Magnates," or lords, who, in 1296, were 
 sureties to K. Edward I. for the fealty 
 of the lord John Fitz-Thomas ; and, in 
 1302, was summoned to attend the king, 
 (as a baron of the realm by tenure,) with 
 horse and arms in his best array, for war 
 against the Scots. 
 
 MARY, dau. of Donell Oge Mac- 
 Morough, als. Kavanagh, dynast or 
 prince of Leinster, descended from 
 the kings of Leinster : Dermod, 
 the last of whom gave all his royal 
 inheritance, together with his dau. 
 Eva, in marriage to Richard. 
 (Strongbow), 2d E. of Pembroke. 
 
 :Ela, or ELENA, d. of Pierce de 
 Bermingham, 3 lord Athenry, in co. 
 of Galway, 8c sist. of John, created 
 E. of Louth, in 1319, who, after the 
 defeat St death of Sir Hamon le 
 Gras, at the battle of Ascul, in 1315, 
 commanded the English forces that 
 overthrew the Scotch fit Irish awny 
 of the lord Edward Bruce. 
 
 Oliver le Gras, who possessed 
 lands in the co. of Dublin, exe- 
 cuted a deed for the payment of 
 100 marks to Fulk, archbishop of 
 Dublin, dated 6 of March, 1266. 
 
 ANSELM LE Gras, of co. Dub- 
 lin, summoned, as a baron by te- 
 nure, in 1302, to accompany, with 
 bis quota of men, K.Edwardl.iu 
 the invasion of Scotland, where 
 he received, in 1303, the honour 
 of knighthood from that victo- 
 rious monarch. 
 
 XII. — William le Gras, baron of Courts- 
 town, Sec. granted, in 1306, his lordship of 
 Fythard to Edmund, the butler of Ireland. 
 Slain in battle with the O'Mores of Leix. 
 
 Catharine, d. of Sir David de 
 Rupe, als. Roche, ancestor to the 
 viscounts Fermoy, in the co. of 
 Cork, by Catharine, d. of David de 
 Barry, the 2d. viscount of Bntte- 
 vant. 
 
 John le Gras & James Butler 
 de Hibevnia, made Knights of the 
 Bath, at London , 12 of April,! 326. 
 Sibilla le Gras mar. Maurice 
 Fitz-Thomas, the 1st knight of 
 Kerry, St was mother of Gerald 
 Fitz-Maurice, St a widow in 1305. 
 
 XIII.— William le Gras, baron of: 
 Courtstown, Sec. constituted citstos pads 
 of the county of Kilkenny, 27 of January, 
 1355, and sheriff thereof in 1357. 
 
 I 
 
 XIV.— JOHN LE GRAS, baron of Courts r 
 town, &c. appointed, in 1382, commis- 
 sioner for holding an assize, to enquire into 
 seditions in the cos. of Limerick, Cork, 
 Tipperary, with the cross thereof, & Kerry . 
 Murdered by a party of the Fitz-Patricks. I 
 
 XV. — Almaric le Gras, baron of Courts- 
 town, Sec. was, by royal licence, on the 
 23d of December, 1385, permitted, " for the 
 better preservation of tne peace of the co. 
 of Kilkenny," to contract an Irish alliance. 
 A benefactor to the monasteries of Glas- 
 carrig, in co. Wexford; and to St. John's, 
 in Kilkenny, where he was interred. 
 
 HONORIA, d. of David de Barry, 
 lord of Olethan and viscount of But- 
 tevant, co. Cork, who ob. 1347. His 
 descendant, David Barry, was cre- 
 ated E. of Barrymore in 1627. 
 
 -ALICIA, daughter of John le Poer, 
 baron of Donhill, a district iu the 
 county of Waterford, adjoining 
 St. George's Channel. 
 
 Joanna le Gras, mar. Walter 
 Wall, of Coolnemucky, in the co. 
 of Waterford, and was mother of 
 John Wall, of the same, and a 
 widow in 1335. 
 
 -■TlBINA, d. of O'Meagher, dynast or 
 prince of the territory of Ikerrin, now 
 incorporated with the co. of Tipperary, 
 8c sist. of Ownya, the wife of Hervey 
 de Marisco, lord, of Lateragh, ancestor 
 to the barons Montmorency -Morres, 8c 
 to the viscountsMountmorres fitFrank- 
 ford de Montmorency. 
 
 XVI.— JOHN GRAS, baron of Courtstown,: 
 &c. In 1407, the sheriff of Kilkenny was 
 ordered to distrain " John Gras, baron of 
 Tillaghroban," for certain sums due to 
 the king; and, in 1410, he was appointed 
 the cttsCos pads of Kilkenny. 
 
 ■■Elizabeth, d. of Walter Wall, of 
 Coolnemucky- Castle, in co. Water- 
 ford, by his wife Joanna, d. of 
 Blanchneld, of Blanch field' s-Town, 
 in the co. of Kilkeuny. 
 
 Katharine Gras mar. Thomas 
 Fitz-Maurice Purcell, of Ballyn- 
 foyle, co. of Kilkenny, circa 1400 
 or 1404. 
 
 XVII.— Anselm Gras, (called faudlau- 
 nauch, of the long sword,) baron of Courts- 
 town, &c, appointed, 23 of June, 1421, 
 sheriffof Kilkenny during the king's plea- 
 sure, and attended the parliament, held at 
 Naas, by James E. of Ormonde, in 1441. 
 
 :Alicia, dau. of Sir James Morres, 
 knight-banneret, lord of Lateragh, 
 in co. of Tipperary, and barou De 
 Montemarisco, by his wife Lucia, 
 dau. of Edmund lord Arundel, of 
 the Strand-Castle, in co. Cork. 
 
 Elenora Gras, mar. Sir Henry 
 
 Forstall, of co. Kilkenny, and 
 had issue Richard Forstall, who 
 was heir to his father in 1429. 
 
 XVIII.— Oliver Gras, (called feasog, the==ELLEN, d. of Anthony O'More, dy 
 
 bearded,) baron of Courtstown, Sec. an 
 adherent of the house of Laucaster, fie in 
 1470, custos pacts of the co. of Kilkenny. 
 Drowned in the Nore, near lncbmore-Cas. 
 
 nast or prince of the territory of Leix, 
 now incorporated with theQueen's 
 co., Sc sist. of Dorothy, the wife of 
 Thos.7E. of Kildare, l.d. of Ireland. 
 
 XIX.— JOHN GrAS, (called criosiaraan, thez 
 iron-belted,) baron of Courtstown, Sec. In 
 1520 confirmed baron Oliver Grace's grant 
 of certain lands to James Gras, and, in 1534, 
 joined the E. of Ormonde with a large 
 body of followers, in suppressing the re- 
 belliou of lord Thomas Fitz-Gerald. 
 
 :CATHARINE, d. of Pierce lord le 
 Poer, of Curraghmore, in the co. of 
 Waterford, by his wife——, dan. of 
 Gerald Fitz-Gerald, 1st lord of De- 
 cies. His descendant, Richard lord 
 le Poer, was created E, of Tyrone 
 in 1673. 
 
 Oliver Grace Fitz-Oliver, 
 
 lord-abbot of Jerpoint, in the cq. 
 of Kilkenny, on its suppression 
 by K.Henry VIII. in 1540. The 
 abbot of Jerpoint was a peer of 
 parliament. 
 
B 
 
 I BALLYLINCH, NOW GRACEFIELD BRANCH. 
 
 XX.— JOHN GRAS, {called more, the great,) baron of 
 Courtstown, &c. founded Grace's Chapel, at Tullaroan, 
 iu 1343, and re-edified the castle of Courtstown. M. P. 
 for the co. of Kilkenny, 17 of Jan. 1568, 8c dying the same 
 year, was interred in the cathed. of Kilkenny, where his 
 monument, bearing his effigy, in marble, still remains. 
 
 OnohIA, d. of Walter Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, lord of 
 Walsh's Country, aud baron Shanacaher, in the co. Kil- 
 keuny, by his wife Catharine Butler, d. of the baron 
 of Poulakerry. There was issue by this marriage 17 
 sons and 5 daughters. 
 I 
 XXL— OLIVER Grace, (called sacsanauch, the English- 
 man,) baron of Courtstown, Sec. was appointed governor 
 of the barony of Cranagh. in the cantred of Grace's 
 Country, 30 of Sept, 1575. He died about the year 
 15S0, and was interred in the cathedral of Kilkenny. 
 
 ELLIS, d. and h. of Sir Henry Davells, of Killisheen, 
 iu the Queen's co. She afterwards mar. Garret Fitz- 
 Gerald, of Glasseally, co. Kildare, grandson of the E. of 
 Kildare. 
 
 XXII.— John Grace, (called beatauch, the generous,) 
 baron of Courtstown, &c. enfeoffed, on the 28 of De- 
 cember, 1590, Sir Richard Shee in the manor of Tulla- 
 roan and other lands, and dying on the 27 of March, 
 1602, was interred in the cathedral of Kilkenny. 
 
 LETTICE, daughter of Sir Richard Shee, of Kilkenny, 
 
 and of Goran, kt, by Margaret, daughter of Sher- 
 
 locke, of Mothe, in co. of Waterford, mar. before 1580. 
 
 XXIII.— Robert Grace, (called bailvinauch, the ora- 
 tor,) baron of Courtstown, &c, M. P. for the co. of 
 Kilkenny, 16 of April, 1613, aud 19 of June, 1634. En- 
 feoffed Sir Roger Jones, of Doranstown, co. Meath, in 
 his estates in the co. of Kilkenny, and elsewhere, 30 of 
 June, 1617. Died circa 1640, and was interred in the 
 cathedral of Kilkenny. 
 
 Eleanor, daughter of David Condon, lord of Condon's 
 Country, in the co. of Cork, by Eleanor, d. of Richard 
 lord Power, of Curraghmore. 
 
 Sir Oliver Grace, (called ciallmhar, the wise,) of Bally- 
 Inch, als. Ballylinch-Castle, in the co. of Kilkenny, lord of 
 Legau, Carney, Sic. M.P. for co. of Tipperary in 1559, ap- 
 pointed 13 of April, 1563, with the E. of Ormonde and the 
 V. Mountgarret, a commissioner of array for the co. of Kil- 
 kenny, ob. circa 1580, and was interred at Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 Mary, sist. of Sir Maurice Fitz-Gerald, created viscount 
 Decies in 1569, and the d. of Sir Gerald, 3 lord of Decies, 
 by his wife Ellice, d. of Pierce Butler, 8 E. of Ormonde, 
 and of Margaret, d. of Gerald, 8 E. of Kildare, ob. 2 of 
 Dec. 1605, and was interred at Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 Gerald Grace, (called marcauch, the horseman,) of Bal- 
 lylinehand Legan Castles, in the co. of Kilkenny, aud of 
 Carney, in the co. of Tipperary. He died 4 of March, 
 1618, and was interred at Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 XXIV.— Oliver Grace, (called fille, the poet,) of Inch- 
 more-Cas.,in the cantred of Grace's Country, ob. in V. P., 
 6 July, 1637, & was interred in the cathed. of Kilkenny. 
 
 JOAN, only dau. and h. of Sir Cyprian Horsfall, of 
 Inishuag-Castle, co. Kilkenny, only son of John Hors- 
 fall, lora-bishop of Ossory. 
 
 XXV.— John Grace, baron of Courtstown, &c. heir to 
 his grandfather, aDd, being a minor, his wardship was 
 granted by Charles I, on the 19 of Feb. 1637, to Sir Cy- 
 prian Horsfall. In 1648, a member of the supreme 
 committee of the confederate catholics ; but, by a spe- 
 cial ordinance of Cromwell, dated 30 of Aug., 1654, was 
 permitted to compound for his estate. M. P., high- 
 sheriff, and lieut.-gov, of co. Kilkeuny, iu 1686. Colo- 
 nel of " Grace's regiment" of foot, and of a troop of 
 horse raised by himself for James II, ob. 1690. 
 
 ELIZABETH, eldest dau. and eventual co-h. of Walter 
 Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, co. of Kilkenny, by his wife, 
 Magdalen, sist. of Edmund Sheffield, 2E. of Mulgrave, 
 and grand aunt and sole heir to Edmund Sheffield, 2d 
 duke of Buckingham and Normanby. Elizabeth Bryan, 
 the only child of Ursula Walsh, the other sist. of Eliza- 
 beth, mar. Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, and thus the two 
 families of Grace became the exclusive representatives 
 of the Walshs and the Sheffield s. 
 I 
 
 MARGARET, d. of Sir Robert Hartpole, of Shrule- Castle, 
 in the Q,ueen's Co., who ob. 1594, and sist. of Sir William 
 and George HaTtpole, each successively of Shrule- Castle. 
 She died H of Feu. 1619, and was interred at Jerpoint. 
 
 Oliver Grace, (called skeevaugh, the handsome,) of 
 Ballylinch, Legan, aud Carney Castles, &c. ob. 27 of Au- 
 gust, 1626, and was interred in Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 MARGARET, d. of Edmund Butler, 2d vise. Mountgarret, 
 and of Grany, d. of Barnaby Fitz-Patrick, 1st lord Upper- 
 Ossory. She survived her husband, and had a third of his 
 estate for dower. 
 
 Gerald Grace, (called reenire, the traveller,) of Bally- 
 linch, &c. a minor at his father's death, and granted by 
 Charles I. in ward to Sir Thos. Loftus, of Killyan. Slain 
 at the battle of Kilmsh 15 of April, 1642, in the army of 
 his uncle, lord Mountgarret, and his estates seized by the 
 Commonwealth. 
 
 Ellen, eld. d. 8c eventual co-h. of Edmund Butler, 3d lord 
 Dunboyne; St of Margaret, d. &h. of Thos. Butler, 4th lord 
 Cahier. She was 1st mar. to James, eldest son of Pierce 
 Butler, 1 vise. Ikerrin, & had issue Pierce Butler, the 2 
 vise, whose great gd. son was created E. of Canick in 1748. 
 
 WILLIAM GRACE, denominated of Ballylinch, resided at 
 Barrowmount, in the co. of Kilkenny, on. 1669, and, con- 
 formable to his will, was interred in Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 ELLINOR, sist. of Edward Butler, 2d vise. Galmoy, and 
 d. of Pierce Butler, (eld. son of Edward, 1st vise. Galmoy,) 
 aud of Margaret, d. of Nicholas, 1st vise. Netterville. 
 
 Oliver Grace, the eldest son, settled at Shanganagh, 
 (now Gracefield,) in the Queen's Co., M. P., and chief- 
 remembrancer of the Exchequer. Received a general par- 
 don for his adherence to K. James II, and for all other of- 
 fences against the state, dated 20 of May, 1696. Ob. 8 of 
 June, 1708, set. 47, and was interred in Grace's Chapel, or 
 S. wing of Aries Church, founded by bim, on the site of 
 which the Grace Mausoleum, rebuilt in 1818, now stands. 
 
 ELIZABETH, only surviving child of John Bryan, of 
 Bawnmore, co. of Kilkenny, and of his 2d wife Ursula, 
 2d d. and eventual co-h. of Walter Walsh, of Castle-Hoel, 
 by his wife the bon. Magdalen Sheffield, sist. of Edmund, 
 2 E. of Mulgrave, and grand aunt and sole heir of Edmund 
 Sheffield, the 2d D. of Buckingham and Normanby. She 
 raar.,2dly, Edmund Butler, 6 vise. Mountgarret, father of 
 Edmund, the 9th vise, whose grandson was created E. of 
 Kilkenny in 1793. Ob. in London, 13 of June, 1736, set. 62, 
 and was interred in the church of St. Giles-in-the-fields. 
 
XXVI.— "ROBERT GRACE, baron of Courtstown, Sec, M.P. for Thomastown, 
 in co. Kilkenny, and appointed, May 18, 1687, gov. and custos rotulorum 
 of the King's Co. A lieu t. -col. in the regiment of foot raised by his father 
 for K. James, who offered to create him a peer of Ireland, which he is said 
 to have declined, though his unfinished patent was found after the battle of 
 the Boyne. He was included in the articles of Limerick, at which place 
 he died in 1691, and was buried in Grace's Chapel, near the castle of 
 Courtstown. 
 
 FRANCES, only child of col. Richard Grace, of Moyelly-Castle, in the KiDg's 
 Co., (a younger son of Robert Grace, B. of Courtstown, who oh. circa 1640,) 
 col. in the English army of Charles I, and afterwards of an Irish regiment 
 in the Spanish service, chamberlain to James II. while D. of York, and gov. 
 of Atblone in 1690, against gen. Douglass, and in 1691 against gen. De Gin- 
 kle, when he was slain, & the town taken. Frances mar. 1665, &. ob. 1716. 
 
 XXVII.— John Grace, baron of Courtstown and lord of Grace's Country, 
 succeeded his brother Oliver, who survived his father only 9 days. John 
 Grace had been aid-de-camp to gen. Sarsfield, (E. of Lucan,) during the 
 wars in Ireland; but being included in the articles of Limerick, he en- 
 joyed his estates for 10 years, till on a bill of discovery being filed, in 1701, 
 they were decreed to have been forfeited by his elder brother, Oliver, their 
 nominal possessor duriDg 9 days, who, being in the S. of FraDce for his 
 health, on the surrender of Limerick, was not included in the articles 
 thereof. The estates thus forfeited had been held by the family of Grace 
 530 years. John Grace died in London, in 1716. 
 
 LETTICB, eldest daughter of Oliver Grace, of Shanpnagh, (Gracefield,) 
 M. P., and chief remembrancer of the Exchequer of Ireland. 
 
 XXVIII.— Robert Grace, only son, was a captain in the French service, 
 which he resigned on inheriting, as co heir at law, with his maternal uncle, 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefield, the undevised estates of Edmund Sheffield, 
 the last D. of Buckingham and Normanby. He then settled at lsleworth, 
 near'London, where he died circa 1764, s. p., and in him terminated the 
 direct Courtstown line of the Grace family. 
 
 D 
 
 MICHAEL GRACE, of Gracefield, inhe- 
 rited, asco-h.at law, with his nephew 
 Robert Grace, of Courtstown, the un- 
 devised estates of the Sheffield family 
 in the cos. of Sussex, Middlesex, and 
 York; ob. 19 of Feb. 1760, set. 78, and 
 was interred at Aries. 
 
 MARY, d. of John Galway, of Lota- 
 House, iu the co. of Cork, and of Eli- 
 zabeth, d. of William Meade, and 
 sist. of Sir John Meade, bart., whose 
 grandson was created E. of Clanwil- 
 liam in 1776; ob. 28 of Nov., 1736, 
 set. 55, and was interred at Aries. 
 
 Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, born 
 6 of December, 1704, ob. at Kilkenny, 
 24 of August, 1781, set. 77, and was 
 interred at Aries. 
 
 MARY, daughter and eventual sole 
 heir of John Dowell, of Mantua- 
 House, in the county of Roscommon, 
 
 and of Mary, dau. and h. of Fitz- 
 
 reary, of the county of Kildare ; ob. 
 14 of November, 1765, set. 55, and 
 was interred at Aries. 
 
 XXVII.— William Grace, 3d son, but eventually the 
 2d by thedeath of his broth. John, coelehs, resided chiefly 
 at St. Germains, in France, where he executed his will 
 in 1772, but ob. in London, 23 of Nov. 1777, set. 70, 8t 
 was interred in the church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. 
 
 MARY, d. and eventual sole heir of Richard Harford, 
 of Marshfield, near Dublin, ob. inLondou, 10 of April, 
 1799, set. 68, and was interred in St. Giles's church. 
 
 XXVIII.— Richard Grace, of Boley, MP., on whom 
 the baronetage conferred, iu 1795, upon Sir Richard 
 Gamon, was entailed, ob. at Southville, 9 of Jan. 1801, 
 set. 40, and was interred at Aries. 
 
 JANE, d. of the Hon. John Evans, of Bnlgadeu-Hall, 
 son of George, 1st lord Carbery, and grandfather of John, 
 the 6th lord; married in 1782, ob. in Dublin, 24 of 
 March, 1804, set. 41 , a nd was i nterred at Aries. 
 
 XXIX— Sir William Grace, Bart., a minor at his 
 father's death, succeeded, in 1818, to the title of his 
 kinsman, Sir Richard Gamon, M. P. for AVinchester, 
 vivens inupt 1823. . 
 
 Sheffield Grace, of Lincoln's Inn, F. S. A. formerly 
 a student at Winchester College, and afterwards at 
 St. Mary's-Hall, Oxford, 2d son, vivens inupt 1823. 
 Percy Grace, a captain in the royal navy, com- 
 manding H. M. Ship Cyrene, 3d son, vivens inupt 1823. 
 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefield, 
 ob. at Gracefield, 25 of August, 1765, 
 at. 50, and was interred at Aries. 
 
 MARY, d. Stco-h. of Nicholas Plun- 
 ket, of Dunsoghly-Cas., in co. Dub- 
 lin, ob. in Dublin, 9 of Oct , 1797, 
 set. 63, 8c was iuterred at Aries. 
 
 i ' 
 
 XXIX.— Alicia Grace, of Gracefield, only child, 
 mar. in 1792, erected in 1815 & 17 Gracefield-Lodge, 
 uear the site of a former mansion, vivens 1823. 
 
 MORGAN, 3d son of Thomas Kavanagh, of Borris, £c 
 of lady Susan Butler, sist. of John, 17 E. of Ormonde 
 & Ossory ; ob. 1804, s. p., fit was buried at St. Mullins. 
 
 JOHN DOWELL GRACE, of Mantua-House, 24 son, 
 captain of the Wirtemberg dragoons, in the service of 
 Austria, which he resigned inl776, ob. 25of April, 1811, 
 at. 75, and was interred at Tulsk Abbey. 
 
 MARY, d. and co-heir of Patrick Hussey, of Ardimore, 
 co. of Kerry, was married in 1783 j ob. 7 of Nov. 1819, 
 set. 57, and was interred at Tulsk-Abbey, co. Roscom. 
 
 OLIVER JOHN DOWELL GRACE, of Mantna-House, 
 only son, married 3 of September, 1819, vivens 1823. 
 
 FRANCES, only surviving child of Sir Richard Nagle, 
 bart., by his 1st wife Catharine d. and h. of Maurice 
 Fitzgerald, of Punchar's Grange, co. Kildare, vivens 
 1823. 
 
 See Vol. XYIIL of Pedigrees in Herald's Office. 
 
• 
 
 a Cable* 
 
 EXPLANATORY OF THE PORTRAITS AND OF THE OTHER GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS IN THIS COLLECTION. 
 
 Sir Oliver Grace (called fcasog, the bearded) Lord of Grace 'sCountry, and= 
 BaroDofCourtstown(al.Tullaroan) by descent from Raymond leGros.Vicc- 
 royof Ireland. temp.Hen. LI. SirOliverwastbesonoi Baron Anselim, and 
 the grand s. of Bar. John, aud the great g. s. of Bar. Almaric Gras, to wbora 
 Rich. II. granted in 1 385 the singular licence of marriage so frequently cited, 
 and of whose curious monument many drawings have been made. 
 
 = Ellen, Daughter of.Antbony O'More, Dynast or Sovereign of the territory 
 of La-Lv, and sister of Dorothy the first wife of Thomas Fitz Gerald, 7 E. of 
 
 Kildare, Lord Deputy of Ireland, and also of the wife of Bryan Fitz- 
 
 Patrick Lord of Upper Ossory, whose sou was confirmed Baron of Upper 
 Ossory in 1541, and whose descendant was created E. of Upper-Ossory 
 in 1751. 
 
 Sir John Grace (called crios iarann, the iron belted) Lord of Grace's= 
 Countrv and Baron of Courtstown, was appointed in 1516 Sheriff of the 
 Co. of Kilkenny during the King's pleasure. 
 
 1 
 
 = Catiierine, d. of Pierce Lord le Poer, or Oliver Grace Lord Abbot of Jerpoint in 
 Power, ofCurraghmoie in the Co. of Water- the Co. Kilkenny, a Peer of Parliament, when 
 ford, whose descendant was created E, of that splendid and richlv endowed Abbey «as 
 Tyrone in 1673. suppressed by Hen. VIII. in 1540. 
 
 I.— Sir Oliver Grace (called ciallmhar, the wise) of Bally-: 
 Unci) Castle, in the Co. of Kilkenny, Lord of Legan, Car- 
 ney, ice. M. P. for Co. of Tipperary in 1559, ob. circa 
 1580, and was interred at Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 II.— Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch, Legan and Carney = 
 Custles, ob. 4 of March 1618, and was interred at Jerpoint 
 Abbey. 
 
 = M 1 ry, sist. of Sir Maurice Fitz-Gerald, created Vise. Decics 
 in 1569, and the d. of Sir Gerald 3 Ifi of Decies, by his wife 
 Eleanor d. of Pierce Butler, 8 E. of Ormonde, and of Mar- 
 garet d. of Gerald 8 E. of Kildaie, ob. Q of Dec. 1605, and 
 was interred at Jerpoint. 
 
 : Marcaret, d. of Sir Robert Hartpole, of Shrulc Castle, 
 in the Queen's Co. ob. 11 of Feb. 1619, and was interred 
 at Jerpoint. 
 
 \ 
 Sir John Gn as (called more, the great) Baron of Courtstown, 
 from whom the succeeding palatine Barons of Courtstown 
 descended. He founded Grace's Chapel at Tullaroan, and 
 re-edified Courtstown, and several of his other Castles, ob. 
 in 1568, and was interred in the Cathedral of Kilkenny, 
 where his marble monumental effigies still remain. 
 
 Ill Oliver Grace, of Ballylinch Castle, &c. ob. 27 = 
 
 of August 1626, and was interred at Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 IV. — Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch Castle, &.c. n minor- 
 at his father's death, and granted by Charles I. in ward 
 to Sir Tbo' Loft us of Kill van, for the sum of £. 1,500. 
 Slain at (he battle of Kilrush 15 of April 1642, and his 
 Estates seized by the Commonwealth. 
 
 = M a RCA ret, d. of Edmund Butler, 2d Vise. Mounrgarret, and 
 ol'Grany, d. of Barnaby Fitz-Parrick, 1st L d Upper Ossory, 
 
 =Ellen, eld. d. and eventual co-heir of Edmund Butler, 3d = 
 V Dunboyiic ; and of Margaret, d. and heir of Tin/ Butler, 
 4th Lord Cahjer. 
 
 Eleanor, mar. to Garret Nugent of Cloncoskraine, g. grand- 
 son of Rich. 2 L J Delvin, whose descendants were created 
 E. of Westmeatb in 1621, and E. Nugent in 1776. 
 
 ^Jasies Butler, eld. son of Sir Pierce, tst Vise. Ikerrhi, 
 mar. in 1636, and died in 1638. Father of Pierce, the 2d 
 
 Vise, whose great grandson was created E. of Carrick in 
 
 1748. 
 
 V. — William Grace, denominated of Ballylinch, resided = 
 at Barrow mount, Cuunty of Kilkenny, ob. 1869, aud con- 
 formable to his will, was interred at Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 =Ellinor, sist. of Edward Butler, 2d Vise. Gatmoy, and 
 d. of Pierce Butler (eld. son of Edward, 1 st Vise. Ga'lmoy,) 
 and of Margaret, d. of Nicholas, lit Vise. Nettcrville. 
 
 1 
 
 John Grace, eld. son, ob. s. p. 
 
 VI. — OuVlK Grace, the eldest son, settled at Shanga- : 
 nsghj (now OmccGcld.) in the Quecn'» Có. M P. and 
 
 Chief Hemembrancer of the Exchequer, ob. 8 of June 
 1 708, iut. 47, and was interred in Grace's Chapel, or S. wing 
 1 t Ail' - Church, founded by him, on the site of which the 
 Grace .Mausoleum now stands. 
 
 =Elizabetii, only surviving cliild of John Bryan of Bawn- = 
 inuro, und ui bis ad wife U«ul^ the ad d. and co-heir of 
 Walter Walsh, of Cutte-Hoef, by his. wife the Lady Mag- 
 dalen Sheffield, sist. of Edmund 2 E. of Mulgrave, and grand 
 aunt and eventual sole heif of Edmund Sheffield the last Duke 
 of Buckingham and Normanby, ob. in London 13 of June 
 1736, it. 62. 
 
 =Edhvnd Butler, 6 Vise. 
 »1 *_ ■ 1 i' r, ob. 1735, fa- 
 ther of Edmund the nth 
 Vise, whose great grandson 
 was created E. of Kilkenny 
 '» '793- 
 
 of Gracefield, inherited as <*"• M *nv, d, of John Galway of Lota-House, and of Elizabeth, 
 
 heir at law, the undevised Estates of the Sheffield family 
 in the Cos. of Sussex, Middlesex and York ; ob. 19 of 
 Feb. 1760, st. 78, and was interred at Aries. 
 
 of William Meade, and sist. of Sir John Meade, whose 
 grandson wns created E. of Clanwilliam in 1776, ob. 28 of 
 Nov. 1736, a;t. 55, and was interred at Aries. 
 
 I 
 
 Av. t , mar. I. to Rich. eld. 
 s. of Sir Rich. Naglc Sec. of 
 State for Irel. who ob. s. p. 
 and 2 to Edmund Butler 
 8 L d Dunboyne. 
 
 VIII. — Oliver Grace, nf . — ■ M ut, d. and eventual heir 
 
 Gracefield, ob. 24 of Aug. 
 1781, a/t 77, and was in- 
 terred at Aries. 
 
 of John Dowell of Mantua- 
 House, ob. l4of Nov. 1765, 
 a:t. 55, and was interred at 
 Aries. 
 
 Willi am Grace, third son,: 
 resided chiefly at St. Ger- 
 rnains in France, ob. in Lond. 
 23 of Nov. 1777, »t. 70, and 
 was interred in the Church 
 of St, Giles-in-the-Fields. 
 
 by, d. and eventual sole 
 heir of Richard Harford, of 
 Marshficld, near Dublin, ob. 
 in London 10 of April 1799, 
 at. 68. 
 
 Sheffield Grace, fourth: 
 surviving son, ob. 5 of Sep- 
 tember 1746, set. 36, and 
 was interred at Aries. 
 
 1 
 John G11 ace, of tlieGrange, 
 mar. to Anne d. und h, of 
 John Grace ui Thomastown, 
 and had issue nn onb( d. 
 Elizabeth, mar. to Richard 
 Gamon, of Datchworth- 
 bury, Co. Herts, whose son, 
 Sir Richard Gamon, was 
 created a Baronet 11 of 
 Apr. 1795, with remainder 
 lo his near relative Richard 
 Grace, of Boley, M. P. 
 
 : Frances, d. of John Bagot, 
 of Castle-Bagot, ob. 3 ot 
 May 1742, Kt. 33, and was 
 interred at Axles. 
 
 IX. — Michael Giiace, of 
 Gracefield, ob. 25 of Aug. 
 1785, ffit.50.and was in- 
 terred at Aries. 
 
 John Dowell Grace, of 
 Mantua- House, ob. inApril 
 1811, st. 75, and was in- 
 terred at Tulsk Abbey. 
 
 Mary d. and co-heir of 
 Nicholas Plunk ct, of 
 Dumoghly Ctutk', ob. 9 
 of October 1797, set. 63, 
 und was interred at Aries. 
 
 X. — Alicia Grace, only 
 child, vivens 1820, mar- 
 ried ÍR 1792 to 
 
 Morgan, 3d son of Tho- 
 mas km ,11.1-1 1 , of Borris- 
 House, and of the Lady 
 Susan Butler, sister of 
 John 16 E. of Ormonde 
 and Ossory ; 00.1804.». p. 
 
 Mary, d. and co-heir of 
 P. Hussey, of Ardimore, 
 ob. in 1820, and was in- 
 terred at Tulsk Abbey. 
 
 Oliver John Dowell 
 Grace, of Mantua-House, 
 only son, vivens 1820. 
 
 Richard Grace, of Boley, 
 M.P. on whom the Baronet- 
 age conferred in 1795 upon 
 Sir Richard Gamon was 
 entailed, ob. at Southvike, 
 9 of Jan. 1B01, xt. 40, and 
 «as interred at Aries. 
 
 Jane, d. of the Hon. John 
 Evans, of Bulgadcn Hall, 
 son of Geo. 1 I/J Carbery, 
 and grandfather of John, 
 tbe 6 Lord, ob. 24 of April 
 1804, xt. 41, and was in- 
 terred at Aries. 
 
 John Grace, a Capt. of 
 Carabineers in the Imperial 
 service, and Aid-du-camp 
 to the reigning Prince of 
 Anhalt-Coethen at the siege 
 of Belgrade, where he died 
 unmarried on the 31 of Oct. 
 1789, aged 29, and was in- 
 terred at SemlLn, 
 
 Clara - Louisa Grace, 
 only d. vivens 1820, mar- 
 ried in 1783 to 
 
 William Middelton, of 
 Stockekl Park, in Co.York, 
 2d son of William Hagger- 
 ston Constable, and of the 
 Lady Winifred Maxwell, 
 only child of William 8 E. 
 of Nitbsdali , vivens 1820. 
 
 Raymond Grace, only 
 child, ob, in France 1764, 
 
 a.!. i'i, inupt. 
 
 Frances, only surviving 
 child of Sir Richard Nagle, 
 Bart, by bis 1st wife Catha- 
 rine d. and h. of Maurice 
 Fitzgerald, of Punchar's 
 Grange, vivens 1820. 
 
 Sir William Grace, Bart, 
 a minor at his father's 
 death, succeeded in 1818 to 
 the title of his kinsman. Sir 
 Richard Gamon, M. P. for 
 Winchester, vivens inupt 
 1B20. 
 
 Sheffield Grace, of Lin- 
 coln's Inn, F. S. A. formerly 
 a student at Winchester Col- 
 lege, and afterwards at St. 
 Mary's Hall Oxford, second 
 son, vivens inupt 1830. 
 
 Percy Grace, » Captain 
 in the Royal Navy, com- 
 manding H.M. Ship Cy rené, 
 third son, vivens inupt 1820. 
 
 • See Vol. xyiii of Pedigrees in Herald's Office. 
 
 • 
 
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féracefíelte&otige^ 
 
 Gracefield Lodge is situated about five miles north-west of the 
 town of Athy, and between seven and eight due north of Carlow. The 
 original design of this picturesque and commodious residence was fur- 
 nished by Mr. Nash of London, and, in 1817, the present structure was 
 erected by Mr. Robertson of Kilkenny. With respect to external archi- 
 tecture, the design has been much admired for that pleasing effect 
 which a varied outline in buildings of this description seldom fails to 
 create. The frequent breaks, and strong projections in the walls, the 
 cut-stone lables surmounting the windows, and the general, though har- 
 monized, irregularity of the whole, produce an appearance strikingly 
 animated and cheerful. Its interior arrangements exhibit every neces- 
 sary convenience. The principal story contains an outer and inner Hall 
 and two Staircases, a Drawing-room, a Library, a Dining-room, and 
 a Conservatory, all of which lie en suite, and may severally be ap- 
 proached likewise from the Hall. It is to be regretted, that the site se- 
 lected for this building, evinces so little judgment, while the good taste 
 of the architect is so conspicuous. At the foot of the first hill to the 
 south, an admirable situation presents itself, which was unfortunately 
 overlooked. The present House is distant about seventy perches from 
 the former mansion, every vestige of which is now removed, and the spot 
 covered with plantation or grass. It is stated in the statistical Survey of 
 the Queen's County by Sir Charles Coote, Bart., that " the house at 
 Gracefield and its improvements are very old fashioned, though the 
 land is the best in the barony." The architectural part of this remark 
 having been replied to, it remains only necessary to observe with respect 
 to the grounds, that they also have recently undergone an extensive and 
 decisive change under the superintendence of Mr. Sutherland, whose 
 sound judgment, fine taste, and practical skill, is universally acknow- 
 ledged. Many formal rows of trees have been broken, numerous fences 
 levelled, and the ground occupied by artificial pieces of water, restored 
 to its natural state. Vistas have been also opened for the eye to pene- 
 trate the thick masses of wood, and young plantations are seen on every 
 side. In removing some of the vast banks or divisions that intersected 
 the demesne, several pieces of early English coin, and other antique 
 
 • The following account is taken from " Views of the Scats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in the 
 United Kingdom, by J. P. Neale," the first volume of which appeared in 1818, and the remaining vo- 
 lumes are in the course of publication. The superior excellence of this highly finished and beautiful 
 work is admitted by the unanimous testimony of all amateurs in this class ot art. Besides the general 
 merit which it possesses of originality in the designs, it claims that of presenting most fascinating views 
 of numerous places wholly unnoticed in every other graphic production. The Drawings, which are 
 elaborate as well as spirited, were executed by Mr. Neale, and, with some few exceptions, were taken 
 upon the spot. His judgment in selecting the points of view, his simplicity of purpose, sobriety in the 
 management of light and shade, and faithfulness ot deliueation deserve the highest p. aise. The Plates 
 also exhibit the most finished efforts of the most ingenious artists, and in exquisite fineness of touch 
 and animation of character they cannot be surpassed. 
 
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UNA CUM SEPULCRIS FAMILI.E GRACEFIELDIAN.E 
 IBI EXSTRUCTIS. 
 HIC, UBI LAPSA JACENT GENTIS MONUMENTA VETUSTjE, 
 
 IN DOMINOSQUE RUUNT BUSTA CADUCA SUOS, 
 AUSPICIIS FAUSTIS, ET SPE MELIORE, SEPULCRUM 
 
 JAM REFICIT FRATRUM CONSOCIATUS AMOR. 
 SIT SACRUM PIETATIS OPUS ! — SERVETUR ET IPSIS 
 MORTE OBITA, PROAVIS QUAM TRIBUERE, QUIES. 
 
 S. G. 
 
 The settlement of this family in Ireland is coeval with the Anglo-Nor- 
 man conquest of that country. Raymond le Gros, its immediate and dis- 
 tin<mished founder, contributed more effectually than any other chieftain 
 to the success of an enterprize which annexed that kingdom to the crown 
 of England. He was brother-in-law of Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pem- 
 broke, whom he succeeded as Viceroy in 1176. From his younger son, 
 Maurice, the noble house of Fitz-Maurice descend ; while his eldest son, 
 William, transmitted the paternal surname to his posterity, together with 
 the great Cantred of Grace's country, in the county of Kilkenny. From Sir 
 Oliver Grace of Ballylinch, Legan, and Carney Castles, (temp. Elizabeth) 
 a younger son of Sir John Grace, Lord of Grace's country, and Baron of 
 Courtstown, descended Gerald Grace of Bally-Inch* al. Ballylinch, 
 slain at the battle of Kilrush in 1642, on which his estates extending 
 over 17,000 acres of land, and including sixteen rectories in the counties 
 of Kilkenny and Tipperary, and in the King's and Queen's counties 
 were seized, and confiscated by Cromwell. His eldest son, John, dying 
 without issue, his second son and eventual representative William, de- 
 nominated of Ballylinch, was the father of Oliver Grace, Chief Remem- 
 brancer of the Exchequer, M. P., &c, and the first of this family that 
 settled in the Queen's county. He married Elizabeth, Viscountess Mount- 
 garret, only surviving child of John Bryan of Bawnmore, and of his 
 second wife Ursula, the second daughter and coheiress of Walter Walsh 
 of Castle-Hoel, by his wife the Lady Magdalen Sheffield, only sister of 
 Edmund, second Earl of Mulgrave, and grand-aunt and eventual sole 
 heir of Edmund Sheffield, the last Duke of Buckingham and Jformanby. 
 Through this marriage the Grace family inherited, as heirs at law, all 
 that remained of the undevised estates of the Duke of Buckingham, in 
 the counties of Middlesex, Sussex, and York, which they sold in the 
 years 1759-60, to the Duke of Bedford, Mr. Nesbit, and others. The late 
 Michael Grace of Gracefield,and of Dunsoghly Castle, died in 1785, leav- 
 ing an only child Alicia, married to Morgan Kavanagh of Boms House, 
 in the county of Carlow, who ob. s. p. in 1804. Oliver John Dowell Grace, 
 of Mantua House, Sir William Grace, Bart., and his two brothers, are the 
 only branches now remaining of this family. On the death of Michael 
 Grace, Esq., the late proprietor, many pictures were removed from the 
 walls of the former Mansion to those of Mantua House, the residence of 
 his surviving brother John Dowell Grace, Esq., where they still remain. 
 
 * t. e. The peninsulated town-land, or the dwelling-place of the peninsula. 
 

 On the completion, however, of the present building, the following ori- 
 ginal portraits of some collateral branches of the family, in the female 
 line, were placed here, viz. : — 
 
 Brigadier General Nugent, killed at the 
 siege of Derry, 1689. — Sir Peter Lely. 
 
 Mrs. Dunne of Brittas, General Nugent's 
 eldest daughter. — Ditto. 
 
 Lady Marshall, General Nugent's second 
 daughter, and wife of Sir Gregory Mar- 
 shall. — Sir Godfrey Kneller. 
 
 Mies Mary Nugent, a Nun, General Nu- 
 gent's youngest daughter. — Sir Godfrey 
 Kneller. 
 
 Sir Christopher Plnnket of Dunsoghly 
 Castle, who, in 1582, succeeded his 
 grandfather Sir John Plnnket, the Chief 
 Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench. 
 
 Margaret, daughter of Sir Nicholas Bage- 
 nall, Marshal of Ireland temp. Eliza- 
 beth, and wife of Sir Christopher 
 Pluuket of Dunsoghly Castle. 
 
 Mary, daughter and coheir of Nicholas 
 Plunket of Dunsoghly Castle, and wife 
 of Michael Grace of Gracefield, died 
 1797. — A miniature by Robinson. 
 
 Morgan Ravanagh of Borris House., mar- 
 ried, in 1792, to Alicia Grace of Grace- 
 field.— Ditto. 
 
 Sheffield Grace, F. S. A., second son of 
 Richard Grace of Boley, M. P. — A 
 medallion in oils by P. Duggan. 
 
 The Library of Gracefield contains likewise a collection of engraved 
 prints from the family portraits above alluded to at Mantua House, and 
 from others dispersed elsewhere. These engravings, which are unpub- 
 lished or private plates, are all executed, with the exception of the first, 
 by Mr. Robert Grave, of London, in the line manner, and are highly cre- 
 ditable to the talents of that artist, now attaining professional eminence. 
 
 " The pourtraiture of Collonell Richard 
 Grace, now utterly routed by the cora- 
 gious Coll. Sanckey," — " are to be sould 
 by J. Smith in back layne, t652." 
 
 Oliver Grace of Slianganagh (now Grace- 
 field) M. P., Chief Remembrancer of 
 the Exchequer, ob, 1708, Jet. 47.— Gas- 
 par Smitz. 
 
 Elizabeth Bryan, "Viscountess Mount- 
 garret, wife of Oliver Grace of Slian- 
 gauagb, ob. 1736, aet. 62. — Ditto. 
 
 Michael Grace of Giacefield, ob. 1760, 
 aet. 78.— Bernard Lens, encaust. 
 
 Mary Galway of Lota, wife of Michael 
 Grace of Gracefield, ob. 1736, set. 55. 
 — C. Jervas. 
 
 Oliver Grace of Gracefield, ob. 1779, set. 
 77. — C. Brown. 
 
 Michael Grace of Gracefield, ob. 1785, 
 aet. 50. — Lee. 
 
 Alicia, daughter of Michael Grace of 
 Gracefield, and wife of Morgan Kava- 
 nagh of Bonis House. — Daniel, in min. 
 
 John Dowell Grace of Mantua House, ob. 
 1811, aet. 75.— Lee. 
 
 Oliver John Dowell Grace of Mantua 
 House. — P. Duggan. 
 
 Frances Nagle of Jamestown House, wife 
 of Oliver John Dowell Grace of Man- 
 tua. — Ditto. 
 
 William Grace, third son of Michael Grace 
 of Gracefield, ob. 1777, aat.70.— B. C. 
 M. in min. 
 
 Mary Harford of Marshfield, wife of Wil- 
 liam Grace, ob. 1799, ast. 68.— Ditto. 
 
 Richard Grace of Boley, M.P., ob. 1801, 
 aet. 'iO. — J. Hopner. 
 
 Jane Evans of Bnlgaden Hall, wife of 
 
 Richard Grace of Boley, ob. 1804. aet. 
 
 41. — S. Shelley, in min. 
 Sir William Grace, Bart. — S. Lover, in 
 
 min. 
 Sheffield Grace, F. S. A F. Manskirsch, 
 
 in min. 
 John Grace, a Captain in the Imperial 
 
 Carabineer Guards, ob. 1789, aet. 29.— 
 
 B. C. A/., in min. 
 Sheffield Grace, fourth son of Michael 
 
 Grace of Giacefield, ob. 1746, aet. 36. 
 
 — F. Bi ml 1 1 a. 
 Raymond Grace, ob. 1763, aet. 29. 
 Sheffield Grace, second son of John 
 
 Grace, Baron of Courtstown, ob. 1684. 
 Elizabeth Burke, Viscountess Dillon, 
 
 wife of Sheffield Grace, ob. 1723. — J. 
 
 Candy. 
 Edmund Sheffield, first Lord Sheffield, 
 
 ob. 1548, aet. 36. 
 John Sheffield, second Lord Sheffield, ob. 
 
 1568, aet. 37. — Sir Anthony More. 
 Edmund Sheffield, third Lord Sheffield, 
 
 and first Earl of Mnls;rave, K. G., ob. 
 
 1646, aet. 83. — R. Elstracke. 
 John Sheffield, third Earl of Mulgrave, 
 
 and first Duke of Buckingham and 
 
 Normanby, K. G., ob. 1720, set. 75 — 
 
 «Sir Godfrey Kneller. 
 Catherine Darnley, daughter of King 
 
 James II., and wife of John Sheffield 
 
 first Duke of Buckingham, ob. 1742, 
 
 set. 59. — C. Zincke, encaust. 
 Edmund Sheffield, second Duke of Buck- 
 ingham and Normanby, ob. 1739, aet. 
 
 19. — J. Succhi, fecit. 
 
 Printed by J. M'Creery, Tooks Court, Chancery Lane, London. 
 
M ' ' A l v -N'ACIBl(B'«lWi5iRA.CEFIEILD)ES(!}? 
 
 -<^j Rh J {, ^0 ^k-ckeqitee Sic.SotTOFWzrruzt Grace 
 
 QF Btr.rYTTVCS CtSTZZ^XD OF Zgf " |M Srí /. \ '" H~n\' Frr w w Rn-rrer> .rF^^u,if 
 
 
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 cr £Z1ZAB£TS Yir~t, 
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 JÚÍtsJ OF BjUXIXTTOBSSR, 
 _ GrJ.CS Or GrAC£cZ2£Z>. 
 
On Mary Grace, al. Galway, of Lota-House, the wife of the first 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 
 Here lyeth the body of 
 
 Mrs. Mary Grace, 
 
 Late wife of 
 
 Michael Grace, esq., of Gracefield, 
 
 She was 
 
 Religious without ostentation, 
 
 Pious without hypocrisy, 
 
 Friendly without flattery, 
 
 To the distressed, a support, 
 
 To the orphans, a mother : 
 
 In her life attended with many blessings, 
 
 Her death with many tears. 
 
 She was 
 
 Faithful to her husband, 
 
 Tender to her children, 
 
 Forgiving to her enemies. 
 
 O passenger ! how soon thou shalt resemble her 
 
 In her mortal parts 
 
 God knows ! 
 
 Do thou labour to resemble her 
 
 In that which is immortal. 
 
 She lived, she died, she ran the happy race, 
 
 She won the glorious prize — immortal peace. 
 
 She died November the 28th, A. D. 1736, in the 55th year of her age. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
On the 1st. Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, al. Shanganagh. 
 
 Here lyes the body of Oliver Grace, late of Shanganagh, Esq., 
 who departed this life on the 8th day of June, 1708, and in the 
 47th year of his age. 
 Infra virtutes, sed supra conspice nomen ; 
 
 Concordant blando nomine facta viri. 
 Integer atque pius, sponsae sobolique benignus, 
 Candidus in cunctos, sponte remotus erat. 
 
 Grace- Mausoleum. 
 
 On the 1st. Michael Grace, of Gracefield, and on his wife, 
 Mary Galway, of Lota- House. 
 
 Michaeli Grace, viro moribus intaminato, 
 Charitate repleto, pietate eximio, 
 
 Qui vixit annos 78, ob. 1760, 
 
 Et Maria? conjugi, marito fideli, 
 
 Natis exemplari, Deo devotissimae, 
 
 Quae vixit annos 55, ob. 1736, 
 
 Parentibus bene merentibus, Oliverius, 
 
 Filius natu maximus, hoc Marmor 
 
 Posuit. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 On Frances Grace, al. Walker, the 1st. wife of John 
 Grace, of the Grange. 
 
 Here lies the body of Madam Frances Walker, widow of 
 Colonel Thomas Dalzell, and late wife unto John Grace, Esq., 
 who departed this life the 26th day of July, in the five and thir- 
 tieth year of her age, and in the year of our Lord 1709. 
 Qui vagus obscurum fidei sectaris, ad urnam 
 Francescae accedas ; inspice, lumen habes : 
 In tumulo lucet cunctis, quo luxit in orbe 
 Lumen, et aetherea lucet in arce Deo. 
 
 Grace- Mausoleum. 
 
 On the 2nd. Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, and on his wife, 
 Mary Dowell, of Mantua- House. 
 
 Here lies the body of Mrs. Mary Grace, 
 
 Late wife of 
 
 Oliver Grace, Esq., 
 
 Who departed this life 
 
 The 14th day of November, 1765, in the 55th year of her age. 
 
 Also the body of 
 
 Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, Esq., 
 
 Who departed this life 
 
 The 24th day of August, 1781, in the 77th year of his age. 
 
 May they rest in peace ! 
 
 Amen. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum, 
 
Mirr. mrAiF. i;, Chkace OF 
 
 SON OF 0LT7EB. GSA^E.AITD OS 
 
 OB. /765 
 i Safe 
 
 g GRACEIIELB) E S «J f 
 Uart-Dovszz of J&uv-FO-Aironxi 
 'Ml SO 
 
^^££^^ 
 
 
 :i?®7 . 
 
On the Ind. Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 
 D. O. M. 
 
 Memoriae sacrum 
 
 Michaelis Grace de Gracefield in hoc comitatu armigeri, 
 
 Oliverii Grace armigeri filii et haeredis, 
 
 Qui 
 Ob eximium, quo in literis cum veteribus 
 Turn recentioribus, versatus est, studium, 
 Mirum animi candorem, 
 Singularem morum suavitatem, 
 Illibatam pectoris integritatem, 
 Sinceram erga Deum pietatem, 
 Extitit 
 Spectatissimus. 
 Non minus dilectus vixit quam desideratus decessit. 
 Natus est apud Gracefield a. r>. m.dcc.xxxv, 
 Uxorem duxit a. d. m.dcc.lxv, 
 Denatus est apud Eblanam die Aug. xxv. 
 Et in hoc sacrario 
 i°. die Sep. a. d. m.dcc.lxxxv, 
 Sepultus est. 
 Desine memiseris, conjux, deflere querelis ; 
 
 Fatorum leges nil revocare potest : 
 Non bona facta, fides, non connubialia jura — 
 Certa manent omnes fata " memento mori." 
 
 On Mary Grace, al, Plunket, of Dunsoghly Castle, the wife of 
 the 2nd. Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 
 D. O. M. 
 
 Memoriae sacrum 
 
 Mariae Grace Alias et cohaeredis Nicholai Plunket 
 
 De castello Dunsoghly in comitatu Eblanensi armigeri, 
 
 Et viduae Michaelis Grace de Gracefield in hoc comitatu armigeri, 
 
 Quas 
 
 Erga egentes maxima charitate, 
 
 Amicos summa probitate, 
 
 Parentes singulari pietate 
 
 Conjugem fidelissimo amore, 
 
 Deum insigni cultu, 
 
 Extitit 
 
 Spectatissima. 
 
 Sic, fide integra et christianis virtutibus praedita, 
 
 Et, ccelo jam matura, decessit. 
 
 Nata est apud castellum de Dunsoghly A. d. m.dgc.xxxiv, 
 
 Nupta est A. d. m.dcc.lxv, 
 
 Denata est apud Eblanam die Oct. ix, 
 
 Et in hoc sacrario 
 
 XVI°. die Oct. A. D. M.DCC.XCVII, 
 
 Sepulta est. 
 Te sequor, conjux ! etenim mors janua vitas est ; 
 
 Te sequor, et mortis carpo libenter iter. 
 Pax, socialis amoT, pietas quoque nostra fuere : 
 Sic regna ambobus sint patefacta Dei. 
 Amoris et desiderii perpetuum hoc monumentum amantissima 
 filia unica ac hasres posuit Alicia. 
 
 Grace- Mausoleum. 
 

 AlT-TCTi A ,ID> ATiTCTITB 1R AIOD 1HTTF. F1H! *Q>TF 
 juhd or ZúixxjpLmJZET of Duusocslt 
 Son of Ifroms JSívíwagb 
 
 VZVENS 
 
 MBCBL&EL GRACE ©If GRA(CEIIEIL© 9 
 
 CJSTZZ.téáRRIZD TGMGRQAN2ÉIRD 
 
 of Bosxzs&otjseEsqC 
 
CASE 
 
 SMEIDTF 
 
 
 5AUE8 0PTHE CRE8T8. ^§< 
 
 1 KavatuijJL i Grrtfr. .3 &ii?lfT. 4 SheEltiti. .J FliutXvf. 
 7ÍAMES OF THK OV ART ERIN GS, 
 
 THElDEOTBR. SHIEED, 
 JCavan/rjh . e/ 'Starts. 
 THE SlOTSTJER SHIEliBj, 
 í.-Bu&rMLm? CtJurj 7.Dvwt7l ' .frfMantu-aJfmet / 
 
 ^FHc-Tabidt^ > Lc*&Vpf,trífier?/ 6. ShtffiJJ/lii&fcfRvJángíum, 9. Gm<rfath,Fii*t\l 
 
 andHJe. 
 
 n$y./ 
 

Par- Jtety. sgass ?o~xn . 
 
 JAMBS ^_- — .^^ FIRS 
 7-a-jv .t.-i >j- ^£KT ^ ojufísmjxD ass&zys 
 
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 OB-J6SS/- 
 
 ^ÚIVTZ OF JLGTt>y ■ 
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 &QFZ£W. 
 
 BincTUEUR. ,^9PW IB^jaiLjDF OSSWYIo&o 
 
 gZ-D.OP ZRJ2!Z7?Z>, 
 
 TEJ3lEST<3f.Q&IX { 
 
 OB.JB80. 
 
 S02T ÚFJXMESI- BW&- OF ORKOfflm z. <?■ 
 
 >lj emu* oFmmsDE&n. of desmcxd . 
 
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 CB&MZttOR OF TEE U&ZVERSFTmS OF OXFORD/^ 
 d. COMMANDER I?r CSJEF OF MX TKS BWTZS&FQ& 
 JtFZD OF AMELIA F&S 
 
 OS /3t5, 
 
 Ro6 Grave fc 
 
 CBS Br SEA 3£WZ>,SQlfOF-mS3iIáSEáJtI.QrQSS0F&X.G. 
 %jj SAP OFB££nmW£ART 
 
 ST.*. 
 
WALTE.R BUTXJEK, 
 
 MARQUESS OP OlRS-JOIiBE. 
 1818. 
 


 James "«'Cs.BxtiasFoai) jButteeel itixb 
 ASD25I&52) csms buhehqf mELmr>: 
 
 jtí/D OF láE7/WF- Wj&HESFOm, DA&S2TER 
 
 ftth.-&m.tc.liziA, 
 
 iT&^VJ-i 3.*,3LL C7 23iCCT^3& QSSCS^S.:?, 
 
3l^ 
 
 Secgjfd Son or Ozttxr grace' os Grace 
 os fd/f 
 
 ?jvcoRn. 
 
 \~FJ£&3 t ANDaF2£AJeZZ>0WJSJX. OF MdJTTUA 
 Jj£t 76 
 
 Facta? 
 

On John Dowell Grace, of Mantua-House, 2d Son of the 2d Oliver 
 Grace, of Gracefield; and on his wife, Mary Hussey, of Ardimore. 
 
 A • 1! - A* 
 
 CINERIBVS. ET. MEMORY 
 
 JOHANNIS. DOWELL. GRACE. DE. MANTVA. IN. HAC. PROVINCIA 
 
 FILII. NATV. MINORIS. OLIVERH GRACE. DE. GRACEFIELD 
 
 IN. AGRO. REGINa;. 
 
 QV1. JVVENIS. ADHVC. MILITIA. DEDITVS 
 
 ET. TVRM.E. EQVITViM. WIRTEMBERGENSIVM. PRJJFECTVS 
 
 SVB. DVCIBVS. AVSTRUCIS 
 
 BELLVM CONTRA. GERMANOS. ATQ.VE. TVRCAS. INFERENTIBVS 
 
 MVLTA. CVM. LAVDE. MERVIT 
 
 IN. SECVND1S. TEMPERATVS. IN. ADVERSIS. NON. SVBMISSVS 
 
 ERGA. SODALES. COMIS. IN. AMICOS. FIDVS 
 
 INDOLE. SVAV1SSIMA 
 
 VIXIT. A. LXXV 
 
 MORBO. D1VTVRNO. FRACTVS. AT. NON. ANIMI. VICTVS 
 
 VII. KAL. MAII.+ A. C. MDCCCXI 
 
 SVPREMVM. DIEM. PLACIDISSIME. OBIIT 
 
 ET 
 
 VNA. CVM. CONJVGE. DILECTISSIMA. ET. INTEGERRIMA 
 
 MARIA 
 
 PATRIC1I. HVSSEY. DE. ARDIMORE. IN. AGRO. KERR1ENSI 
 
 FILIA. ET. COILEREDE 
 
 aV^E. VITA. EXCESSIT. VII. ID. NOVEMBRIS % A. C. MDCCCXIX MT. LVU 
 
 HOC. SEPVLCHRO. TVMVLATVS. JACET. 
 
 OLIVERIVS. FIL1VS. VNICVS 
 
 MARMOR. HOC. OPTIMIS. PARENT1BVS. FOSVIT 
 
 A. C. MDCCCXX 
 
 AVETE. PLE. AN1MJ2. PACE. CONQVIESCAT1S. 
 
 Tulsk-Abbey, co. of Roscommon. 
 
 • Christo Alpha et Omega; scilicet, Cliristo primo et ultimo. 
 
 + An S licé,25ofApril. t Anglicé, 7 of November. 
 
_ 
 O 
 
 b 
 
 o 
 
 Id 
 «a 
 hi 
 
 P 
 H 
 
Rct.Grí^/r.L.md, 
 
 3 UTTER JOHN" BOWEIX. GRACE 
 
 SOIT QF JOHN DOWRLL GBACB A&D 
 
 TTPENS 
 
 OVWAtTTUA. HOH7SE ES<J? 
 
 os lúxrZvssEr qfabdmose 
 
 2320. 
 
Sob C~rrn.icj.ani. 
 
 A&n or C4T7?A* mm Frrz- 
 J2ZD Ttttt WZFS OF OZZPSR JOBS' 
 
 Sir bsch&rb IOmcleBart 
 
 -GERiED OF FVirCSá&S GRA&CE 
 DOWELL GRACE OT2S£UTUJ. S'OTZSE 
 7820. 
 

On Frances-Mary Grace, al. Nagle of Jamestown, the wife of 
 Oliver John Dowell Grace, of Mantua-House. 
 
 A & -ft 
 
 MEMORIAL ■ SACRVM 
 
 FRANCESCO • MARIjE • FILItf! • RICARDI • NAGLE 
 
 DE • JAMESTOWN • IN • COMITATV WESTMEATH • BARONETTI 
 
 CONJVGIS ■ OL1VERII ■ JOHANNIS ■ DOWELL- GRACE 
 
 DE • MANTVA • LN • HOC • COMITATV ■ ARMIGERI 
 
 H«C • MVLIERVM ■ OPTIMA 
 
 STOL3E • HIBERNIC2E • DECVS 
 
 COMIS • BENIGNA • SOLERS ■ PRVDENS 
 
 PIETATIS • AMICITIiE • BENEFICENTLE 
 
 OFFICII • CONJVGAL1S • ANIMI • MATERNI 
 
 FAVENTE ■ DEO ■ POSTERIS • EXEMPLVM • PR.3EBVIT 
 
 VTXIT • A • XXXIV • M • I V ■ D • XIV 
 
 DECESSIT • APVD • SOVTHAMPTON • KAL • JVNII • A • JUDCUCXXV11I 
 
 ET • IN • C02METERIO ■ PAROCHL92 ■ S • JACOBI 
 
 JVXTA • PORTAM • OCCIDENTALEM • WTNTONIE 
 
 IN • SPE • MELIORIS ■ VIT^ • REQVEJSCIT 
 
 FILIITRES- JOHANNES • RICARDVSRAYMVNDVS ■ CVM- SORORE ■ MARIA 
 
 SVPERSTITES • MATREM ■ DEFLENT • PR.ESTANTISSIMAM 
 
 OLIVERIVS • MARITVS • MCEREKS • VXORI • SV.2E • DESIDERATISSIM.S: 
 
 QVACVM • FELICITER ■ VTXIT ■ A • VIII ■ M ■ VIII ■ D • XXVIII 
 
 H- M- P 
 CARA • VALE ■ FRANCESCA • VALE • FIDISSIMA • CONJVX 
 
 NATARVM • MATRVM • GLORIA CARA • VALE 
 
 INTEGRITAS VIRTVS ■ PIETAS • DECVS • OMNE ■ VENVSTAS 
 FORMA • TViE • DOTES • INTEMERATA ■ FIDES 
 FORMADECVSTANTVM • PERIERE PERITQVE -VENVSTAS 
 PANDVNT ■ AD -CCELOS- CiETEEA -SOLA- VI AM 
 FORMA DECVSPLACVEREVffiOPLACVITQVEVENVSTAS 
 VIRTVS • S. TE RNO -NVNC -PLACET -VN A -DEO. 
 
 Tv.Uk Abbey, near Mantua House, in the co. of Roscommon. 
 
TRANSLATIOX. 
 
 On Frances-Mary Grace, al. Nagle of Jamestown, the wife of 
 Oliver John Dowell Grace, of Mantua-House. 
 
 a-^ . a 
 
 Sacred to the memory 
 
 Of Frances Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Nagle, 
 
 Of Jamestown, in the county of Westmeath, Baronet ,- 
 
 And wife of Oliver Johu Dowell Grace, 
 
 Of Mantua House, in this county, Esquire. 
 
 This best of women 
 
 Was distinguished among the matrons of Ireland 
 
 For courtesy, benignity, discretion, and wisdom ; 
 
 And left, through divine favour, an example to her descendants 
 
 Of piety, friendship, charity, 
 
 Conjugal duty, and maternal love. 
 
 She lived thirty-four years, four months, and fourteen days; 
 
 And dying at Southampton, on the first of June, 1828, 
 
 Rests, in hope of a blessed existence, 
 
 In the ccemetery of Saint James 1 Parish, 
 
 Near the West-gate of the City of Winchester. 
 
 Her three sons, John, Richard, and Raymond, with their sister Mary, 
 
 Survive to mourn for their excellent mother. 
 
 Oliver, her afflicted husband, erects this monument 
 
 To his most fondly lamented wife, 
 
 With whom he lived happily 8 years, 8 months, and 88 days. 
 
 Adieu, dear Frances ! thou of wives most true, 
 Of daughters, mothers, best — dear love adieu ! 
 Virtue was thine, the purple bloom of youth, 
 And grace, and elegance, and steadfast truth : 
 That grace, that elegance, that purple bloom, 
 Have faded, withered, vanished in the tomb. 
 But not thy virtues, nor thy truth have flown, 
 They live to waft thee to the heav'nly throne: 
 Those were thy husband's joy, his fond delight : 
 But these have placed thee in the realms of light. 
 
 Tulsk Abbey, near Mantua~House, in the co. of Roscommon. 
 
Over the Entrance to the sepulchral building in the Cwmetery of St. James' 
 Parish, near the West gate of the City of Winchester, in Hampshire, 
 which contains the accompanying Epitaph to the memory of Mrs. Grace. 
 
 OLIVERIVS • JOHANNES • DOWELL • GRACE 
 
 DE ■ MANTVA • IN • COM ■ ROSCOMMON ■ ARMIG 
 
 CONJVGI ■ SV& • ET • SVIS 
 
 F'C 
 
 MDCCCXXVIII 
 
 On Frances-Mary Grace, at Nagle of Jamestown, the wife of 
 Oliver John Dowell Grace, of Mantua-House- 
 
 A.-i.-il* 
 
 HIC ■ SITA • EST 
 
 FRANCESCA- MARIA • GRACE ■ RICARDI • NAGLE 
 
 DE -JAMESTOWN • IN • COMITATV • WESTME ATH • BARONETTI • FILIA 
 
 OLIVERII • JOHANNIS ■ DOWELL • GRACE 
 
 DE ■ MANTVA ■ IN • COM • ROSCOMMON • ARMIGERI ■ VXOR • AMANTISSIM A 
 
 EXTREMVM- -mm ■ SPIRITVM • D • O ■ SALVATORI LIBENTER ■ REDDIDIT 
 
 APVD • SOVTHAMPTON ■ KAL • JVNII • A • MDCCCXXVIII 
 
 ACTIS • ffiTATIS • SUM ■ A ■ XXXIV • M • IV D • XJ V 
 
 MATREM ■ PIETATE- AMICITIA • PRVDENTIA • CONSPICVAM 
 
 ATQVE ■ OMNIBVS ■ FERE • ANIMI • DOTEBVS • PR/EDITAM 
 
 JOHANNES ■ RICARDVS ■ RAYMVNDVS ■ FUJI • ET • MARIA ■ FILIA 
 
 ADEMPTAM • LACRYMIS ■ PROSEQ.WNTVR 
 
 IN ■ PERPETVAM • MEMORIAM 
 
 FC3MIN* • TAM • HARM ■ ET • VXORIS • TAM • PERDILECTa: 
 
 QVACVM • SVMMA ■ FELICITATE • PER ■ A ■ VHT • M • VTET- D -XXVIII • VIXIT 
 
 OLrvERrvs • maritvs • mierentissimvs 
 
 HOC • SEPVLCHRVM D-D 
 VALE • AMICARVM ■ FIDELISSIMA • IN • PACE • QVESSCAS 
 
 PARCITE • FRANCESCO • ME A ■ PIGNORA ■ CHARA • PARENTIS 
 
 FLERE • Pim, ■ SORTEM PARCITE • FLERE • SCELVS 
 
 HVC • ETENIM • VENIT • SVPREMI ■ VT ■ JVSSA • FACESSAT 
 PATRIS • CONFECTIS • QVEIS • REVOCATA • MIGRAT 
 PVRIOR • HIS ■ MISERIS ■ QVAMVTLONGIVS -ESSET' IN- ORIS 
 DIGNIOR • «THEREAS • VT • PETAT • MQ.VA ■ DOMOS 
 VTDEVS • IPSE ■ DEDIT ■ REVOCAT • DEVS ■ IPSE ' LOCATQ.VE 
 SANCTAM • INTER • SANCTOS • NYMEN • IN • ARCE • POLL 
 
 Ccemetery of St. James* Parish, near Winchester, in Hampshire. 
 
 * Christo Alpha et Omega ; scilicet, Chiisto primo et ultimo. 
 
TRANSLATION. 
 
 Over the Entranceto the sepulchral building in the Ccemetery of St. James' 
 
 Parish, near the West-gate of the City of Winchester, in Hampshire, 
 
 which contains the accompanying Epitaph to the memory of Mrs. Grace. 
 
 Oliver John Dowell Gi-ace, 
 
 Of Mantua House, in the co. of Roscommon, Esq. 
 
 Erected this building 
 
 For his Wife and Family, 
 
 1828. 
 
 On Frances Mary Grace, al. Nagle of Jamestown, the wife of 
 Oliver John Dowell Grace, of Mantua-House. 
 
 A-í 'Q* 
 
 Here lies 
 Frances Mary Grace, the daughter of Sir Richard Nagle, 
 
 Of Jamestown, in the county of Westmeath, Baronet ; 
 
 And the affectionate wife of Oliver John Dowell Grace, 
 
 Of Mantua-House, in the co. of Roscommon, Esq. 
 
 She submissively resigned her spirit, into the hands of her Saviour, 
 
 At Southampton, on the 1st of June, 1828, 
 
 Having lived thirty-four years, four months, and fourteen days. 
 
 Her sons John, Richard, and Raymond, and her daughter Mary, 
 
 Bewail with tears a lost Mother, 
 
 Eminent for piety, for friendship, and for prudence, 
 
 And endowed with almost every mental accomplishment. 
 
 Oliver, her most sorrowful husband, 
 
 Dedicates this sepulchre, 
 
 To the perpetual memory 
 
 Of a woman so rare, and of a wife so beloved, 
 
 With whom he enjoyed the greatest felicity for 8 years, 8 months, & 28days. 
 
 Farewell ! thou truest of Friends, mayst thou rest in peace ! 
 
 Forbear, my children, thus to droop forlorn, 
 With ceaseless tears your sainted loss to mourn ; 
 An angel parent cannot these approve, 
 Ye dearest pledges of my Frances' love. 
 On earth she came her Father's will to do, 
 That duty well fulfilled to heav'n she flew ; 
 Too pure below with sinful man to stay, 
 Prepar'd for mansions of eternal day ; 
 Her Saviour call'd her to the blest abode; 
 And God hath taken e'en as God bestow'd. 
 
 Ccemetery of St. James' Parish, near Winchester, in Hampshire. 
 
 * To Christ the Alpha and the Omega, that is, To Christ the beginning and the end 
 
FnFTÍTÍI i!: l!H v ',:,j!n |M!i|! 
 1 iJiri ■' :'!i 
 
 
B.(-rKFeJt . London. 
 
 T-. V . T-T ,-■ liT - .j; ' i, '.LATiTd atirirMR AND IK HUB* 
 ■4^23 GF aTHuT 23AUSS2IER. M>Z> HfiUJi 
 A2TD TBE H2Z2" OF TUOLáJm 
 OS.JWS 
 
 ÍWE 1 lOBF'GitArE OF X^S. (Tj-íííAÍTGjSj. 
 QFJOHIf GRACE OF ZSQMASTOWN , 
 
 'éXOJT OF DSXCSWOitHIBUBT. 
 
 j£T. 70- 
 
Wmm 
 
 Roh . Get&t .í*ci!p.Cona . 
 
 ^ $2f CF HTCSXRD ÚdMOIT OT 
 
 ELIZABETH GRACE 
 
 CBJS18 
 
 MJP a iFORWMCHESTEE, 
 PATCEWOIÍLTHTÍtffi? AND OT 
 ÚFIBE GRANC-E. 
 
B ali.tr. , p~- i-T-i jsnn ■ 
 
 Ríbcrc Crt.™ fcaty 
 
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 Air Of AT&OZ., MAJtRZSD TO 
 3CP. FOR. TVTATC&JZSTEIi.. 
 

/' ^/a-m^n- ^tízt/o- 
 
 J\f.P. FOR WZXCOESTER . 
 
 1796. 
 
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 flTA/ty Z<1fí7? 
 
 OF CKÁNZ>OS,J&D OF 
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 1777. ' 
 
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 "Robert Cr-wi^ (T;]uLp , 
 
 S/W OF vEORÚE FlkSJ'MAmmTS O? Bl'GKWGWKKG . 
 WROBRKT FIRST JMBXIWGEVT. 
 
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 TR-íTTtTíA\fR-m JPJLAKTAGE^E T fiKKBT", 
 SOy OF FICBARD l.DUZB OF BVCKfrrGmM <£ 
 CQ-rnz rRTT.n OT u 'jímes TJLLRT< 
 
 Robert Gra.ve fculp 
 
 ^TQLKE s liCAJft <U TDTT S 03F CJHTAJ5" JUT© S , 
 CSÉM>OS K.&, &QF LADY AWAJSUZA FRXD6ES. 
 DUKE OF CHAJTbOS,MIX2 STEWARD . 
 
i r : : , 
 
 Zszrw Saw or Míqsazl \ 
 
 A7fZ> OF ALiMZ- 
 
 &3ACE Or &RACEF1 
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 SZCCITD S&raFfflLZlAig GR£C£f*&0-KA5 SEHB ■ \1 a cnitrnr Aftrrycr. /7»a.-c nclTrmmrrrrp^ 
 
On William Grace, 3d. Son of the 1st. Michael Grace, of 
 
 Gracejield, and on his wife, Mary Harford, of Marshfeld, 
 
 and also on John Grace, their 2d. Son. 
 
 D. O. M. 
 
 Memoriae dicatum 
 Guillelmi Grace armigeri, tertii filii Michaelis Grace de 
 Gracefield in hoc comitatu armigeri, qui ex antiqua Gracaeorum 
 gente de Ballylinch Castello in Agro Kilkenniensi ortus fuit. 
 Apud Londinum xxm°. die Novembris, a.d. m.dcc.lxxvii 
 obiit, atque in cemeterio ecclesise de Sancto iEgidio in campis 
 
 sepultus est. 
 
 Memorias quoque dicatum 
 
 MariasGrace,filiae nátu maximae et demum haeredis RicardiHarford 
 
 de Marshfield prope Eblanam armigeri, viduae ejusdem Guillelmi. 
 
 Apud Londinum ilia etiam x°. die Aprilis, a.d. m.dco.xcix obiit; 
 
 atque in eodemloco,quo requievit conjuxejus,terrae mandabatur. 
 
 Duo filii et una filia conjugium hocce beaverunt. 
 
 Bicardus Grace filius natu maximus, et haeres, Janam, hono- 
 
 rabilis Johannis Evans de Aula-Bulgaden, in comitatu Limeri- 
 
 censi, filiam, neptemque Georgii Baronis Carbery in matrimo- 
 
 nium accepit a.d. m.dcc.lxxxt. Johannes Grace, filius alter, 
 
 Marescallo Comiti celeberrimo de Lacy, cognato suo, castrensis 
 
 adjutor constitutus, prima, pro Germaniae Imperatore belligerens, 
 
 stipendia meruit ; mox ipso Imperatore Josepho secundo nomi- 
 
 nante, ejus satellitum cohorti praefectus est : deinde contra Tur- 
 
 cas insigni virtute se gessit ; et ad Belgradi obsidionem, Princi- 
 
 pem de Anhalt-Coethen, tanquam ejus castrensis adjutor, comi- 
 
 tatus est. Ibi xxxi°. die Octobris, a.d. m.dcc.lxxxix, 
 
 astatis suae xxix . (uxore nunquam ducta) obiit, atque apud 
 
 Semlin inhumatus est. Clara-Louisa Grace unica filia, Guillel- 
 
 mo Middelton de Vivario-Stockeld in comitatu Eboracensi armi- 
 
 gero nupsit a.d. m.dcc.lxxxii. 
 
 Quis jacet hie ? nemo : tumulum sine corpore 1 cernis ; 
 
 Herois cineres terra remota tegit. 
 Heu ! procul a patria Crassi sunt ossa locata 
 Magnaniini ; at signant laurea serta locum. 
 Laurea serta locum signant, quairrupit in hostes, 
 Pannoniámque* ferox sanguine tinxit humum. 
 Hác tamen in terra (si fas, hác sponte jaceret) 
 
 Mnemosyne Heroi surgere busta jubet : 
 Quae, licet externa longé tumuletur in orá, 
 
 iEternant memori carmine facta viri. 
 Hinc, procul hinc, ipsi vitam posuere parentes, 
 
 Quorum relliquias non sua terra tenet. 
 Attamen extremas cum mors adduceret horas, 
 
 O, quoties patriae cor cruciavit amor ! 
 O, quoties caros exoptavere penates ! 
 Aut saltern in ccelo visere posse suos. 
 
 Grace- Mausoleum. 
 
 ' Hoc est, cenotaphium. 2 Anglicé, " Hungary, Servia," &c. 
 
y piu.1762. At, MtZl ■ 
 
 Rob.Crair, Ccnlpt London.. 
 
 BCHABB GKACE 
 Jky «f Rtoriur CR-icEffiao ws tjurd 
 
 A-VD OT AÍ&RT BARTOnD OF 
 
 GB.2802. 
 
 11 P<!Mr®i<jCflrS.®Y. KAT/.ISXTM S 
 
 OF B0HEV EsqjfMP. 
 Mabsjieiecd xziutjjvsrm. 
 
 i ftvT* 1 
 
KICTLAM» GjRACE 
 
 J1XO OP AfaJiS' itkiZFOMZI OF 
 OB. Iff 01. 
 
 OF B OlEY E$0?M.R 
 Sa/r OFMzcKaEL Grace cf Gsacstieid) 
 
 
EIS nATEPA 'ArAIIHTON 'PIXAPJON KPAXXON, 
 
 TA«ENTA 'EN Til. TflN KPAIIilN KOIMHTHPIil, 
 Til. 'EN "APAE2IN. 
 fl u.v%u.' apycdov Kpáo~o-wv, d> haive ruu.@s, 
 
 Og 8íj (roig Oa.hau.ois ínrsM^ao Tr\sio-ra xau-óvrwv 
 £<ou.aT eu.wv 7rpoyóvwv, t&v oo~raa 7rúQsTai íj'&j 
 ' Av So/Aov eupaoevra vsxpwv tv ayaKu.ara xsirai, 
 'AhTC ob Twv irporepcov <pi}]U.' oúSéfcc tvjSe xexpv$6ai 
 Kpeuro-ovot too 'u.oti Trarpog au.vu.ovog, bv "huxafiavra 
 Ts<ro-apaxoo~Tov ayovra xarexravs Molpa xparatr], 
 Nrp^g' oúo ayaQwv irep eóvraiv ^Js/oWa* Aíhag' 
 
 Og tots BaofxaT evaisv £uo~TS<pávco Iv 'Iipvy, 
 'Ev Sij/aío T(S 7rsp Bao~ ihto-o-yg ouvou? sÚsvto, 
 3eivoho%, evTsp7rr), xa) TroXXaxi ^óo-xev aT^rrj 
 Oo-Tig o\ ctí'tou xe%pYju.évog s\g dóu-ov eXfloi" 
 Tovg t a<pl\oug e(pfaei, xa) yeirotriv %v u-ky ovBtap, 
 JIa.0-1 TTspixTtóvso-o-iv arspiréa htu-ov au.vva)V, 
 Oijío<púXa£ ayaQog, TriTrog <pl"kog, eo-faog axolr-r^g. 
 Ou8s 7T0T a.pj(og ewv <rxo\iag sZlxa^s úéu-io-Tag, 
 AaTí au oypiv ts xaxi\v xai vs,xe aQjipet 
 Ka) TroXhovg irpovrpeityev uu-eivova u,r)Tiáao~Qai, 
 Hoy 6pivou.evovg xa) Tev%sa yspo~)v e%0VTag, 
 Hu-ari t<S ots §7) VTao-ig su-ttsos "huyp slo\i7ot 
 H, iraTplff, iu.<puhwv ts u.a%wv xaxog wpro xu$oiu.og. 
 Ou8l fi.iv atyuoyyov /3oiA£utt)V ootf lirixsp^ri 
 "E"KKaj(sv »J Bovhr] Ilavispvswv, áXTi' ayopvjTriv 
 'Eo-QTíov, xa) <p<Xo8vjj(Aov, '/§' 'i^oya u.io~07róvrjpov, 
 'Io-óvou-ov o-7T£ÚhovTa (piKyv 7rois7<rúat 'lspvrjv. 
 
 uo oy aTTsip-t)Tog cro<ptrjg irspt yap pa u-ív avvog 
 IlaiBstag y\uxsp7\g ^hospotg <rTe<pávoi(ri TsQrp^ei' 
 0<r<ra r eirío-rao-úai XPW Bu reOpau-U-svov avhpa 
 H$ssv, aXhoO^ómv wv 'ldu-wv s%o%a yhwcro-wv. 
 Xa7qí U.01, to xárep sa-QXe, xa) eiv 'Aíbao Bóu.oio-t, 
 OúSs 7tot du.v^u.(ov treó y e<r<rou.at, oúS' sv ovslpto' 
 ^sc^cpsiASof Tra'&oov u.ko~arog rpio-o-áov TaSs tyoovii. 
 
 'Ev AovSÍVtO, £T6I aCOX' 
 
TO MT FRIT.KD, SHEFFIELD GRACE, 
 Or, reading hU Memoir of his Father, Richard Grace, ofBoley, M.P. 
 
 As o'er thy pages, Grace ! I fondly bend, 
 Where praise and worth in faithful union blend: 
 Where, as attached I read, and now admire 
 The pious son, and now the accomplish' d sire, 
 I glow 5 yet, coveting such rare desert, 
 Sigh for like incense from a filial heart. 
 Vain all the noisy fame the world can give 
 In a son's praise the good would wish to live. 
 
 Where shall we find the man, bv Heaven avow'd 
 The first and happiest 'mid the human crowd: 
 Round whom, as victor in the mortal race, 
 Expecting angels hover to embrace ? 
 Say, shall we seek him in the glare of courts, 
 Where gay Corruption with her smile resorts? 
 Say, on the field of carnage is he shown, 
 Where the one glories as the thousand groan: 
 Say, shall we find him on the rosy bed, 
 Where Pleasure's sons repose the listless head: 
 ]So ! there he stands — applaud him, as ye must I 
 Wise, active, mild, beneficent, and just: 
 True to the kindness of the Almighty's plan, 
 The zealous minister of good to man. 
 Fonn'd on the soil of grorgeous courts to shine, 
 Tet pleased, sweet Privacy ! to walk on thine ; 
 Taught by his bosom's God that good is great, 
 He wooes calm glory in the middle state : 
 And, passion-free, above each meaner end, 
 Lives the dear consort, father, patriot, friend : 
 Careless of power or fortune's golden store, 
 But to controll the bad, or raise the poor; 
 To these, as soft as morning's pearlv tear, 
 To those o'erwhelming" as the storm's career. 
 No slave to parry, foe to partial laws ; 
 Just to the sov' reign's and the people's cause, 
 He stands aloft in virtue's power array'd; 
 And factions shrink beneath his eye dismav'd. 
 Even wild Rebellion, by oppression bred, 
 Blood on her hands and phrenzy in her head, 
 
2 
 
 Pauses to hear his voice ; and at his word 
 Unfolds her grasp, and drops the murd'rous sword : 
 The steel, reform'd, the ploughshare's bend resumes ; 
 And earth once more beneath its culture blooms. 
 
 Such is the man, most favour' d of his kind, 
 Who, strong from virtue — rich in wealth of mind ; 
 High in himself — too high to be depress'd, 
 Or raised by kings ; and, as he blesses, bless'd ; 
 Lives honour'd and beloved ; and, when he dies, 
 Is bathed by thousands in the dew of eyes. 
 Can chiefs or monarch; vie their state with his : 
 Their blood-stain'd glories or their feverish bliss ? 
 With the rich, steady sunshine of his breast, 
 Can Pleasure's fools their meteor-joys contest ? 
 With the pure current of his days compare 
 Their life's foul stream of riot and of care ; 
 Their youth of vanity, their age of pain, 
 Their single hour that laughs,— their twenty that complain "'. 
 
 Such is the man, my Grace ! thy hand pourtrays, 
 Now in true grandeur spurning mortal praise. 
 Yet, if from heaven to earth his eye can rove, 
 To see this offering of his Sheffield's love ; 
 Blameless he still one human joy may know ; 
 And the rapt father in the seraph glow. 
 
 CHARLES SYMMOjNS.' 
 Chiswick, 1823. 
 
 • See p. 35 of Memoir. 
 
Rabrrt; Grave Sculp' 
 
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 vx CASTLE -FSUSKE LIBRAR.Y.MDCCCVH. >\ 
 
JJtRW. Batugmteb. of 
 
 . . VZGAO.S.IT J£lZZ,j£2fZ> .flf 
 
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CASH 
 
 ^s 
 
 shelf 
 
 ^ 
 
 1700 r 
 
 J/90 
 
 -y 
 
On Richard Grace, ofBoley, M. P., Son of William Grace, who was 3d Son of 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 
 A • £. • . ÍX 
 
 HIC. CONDITI. SVNT. CINERES 
 
 RICARDI. GRACE. DE. BOLEY 
 
 GVLIELMI. GRACE. FILII. ET. MICHAEL1S. GRACE. DE. GRACEFIELD 
 
 IN. HAC. PROV1NCIA. NEPOTIS 
 
 V1RI. PROSAPIA. LLLVSTRIS. FORMA. ET. ORE. VENVSTI 
 
 INGENIO. ACR1S. NATVRA. M1TISS1MI 
 
 TOTVM. FERE. ORBEM. ARTIVM. PERAGRATJ. 
 
 IN. LINGVIS. DOCTRINA. ET. MORIBVS. HOMINVM. ADMODVM. VERSATI 
 
 QVI. INTEGRITATE. ET. IN. AM1COS. FIDE. SPECTATVS 
 
 OFFICTIS. OMNIBVS 
 
 IN. SENATV. PRO. TRIBVNALI. IN. DOMO 
 
 FELICITER. ABSOLVTIS 
 
 IN. C1VES. ANIMI. PATERNI. NOTVS 
 
 IN. NATOS. ANIMI. PLVSQVAM. PATERNI 
 
 APVD. SOVTHV1LLE. V. ID. IANVARII.' A. C. MDCCC1. OBIIT 
 
 V1XIT. ANNIS. XL. MENSE. I. DIEBVS. X 
 
 HOC MARMOR 
 
 CIV1VM. LACRYMIS. ADHVC. MADE1SS 
 
 FILIUS. NATU. SECDNDDS 
 
 SHEFFIELD. GRACE 
 
 PONENDVM. CVRABAT. A. C. MDCCCXIX 
 AVE. PATER. OPTIME. ET. VALE 
 
 » Auglicé, 9th of January. Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 On Jane Grace, al. Evans, of Bulgaden-Hall, the wife of Rich. Grace, ofBoley. 
 
 a» 3? • a 
 
 SVBTER 
 
 CVM. CONIVGE. D1LECTO. RICARDO. GRACE. DE. BOLEY 
 
 CONSOCIATA. REQ.VTESCIT 
 
 IANA. GRACE 
 
 10AHNIS. EVANS. DE. BVLGADEN. IN. PROVINCIA. LIMERICENSI. FILIA 
 
 ET. GEORGII. BARONIS. DE. CARBERY. NEPT1S 
 
 QV^E. DOTIBVS. EXimiS. CORPORIS. ATGVE. ANIMI. D1TATA 
 
 BLANDA. M1CERICORS. INTEMERATA 
 
 AM1C1S. LIBERIS. VIRO. DEO 
 
 OFFICrVM. FIDEM. PIETATEM 
 
 AMANS. ET. AMATA 
 
 PR^STITIT 
 
 E. VITA. VALETVDINE. IAMPRIDEM. LABORANTE 
 
 SPE. 1MMORTALI. DELINITA. 
 
 PLACIDE. ET. GRADATIM. EBLAN.S:. EXCESSIT 
 
 IX. KAL. APRILIS* AN. R. S. MDCCCIV. JiT. XLÍ 
 
 HOC. MARMOR 
 
 MATRI. BENE. MERENTI 
 
 SHEFFIELD. GRACE 
 
 MEMORI. MENTE. POSVIT 
 
 IANA 
 
 DELICI.E. ET. DESIDERIVM. TVORVM. VALE. 
 
 Anglicé, 24th of March. Grace-Mauschum. 
 
ft M 
 
 M X 
 
 5ER WnULSLlAlt ^,'iW C-RACE BAET. 
 
 Sojfcr Ricwatu) GeaceotBgzetM.'F. 
 
 ■ 
 
 amy GFJj±tf?£vjys os 3czG±£E2f Hail . 
 
Sir William grace Bar* 
 
J 
 
sheffieilidI 
 
 $£coifz> Sour orRici 
 
 mz> of Jake £y;ws.$í 
 
 JVVGHACE EsflJ» TF.SA. 
 
 "R±C£ OFBO ZS2-. M.P. 
 
I 
 
 
S&rfUé$«* <fyJ&P-Z%9-&& 
 
VIRO SPECTATISSIMO 
 
 SHEFFIELD GRACE, 
 
 ARMIGERO, 
 
 DOCTISSIMI ET ORNATISSIMI PATRIS 
 
 ASSECTATORI ET jEMULO, 
 
 NON SOLUM IN ANTIQUIS LITERIS 
 
 ET REBUS AD HISTORIAM PERTINENTIBUS, 
 
 SED ETIAM, 
 
 IN FAVENDO STUDIIS ALIORUM ; 
 
 HAS QUALESCUNQUE ANNOTATIONES 
 
 IN 
 
 JUVENALEM et PERSIUM, 
 
 OB INSIGNEM EJUS 
 
 ETNOIAN et $JAOMOT21AN, 
 
 SUMMA OBSERVANTIA 
 
 D.D.D. 
 D. BAMFIELD HICKIE. 
 
 TO 
 
 SHEFFIELD GRACErEsQ. F.S.A. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING ESSAYS 
 
 ARE INSCRIBED, 
 
 IN TESTIMONY OF HIS PURE TASTE, 
 
 AMIABLE QUALITIES, AND CONSTANT KINDNESS, 
 
 BY HIS ATTACHED AND GRATEFUL FRIEND, 
 
 C. H. SMITH. 
 
Notttta ^tjstortca; 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 TABLES, CALENDARS, 
 
 AND 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
 
 TOR THE VSE OF 
 
 HISTORIANS, ANTIQUARIES, 
 
 LEGAL PROFESSION. 
 
 SFARSA COLLEGI HAUD SINE LABORE. 
 
 BY NICHOLAS HARRIS NICOLAS, Esq. 
 
 OF THE INNER TEMPLE, 
 
 Author of the " Life of William Davison, Secretary of State to 
 Queen Elizabeth, Sc" 
 
 TO 
 
 SHEFFIELD GRACE, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 whose 
 ANTIQUARIAN KNOWLEDGE, LITERARY ATTAINMENTS, 
 
 AND 
 
 CLASSIC TASTE. 
 
 ARE CONSPICUOUSLY DISPLAYED IN HIS SEVERAL 
 ELEGANT PUBLICATIONS, 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 is inscribed; 
 
 IN TESTIMONY OF THE COMPILER'S RESPECT, 
 ESTEEM, AND REGARD. 
 
MsXof 'laúvvov It/Amos 'rfa 'ovrog z-tíi rZ aroofi[^s7f, 
 
 T íl 2éf<pet\e, dyad' e£ dyaQHiv, narépiav ttoíc éodXuif, 
 "'Ocre TroXvíeivov cójiov é'XXn^ec é<r\aru](7i, 
 Ov Qe/xiQ aVi-etrat, fiv^araic, íepov Kara vqov, 
 Xafp' áyavo<ppo(rvvT)Q eveKev, yXvKfptje r évvoíaQ 
 Kat <f>i\íat; trradeprjc, i)v efirrecov etc £fié rr)peic 
 Tliarov éraipeíac oú%u>v TroXvqparov >;9oc 
 'E^ dpyrfQ ore rrpZrrov eKvpaafiev dXXijXoiiy. 
 Tavra <j Iwáyyr)c do~dC,o\iai, ovy_ oaov i/cíj 
 MeXXdH' ík~ XevaeloBai é/iije d—ó rrarpuoQ a'tyg 
 Eí'c xdóva rrjXeca-dv, TaXarHiy rroXiv afyjairdw 
 Aovreríav TroXvoXpoV eyi ce' ae, kÚv d~éti> rrep 
 ^íopfivpTj ce fieraív ftapvurovoq 'A/i^irpírij, 
 Ov \rjiw (piXéwv re rroQÍLv r elc o^iv lcéadai 
 T Q (jjfX' ecavdi reáv rat aov cójiov eiaatyixeoQai 
 
 Síq rórrapoc i:povmv rov aóv rroXvcetjjiov ovr/a. 
 
 Haipe fioi, St Xapírwv yXvxepov <rró/ia, xepTÓfit', elíiiÍQ 
 
 AifivXíoim XoyoMTL neKaiTfieve TroiKtXofiv6oig 
 
 laropiuv o'ifiov ijfiéi' víov rjcé rraXaióv 
 Eu et'Cwc, (piXópipXe, TV—oi(TL Ke^apfieve i:aXoic, 
 Te^yirac (piXeoiv oerig aéo oIkov Íajrxu, 
 Otre tncrjpeíaig aavíceaviv £ti>ypááiK epya 
 KaX arrofidrrovuiv Keyapay fiéva réxrovec cívcpec, 
 <S>tAoTrarop QiXófitjrop, ófiéori dpumjeaaiv, 
 HLoivorpd-e£e fieyurrdywv , vpaicrfiqra rrevíjrviv. 
 Xaipe [íoi, Sl (píX' éralpe, rat ai/rtra rai fieri— etra. 
 
 TvpoK(i)jiíjdei>. — Anglicé, " From Cliisíiids." 
 
id 
 6 
 
 a- ■ 
 
 '/5 -~ < 
 

•rmjm swaF mcBásn 
 am) 0FJZ8E smrs\ 
 
 •a <c&incApr u^the rk, 
 
 GRACE OF L-OLE.Y J£R 
 OFBPZGADEtf-HáEL . 
 
Perct grace, 
 
 • /try,//. I„ ,,, 
 
\ 
 
 Shefpielb 
 
 fSTTRXH SO» OF bClCKAEL 
 
 Aim of Majly 
 
 Ckace es<c>? 
 
 deuCE OF GRAC£FI£L£>. 
 GdLWAY OF LoZA. 
 
ILAgrao^TO^ljKw^ grace e sajk? 
 
 'IZD GRACE ÍVEQWiS FCTstlsWtfi^TA^i SCX GF3£IC3LáEZ &RACF GT GSACI 
 
 AND CFFRAITCES BAGOT cy 
 
 1^1 pi S OTUTTHF. ComrTTOTX>iyBU&: 
 
On Finances Grace al. Bagot of Castk-Bagot, the wife of 
 Sheffield Grace, Esq. 
 
 Nobilis ingenio, mitis, formosa, pudica, 
 
 Francesca, exiguo hie cespite tecta jaces; 
 Sed non tota: — Animus coeli loca laeta petivit ; 
 
 Solvere virtu tis praemia terra nequit. 
 Quicquid amor, sincera fides, pietasque jubebant, 
 
 Sedula fecisti, Filia, Sponsa, Parens. 
 Non luxus tibi mollis amor, non cura decoris ; 
 
 Unica cura Inopes ; et Deus unus amor. 
 Religio flevit, flérunt Virtusque, Pudorque ; 
 Matribus exemplum, Virginibusque decus : 
 Sheffieldus flevit, pangens lacrymabile carmen, 
 
 Quod tibi pepetui pignus amoris erit. 
 ^Eternum fleret, lucis pertsesus et aurae, 
 Flere Deo vivam ni putet esse nefas. 
 Concordes animas Christus revocabit in unum, 
 Pax ubi sancta manet, nee dirimendus amor. 
 
 D. Francesca Grace, alias Bagot, uxor Sheffieldi Grace, 
 obiit die 3 Maii, Anno Domini 1742, aetatis suae 32. 
 
 Grave par Du Plessis, a Rouen. 
 
 Grace- Ma 'tsoleum . 
 
On Sheffield Grace, 4th. Son of the 1st. Michael Grace, of 
 
 Gracefitld. 
 
 D. O. M. 
 
 Hie in pace reqnieseit 
 
 Sheffieldus Grace armiger, nlius, natu minimus, Michaelis 
 
 Grace de Gracefield, in hoc comitatn armigeri, idenique nepos 
 
 Oliverii Grace (primi Rememoratoris Scaccarii in Hibernia, reg- 
 
 nante Jacobo II.) proneposque Guillelmi Grace de Ballybnch- 
 
 Castle in agro Kilkennieusi armigeri : 
 
 Homo indole haud vulgari ; 
 
 Probitate, Prudenria, Beneficentia, 
 
 Et morum suavitate 
 
 Erjitnit : 
 
 Et ob literanun cultum, 
 
 (Hie etenim Musas feliciter excoluit) 
 
 Ingenii acumen, 
 
 Judicii soliditatem, 
 
 Inter spectatissimos suae aetatis viros 
 
 Habitus est. 
 
 Uxorem daxit,Francescam,filiam JohannisBagotdeCastle-Bagot 
 
 in comitatu Eblanensi armigeri, ex qua unum progenuitfilium 
 
 Kaymundum Grace. 
 
 Natus est a. d. m. dcc. x. 
 
 Denatus Eblanae \ c . die Sep. A. d. m. dcc. xlvi. 
 
 Et in hoc Sacrario sepultus est. 
 
 Qua lacrymas, hospes, stillantia marmora fundunt, 
 
 Etmusffi circum frigida busta gemunt, 
 Sheffieldus situs est, alto de sanguine Crassi, 1 
 
 Sheffieldus tali stemmate dignus homo. 
 Mo rib us insignis, comis, dilectus amicis, 
 
 Inclytus officiis hospitioque fuit : 
 In tenues largus, " nulli pietate secundus;" 
 
 Doctus ; et, O, carus, Pieri blanda, tibi! 
 Ergo jaces, Sheffielde, decus, flos, splendor Iernes? 
 
 Ergo silent doctae fila canoia lyrae ? 
 Certiim ; etenim Francesca ciet tua : Christus in unum 
 
 Concordes animas vos super astra vocat. 
 Sparge rosas tumulo, nymphas Libethrides ; et tos, 
 
 Bervades; 1 0, vati lilia sparge tuo, 
 Quisquis es, et lector, die, moliter ossa quiescant, 
 
 Cingant asternuni hunc laurea serta locum. 
 
 1 Scilicet, celeberrimi Raymundi le Gros, qui in Hiberniam advenit circiter 
 annum m. c. lsx. 
 
 - Anglice, "the Nymphs of the Barrow," (Bervie) cujusaqus campos prcpe 
 Aries, ccemeterium gentis GracjEorum, alluuut. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 

idterfy rvafedép £fc <-era<7tcztsCe£t:St2izcknf 
 
 .'.-. r. _ . —.— .- -T .-.' .. — :/ '■- 
 
 : - 
 
On Colonel Grace, who died in the defence of Athlone, in 1691. 
 
 This inscription is consecrated to 
 
 Colonel Richard Grace, of Moyelly-Castle, in the King's County, 
 
 a younger son of Robert Grace, baron of Courtstown, in the county of Kilkenny. 
 
 A man, 
 who reflected on ancient birth the splendor of illustrious character ; 
 and who, openinghis way, by the efficacy of talents and virtues, to the confidence of 
 princes, approved himself true, under every revolution of fortune, to the trust 
 which they reposed in him ; and magnanimously faithful to the cause 
 which was sanctioned by the decision of his heart. 
 The friend of Strafford and of Ormonde, 
 he conciliated the personal favour of his sovereign, Charles I ; 
 and he fought by the side of that unfortunate monarch till the surrender of Oxford, 
 in 1646, announcing that any further support of his royal master in England 
 was altogether hopeless, he transferred his unconquerable loyalty to Ireland ; 
 where the contest was still living and vigorous. 
 On this new scene of action he distinguished himself, 
 at the head of very inferior forces, against the armies of the republic ; and he gloried 
 in being the last leader of his party who submitted to their irresistible power. 
 The conditions, on which he capitulated, bore testimony to his consequence as an 
 adversary ; and, retiring from the war with twelvehundred of his faithful followers, 
 he maintained an air of dignity in his defeat. 
 In Spain, 
 the country to which he first removed with this attached band, he displayed, 
 to the eyes of foreigners, that chivalrous valour, and that high soul of honour, 
 which had renowned him in his native land ; and he was everywhere acknowledged 
 to be the same Richard Grace, who had struggled so long and so fearlessly against 
 the formidable and fortunate Cromwell ; 
 whose sceptre compelled the homage of Europe. 
 On the restoration of the monarchy, 
 he accompanied the royal family to England, as chamberlain to the duke of 
 York ; and when Ireland was again to be steeped in blood, by the contest be- 
 tween the king of his fealty, James II, and William, the elected sovereign of 
 Britain, colonel Grace, under the impulse of his loyalty, hurried instantly to 
 the conflict ; and, replacing the helmet on Ms hoary head, he discovered all his 
 juvenile ardour in battle, and all that contempt of fortune and of life, as light 
 in the balance with duty, which he had manifested in the pride of his age. 
 
 In this war, as in that against the republic, 
 his high destiny appointed him to be among the last who yielded to the victors; 
 
 and he yielded only with his life. 
 
 While he survived, Athlone, which had been confided to his government, was 
 
 impregnable, however powerfully assailed. When he fell, it was immediately lost ; 
 
 and with it, one of the last hopes of sovereignty to James. 
 
 For valour and fidelity 
 
 we must look to the example of colonel Richard Grace : 
 
 For success and fortune 
 
 to the history of others. 
 
 But he died gloriously; and the termination of his life consummated its renown. 
 
 He was buried in Athlone, where he fell, on the 20th day of June, 
 
 in the year 1691, and Honour sits enthroned upo» his tomb. 
 
■ Sojr of J-fnrtr fi^m 
 
 

 
 j]fl V-'- 3 US ■■-,- r CJJjXRICjU&JEU&IUVED l"yo BtOXAS 
 /Second S/& cfJom/ Grace £&&/? ofCovrtstovzv. 
 
SIB KflSJREISX SKEFJFJiELB OF BUT 
 
 SEEiSKB. OS THE SQVSe OF COXXOys, SON C. 
 JENNFX HSCGETER. ANT> fflffiL OF SIR 
 
 TEKWECME TK"NTI£jHLT BAK35TEKET, 
 
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 SIR EDMUHH ANDEBSQN OF FZJX 
 03,1658 
 
 CtfMSTB ibab.il ©f MUTILGRAVBy 
 
 K.-B.MTD OF G&ISZLD DAUGHTER. OF 
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 AIT. 
 
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 0BJ72G 
 
 
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 JtJfO Or CJ.TSARINE SBnZBY COUgiBSSCFDORCHES- - 
 TSIKD ElELQFAltGZ£SEAAlG>2 t ? T T0 JOBITSHEFf] 
 
 3ATCITE1 OF K. JAMISS M. 
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4 /i ^/le/fie/a. 
 
On John Sheffield, first Duke of Buckingham and Iformanby, K. G. 
 M.S. 
 
 JoHANNIS SnEFFYLDE, 
 
 Ex illustfi Sheffyldiorum stemmate, 
 (Quod á rege Hen. III. ha-redibus masculis directo 
 Semper gradu se invicem excipientibus 
 Ad banc usque setatem duravit) 
 Oriundi ; 
 Comitatus Buckingham*: ducis, 
 NoRMANBia; ducis, marchionisquc, 
 Mulgravis comitis, bavonis Sheffylde, 
 De Botterwyckc, et é nobilissimo Periscelidis ordine 
 Equitis. 
 Regnante Carolo II, 
 Cohorti de Bollandid, dicta?, arcique Kingstoniensi 
 Ad ripam fluminis Hull munitae, praefectus est, 
 Et cubicularis regiis primi ordinis ascitus. 
 Regnante dein Jacobo II. 
 Factus est hospitii regii camerarius. 
 Regnante Anna 
 Privati sigilli custos, et secretions prases. 
 Negotia publica in superiore domo Parliamenti 
 Per 54 annos, dubiam an facundiá an solertiá majore, 
 Tractavit ; 
 Et, deficientibus paulatim corporis viribus, 
 Animi tamen vigorem ad extremum usque habitum 
 Retinuit. 
 Oneri tandem succumbens, 
 24 die Feb. obdormivit, 
 Anno iEtatis 75, Salutis, 1720. 
 
 Pro Rege ssepe, 
 Pro Republicá semper ; 
 Dubius, sed non improbus, vixi. 
 Incertus morior, non perturbatus ; 
 Humanum est nescire, et errare. 
 
 Deo confido 
 Omnipotenti et benevolentissimo ; 
 Ens entium miserere mei ! 
 
 JTesiminster-Abley- 
 
Si? 7 ^ - . 
 
 Wm ■ ■ " *i ' 
 
 ■ ■ 'J \ 
 
 8 \ 
 
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 "■■■ £s 
 
 «> 5 
 
©HI. 05 THE Í3DÍNACIÍS AT LARGE OF THE GRACE- ÍÍAITS ©KEBM. 
 S.4. 
 
IlUlto^raflied. by Vfyld- ojuLKuw 
 
 lOTrrrace Biiyswa/er I 
 
 One of the Pfnnaclesat large of the Grace Mausoleum . 
 
Interior view of the ec<fp£& or Mowumentai- chamber of teeGiiace-maitsoleitm:. 
 
 SMS. 
 
LahnanfiheJ oy Wyld s'- /, ing ;,» Terract Bavs\mier.Lomian 
 
 IITESWRllEii m h M '■' /JEHTAI, CHAMKEB. 
 
Over the North Entrance to the Grace-Mausoleum at Aries. 
 
 OYK- A$ANHI- TENEH- KPAI20I- THA'- 1EPON- 'YnNON 
 KOIMilNTAI. ONHXKEIN- MH- AEFE- TOYS- ATA0OYI. 
 
 HOC SEPULCEUM 
 
 ALICIA KAVANAGH FILIA MICHAELIS GRACE DE GRACEFIELD ARM. 
 
 GUIIELMUS GRACE BARONETTUS, 
 
 ET FRATRES EJUS, 
 
 SHEFFIELDUS, JURIS CONSULTUS, 
 
 PERCIEUS, REGLE CLASSIS PR^JFECTUS, 
 
 PONI CURAVERUNT 
 
 A. D. M.DCCCXVIII, 
 
 SIBI POSTERISQUE : 
 
 QUO LOCO FULT OLIM AUSTRALIS ALA 2ED1S, ARLESIANjE, 
 
 AB OLIVERIO GRACE DE SHANGANAH, SIVE GRACEFIELD, ARMIG. 
 
 ANNO SALUTIS M.DC.LXXXVII, ^DIFICATA, 
 
 JAMDIU VETUSTATE COLLAPSA, 
 
 UNA CUM SEPULCRIS FAMILI^E GRACEFIELDIAN^ 
 
 IBI EXTRUCTIS. 
 HIC, UBI LAPSA JACENT GENTIS MONUMENTA VETUSTjE, 
 
 IN DOMINOSQUE RUUNT BUSTA CADUCA SUOS, 
 AUSPICnS FAUSTIS, ET SPE MEILORE, SEPULCRUM 
 
 JAM REFICLT FRATRUM CONSOCIATUS AMOR, 
 srr SACRUM PIETATIS OPUS !— SERVETUR ET IPSIS 
 MORTE OBITA, PROAVIS QUAM TRLBUERE, QULES. 
 
 S. G. 
 

THE GBACE'S-MAUSOLEUM. • 
 
 THE Grace-Mausoleum occupies the site of Grace's 
 Chapel, or south wing of the old church of Aries, on 
 the summit of Aries Hill, in the barony of Slievema- 
 rigue and Queen's County. Elegance of design is here 
 happily combined with a characteristic style of archi- 
 tecture. The general effect for which this sepulchral 
 edifice has been admired, is produced by its apposite 
 situation, and its height ; by the rich carving of the two 
 Gothic pinnacles which surmount it, the projecting but- 
 tresses, and the handsome cut stone mouldings of the 
 narrow Gothic doors, windows, and labels which adorn 
 its walls. No wood work belongs to any part of this 
 little structure, excepting its oak doors ; and the pecu- 
 liar durability of its roof consists in being covered with 
 a strong flag-stone, three inches thick, brought from the 
 Boley quarries, on the estate of Sir William Grace, Bart. 
 The lower rows of these ponderous flags rest on a mas- 
 sive eave-course, as the upper ones do on the edges of 
 each other; and the whole being divided by mock joints, 
 or lines, into courses of ten inches by six, resembles a 
 number of oblong stones. 
 
 A vault formed by a semi-circular arch for the repo- 
 sitory of the dead, and an upper chamber, or chapel, 
 formed by a high-pointed Gothic arch for the reception 
 of funereal monuments, comprise its internal arrange- 
 ments. The decorations of the chapel, or upper cham- 
 ber, in its vaulted and groined ceiling, are strictly of 
 the Gothic order. Moulded ribs spring from the corbel 
 capitals of the piers, which divide the monuments on 
 the walls. These run diagonally on the ceiling, and 
 intersecting in the centre, are there connected with 
 beautiful boss flowers, entwined through the several 
 members of each rib. The windows of this funereal 
 chapel are of a quatrefoil figure, and admit a " dim 
 religious light," eminently suitable to the architectural 
 character of the place, and in unison with the solemn 
 purposes to which it is consecrated. 
 
 * The following account is taken from the 4th volume of the 
 " Port-Folio; or Collection of Engravings from Antiquarian, Archi- 
 tectural, and Topographical Subjects, curious Works of Art, &c. &c." 
 by J, & H. S. Storer, London. 1324. 
 
W i7o. 
 
 o O 
 
 SS.V 
 
GRASAGH ABOE. 
 
 A WAR-SONG OF THE GRACES OF COURTSTOWN. 
 
 3Hop5A& caca tja 9X5)tAf Ac ^Ajlle pa £\rjtce. 
 
 fa 
 
 •-•-» 
 
 v-p - 
 
 ^ 
 
 1^- 
 
 % bA|lle t)a /Cilice bo rbú]tA]b if cft&ui), 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■d- 
 
 Do ci5ceATi ob cujKvib, bo 3ÍAri}AbfófA $ce]v, 
 
 8 m 
 
 m — s — p- 
 
 9 
 
 $ 
 
 £/jA c]téoÍAi)bo 5AjibA, bo o]óce 'f* 30 ló 
 
 c- 
 
 ^ 
 
 á é 3 
 
 <Sé bo 8í6io cgftc Ai) 3Áiftfúb,t)A Oftsjt&fAc a bó. 
 
 0&?lS?t£ n33'(&. 
 
 % bAille t)a £>i]tce ! bo ri)ú]tAib ]f c|téuij, 
 
 «Do q-zjceAfi ob cúftAib, bo ijArbAb a jce^i), 
 
 £íA c|t&Ai)í*b bo gAftbA, boi&ce \bo ló, 
 
 S& bo &i6^t) ceA]tc Ai) 5A]]t fúb tja " 3^5fAf AC Abo." 
 
 II. 
 
 % bAille tjA £.-vi]tce ! bo éj>iqb if felti?, 
 % tij^oeAC, a njójtÓAJS a t^loijte 'f* l^ti); 
 aiíoft b^b^t a ti}bAjt U. At} ca|xt)a Y*»J i?5léo&; 
 0£tuAi]t bo jejrtjeAb tjA bA]tbA]b lé "0jtafAc Abo." 
 
III. 
 
 ?t bA]Ue i)A /C\!|vce! if Ab &Wc Sait>5|01j ^é|r>, 
 £a C05A& t)A bcjtéAi} cTtupA^b, ix b-vfó|i? t)A tuójt eAf 
 0.1a SeA]tc\;l, tja ilucAi&e. da SeACAi&e, tjt§AT) flojg; 
 ^° llt)51*eAC Aift t)Aiii)be, ija " Q^ttAfAc Abó." 
 
 IV. 
 
 U b<ville i)A £\i|tce! 50 bf Aicpgjt 50 béo, 
 
 X>0 bjtACAC ]:lAl)-&eA]t5, bA IfflCftA f AT) T>5lé0&, 
 
 «ílAft a bp-rtl At) leorrjAi) íiAf aI A15 cúati \;lc A5Uf bjiórj 
 
 ICé lit) COjbAll T)A TJSATlCAfAIJ " <8ft AfAC Abo." 
 
 ?C rtjbAille T)A /tvficei ca a bcA^e 50 có]jt 
 
 £>ité]i) AiitTT) vja bcAO|]*eAC tjatí clAOjóeAÓ fAT) i^léob; 
 
 ©|ollApAbft\fCC ÚAfAl, 1f ÚA *í1Ó|tA. T)A fló]5 ; 
 
 O.TuA]Ti ce|ceAbA]i t-atj |iuAi5 tat;, "OdsjiafAC Abo." 
 
 VI. 
 ?t bAille t)A £>!|ice! bo cotjaijca buó cri&AO 
 % 115I60& ijA Ur) l]orbcA, lé fi°l ceATtc «tlbvilceuji ; 
 33uA]ft bo f5AipeAÓ XieATrburpAiT), if a bcjMtp a TiéAi) ló ; 
 lEeif Ai) U3&IJ1 rijiDirpce caca t-aij "(SjtAfAc Abo." 
 
 VII. 
 
 ?C bAille t)a £\iftte! t^oftiAjtAif a ]ti|Arb, 
 ?llrrjiiriAi3 bob CAOtrjtjA, Ia at> é]pl]5 t-atj i^I^aO; 
 ■6106 ÍJ|teAT)A]3, 1 Í'aotiaiÓ, l'uirifeAlAis ']* A flól5> 
 3l|3 f&ufCA Ab ^Allvibe, lé " (BjiAfAC Abo." 
 
 VIII. 
 
 ?l bAille t)A £\;|tce ! at> TXAibpib 50 béo, 
 
 3Do bAiribib bob tíioUa& a bcjtéAi) CAOipeAC bo flójs 
 
 ?t njéii) it* A niAiceAf fA Ait)Aice t-rjo. 
 
 Sa eAfA]b a bc]teA]*Aib; tja "OO^TiAfAic Abo." 
 
JJfittq The 
 
 SZGGAJSTOH WAR SOWG, 
 
 ofT7ie 
 2ran$?aTeif rf-om tf>clris7i AJhseribeol To 
 
 TME COESTTBSS W ÚRJRWBB & ÓSSúmr, 
 
 J1Y 
 
 XcdlTiinrterí 
 
 trim \\7iip7'07i7i-xGwpr>xr/llh>/// 77/c fvi/pm'/ ' Jitfv/'A- 
 m'/7i an diii'ntfjiriiiiuenr /brine 
 
 l^JTAJSTO JFOltZJF., 
 
 o 
 \ 
 
 Ci. o 
 
 g. 
 
 T^^HééM 
 
 3=$m 
 
 f 
 
 
 1 
 
 r=r 
 
 £k 
 
 m 
 
 W^& 
 
mm 
 
 ' * 
 
 thy walls rise 
 
 J 1J.-.J*P 
 
 3 
 
 ■m »~?\ — 
 
 
 / 
 
 É 
 
 E 
 
 -• • 
 
 * 4 
 
 beaa.ty and pride, Fiom thy watch tow 
 
 IPi^i 
 
 iff g bfe fP 
 
 a^ 
 
 w^ 
 
 / 
 
 m 
 
 j^ > \ 
 
 ? 
 
 des _ _ cried; 
 
 sum _ _ mit the bold foe is 
 
 W 
 
 1 
 
 Í 
 
 PPf 
 
 Though the hearts of thy 
 
 JTj^Lf^ 
 
 fert 
 
 chil _ dren with 
 
 ss 
 
 ^ 
 
 !P 
 
 íéés 
 
5E^^ 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 courage o'et f to-w, Still their strength is the . 
 
 m 
 
 hm 
 
 
 
 Ú 
 
 w 
 
 m 
 
 iy I -sE 
 
 ^ 
 
 P-f — 
 
 &é 
 
 ^ 
 
 HHH^ 
 
 • • 
 
 war. shout of Grasagh 
 
 = „„k+ 
 
 boel' 
 
 * to be pronounced Grásah. 
 
4 
 
 O courtstowni thy walls rise in beauty and pride, 
 Prom .thy -watch-towers summit the hold Foe is descried 
 Though the hearts of thy children with courage o'eTflow, 
 Still their strength Í9 the war.shout of"Grasagh ab.oei* 
 
 II 
 O Courtstowni thy chieftains in kindness delight, 
 A9 dauntless their valour their glory is bright; 
 in prowess unequalld they rush on the foe, . 
 While the hills and the vales ring with "Grasagh aboe'.' 
 
 Ill 
 
 O Courtstowni thon home of the great and Tenown'd, 
 Thy bulwarks what heroes of battle surrotmd» 
 The.Shees, Rooths, and shortalls, whose bosoms still glow, 
 To join in the conflict with "Grasagh aboe." 
 
 IV 
 O Coutstowni nc-Vr may'st thou demand foreign aid 
 when aloft thy T<^d standard is proudly displajd, 
 Audit's rampant -white lion threats slaughter and woe 
 As thy sons raise the Slogan of Grasagh aboe!* 
 
 V 
 O Courtstowni what tTOphies of conquest you boast 
 
 In the spoils of a noble and valorous host; 
 
 o' More and Fitz-Yatritk felt the shame of o'erthrow 
 
 As they fled the dire contest with"Grasagh aboe.' 
 
 VI 
 
 O Courtstowni hqw martial and gTand was thy train. 
 As they stood with the Butlers on combats red plain: 
 And. Desmonds proud followers, his partners in woe, 
 Shrunk heartstruck and pale, from "Grasagh aboe'.*" 
 
 VI I 
 
 O Courtstowni no strangers thy battles e'er fight. 
 Thy friends are unnumberd and matchless in might, 
 Thy Walshes, thy iurcells, thy Powers long ago 
 . shared the feast and the triumph with "Grasagh aboe." 
 
 VIII 
 
 . O Courtstowni can Fate in its wrath e er ordain 
 
 That thy chief be forgotten, thy bards cease their strain, 
 
 . Their harps all be mute, and in sorrow forego 
 
 . The. praise of thv heroes and of Grasagh aboe. ,,,„.. 
 
 J Temple -to X j. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 STANZA I. 
 Grasagh aboe— The Cause of the Graces — ©ftAf AC Abo. 
 
 In the early days of feudal warfare, most families of note, in Ireland, had some 
 particular slogan, or war-cry, to distinguish their respective followers. The word 
 aboe, in which they usually terminated, is derived from the word aba, a cause or 
 business. Thus Butler aboe, the slogan of the house of Ormonde, when cried at the 
 beginning of an engagement, was to encourage one another to fight valiantly in 
 the cause of the Butlers. Such, also, is the reference of Grasagh aboe to the family 
 of Grace, Barons nf Courtstown. The Earls of Kildare had for their slogan, Crom 
 aboe, alluding to their great castle of Crom, in the County of Limerick. The 
 Fitz-Patrick slogan was Gear laidir aboe, the cause of the strong and sharp, alluding 
 to their crest ; viz. a lion surmounted by a dragon : and the O'Neil slogan was Lamb- 
 dearg aboe, the cause of the red hand, which was the ancient cognisance of that family- 
 
 stanza n. 
 O Courtstown, $c. — % b^Ue 1)A £"Yiftce. 
 This Castle was the chief residence of the Grace Family ; and from thence they 
 were denominated Barons of Courtstown. 
 
 STANZA ill. 
 The Shees, Booths, and Shortalls, $c. — 31a SeA]tt\il, T}A &UtA]b, 1)A SeACA]Ó. 
 These families possessed considerable estates in the cantred of Grace's Country, 
 which were granted to them at various periods by the Feudal Lords of that district. 
 Among the confiscations under the Government of Cromwell, they appear, by Sir 
 William Petty's " Survey of Forfeited Lands," to have suffered great losses of 
 property. 
 
 STANZA IV. 
 When aloft thy red standard, £c. — ?t briACAC pLvrj&eitJ. 
 
 The armorial bearings of the Barons of Courtstown was, a white lion rampant on 
 a red field. 
 
 STANZA V. 
 O'More and Fitz-Patrick,§c. — 3ÍA 3]oUa ípAbrrvíCC ÚAfAl, If ÚA <T1oriA r) ylo]^. 
 It was not to be expected that the ancient Irish would be very peaceful neigh- 
 bours of the English, whom they always considered in the light of unjust intruders ; 
 though, in fact, the cantred of Grace's Country formed part of the great inheritance 
 of the wife of Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, by whom it was conferred upon B,aj T - 
 mond le Gras. as a marriage-portion with his sister, Basilia de Clare. The Barons 
 of Courtstown appear to have been perpetually waging a petty war with the Fitz- 
 Patricks, Princes of Upper Ossory, and with the O'Mores, Princes of LeLs, both of 
 which territories joined Grace's Country. 
 
 STANZA VI. 
 As they stood with the Butlers, $c. — Le fiol Cgjtt <Hb>ilceu|t. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the Barons of Courtstown uniformly 
 adhered to the Earls of Ormonde, in their frequent contests with the Earls of Des- 
 mond, Kildare, and Clanricarde, and the numerous Irish septs with whom the stern 
 and relentless policy of nearly four centuries prescribed " eternal war." 
 
 STANZA VII. 
 Thy Walshes, thy Purcells, thy Powers, $e. — 33jteAT)A15 If Í'SJJtAlÓ, 3?>í|t]-eÁlA. 
 
 These families were formerly of very considerable note in the Counties of Kil- 
 kenny, Tipperary, and Waterford, and were nearly connected by blood with the 
 House of Courtstown. 
 
AITSnrER TODVKE SCKOMBERG'S EtflSS&iir; 'GO TEHL YQVR MASTER I J2BSPZSE HIS 0£FSJt : ZS7Z ££&?, ZTZAT 7IQNOR& 
 
 cattcmnm ake dearer, to AGw r.fWAy toast axj. the vrEArrsiSccrcLEs aFristce cast bestow,- T&b casp jmxsisscfizBJSD war 
 tee Six OFHEARTSjiiWzy srtr.r, rnowh by tets 'Couzrr&r bytke iíaave or "©1ELACES CAJtUr vaiu.^,^ ut^» 
 
On Robert Grace, only son of John Grace, the last baron of Courtstown. 
 
 To the memory of Robert Grace, 
 
 a man, remarkable principally 
 
 for the inoffensiveness of his life, and the vicissitudes of his fortune. 
 
 As the only son of John Grace, baron of Courtstown, 
 
 he was bom to a lordly inheritance, 
 
 and the importance of his birth was announced to an extensive district by 
 
 the bells of not fewer than nine churches, connected with his patrimony. 
 
 While he was yet, however, at a distance from manhood, 
 
 that patrimony, 
 
 possessed quietly as it had been for ten years by the baron of Courtstown, 
 
 became forfeited in 1701, 
 
 in consequence of the unreversed attainder of his eldest brother, Oliver Grace ; 
 
 who, remote from his country, and unacquainted with the death of his father, had 
 
 been, in 1691, the legal, though the unconscious, proprietor of his family estates 
 
 during nine days, the short period of his survival. 
 
 By this severity of executed law, 
 
 Robert Grace, with his father, the baron of Courtstown, was hurled suddenly 
 
 from wealth into poverty : the bells, which had echoed through a wide region 
 
 at his birth, were to be for ever mute in his cause ; and, before the first beard 
 
 sprang upon his chin, he was compelled to seek for subsistence 
 
 at the exiled court of St. Germains. 
 
 By the interest of that fallen court he obtained an ensigncy in the French army, 
 
 in which he rose only to the rank of captain. 
 
 When he had struggled through many years of indigence, 
 
 he was again acknowledged by Fortune, and was once more elevated to rank 
 
 among the landed proprietors of Britain, by his accession to a moiety of the 
 
 undevised estates of Edmund Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, as a co-heir with 
 
 his maternal uncle, Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 
 With this property he retired, 
 
 in advanced life, 
 to Isleworth, in Middlesex; 
 and there terminated his silent, though not uneventful, career, in 1764. 
 As he died without issue, 
 his death closed the long line of the Courtstown family, 
 which, descending in an uninterrupted succession through twenty-two genera- 
 tions from Raymond le Gros, viceroy in Ireland, and first lord of the cantred of 
 Grace's Country, had possessed, during nearly five centuries and a half, one of 
 the largest territorial properties in the kingdom. Before the storm of republican 
 spoliation had swept over the land, the proprietors of twenty-one mansions of 
 note in the county of Kilkenny, and of nine in that of Tipperary, claimed an 
 identity of origin, as well as of name, with tliis opulent house. 
 By its extinction, with Robert Grace, 
 the representation of the Grace family devolved on the collateral branch of 
 Gracefield. 
 Its wealth and its POWER 
 expired as an holocaust to loyalty : 
 its HONOUR and its VIRTUES 
 survive. 
 
© 
 
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 WESTEEN ENT1RANCE TO (GRACES CHAJPE]L ADJOINING 
 TUfcEAmOAH CEUISCH. 
 
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 I § 
 
 
TULLAROAN CHURCH AND GRACE'S 
 CHAPEL' 
 
 ARE situated in Grace's parish, and cantred of Grace's 
 country, in the county of Kilkenny. They stand about a 
 mile to the east of the castle of C )ourtstown, the resi- 
 dence, for above five centuries, of the Grace family, who 
 derived from thence the title of baron, and were lords 
 of the extensive district of Grace's country. As this 
 family possessed the barony of Courtstown by the feudal 
 right of tenure, so did that of Hussey in like manner 
 enjoy the barony of Galtrim, that of Wellesley the ba- 
 rony of Dangan, that of Nagle the barony of Navan, 
 that of Purcell the barony of Loughnioe, that of Fitz- 
 Gerald the baronies of Decies and Burntchurcb, and that 
 of Poer the baronies of Donhill and Curraghmore. 
 
 The smallness of Tullaroan Church, its semicircular 
 as well as pointed arches, and narrow oblong windows, 
 seem to indicate that its construction was in the twelfth 
 century. The east and south exterior walls are still 
 standing, but most of the north wall has been thrown 
 down, and the high gable to the west is nodding to its 
 ruin. In the south wall are three windows, and an en- 
 trance through a pointed arch. The interior consists of 
 a choir, thirty-five feet by eighteen, and a nave thirty- 
 seven feet long, divided by a wall, through which is a 
 pierced high pointed arch, supporting a belfry. In the 
 choir two scats occupy recesses in the wall, and must have 
 been constructed long after the church was built, as the 
 arches of them are beautifully turned, in the order of 
 Henry VII. 's chapel, which Dr. Milner calls the second 
 order of the pointed arch. Had the person who erected 
 these also altered the east window, and made its arch of 
 the same order, Tullaroan Church would have presented 
 in its decay a singularly picturesque appearance. A 
 niche, terminating with a pointed arch at top, and at 
 bottom with a concave stone, for the purpose probably 
 of containing the holy water, is placed in the south wall 
 near the eastern window. Beyond this niche is a small 
 arched door-way leading from the Church to Grace's 
 Chapel, which forms the southern wing of Tullaroan 
 Church, and produces in the general outline of the 
 building the figure of a Greek gamma, Or two sides of an 
 oblong. The dimensions of this Chapel are twenty-seven 
 feet by seventeen, and the workmanship of it is so excel- 
 lent, that the exterior walls are to this day almost un- 
 injured, though for more than two centuries exposed to 
 every vicissitude of weather. It has two narrow windows 
 with pointed arches, adorned with labels, on the east ; a 
 large window, consisting of three similar divisions, on 
 the south; and on the west a window like those on the east, 
 with a very richly-ornamented entrance through a pointed 
 arch. This doorway is profusely decorated with sculpture 
 
 * The following account is taken from the 4th volume of the 
 " Port-Folio," by J. &. H. S. Storer. 
 
TULLAROAN CHURCH AND GRACE S CHAPEL. 
 
 in bold alto relievo. The exterior mouldings of a very 
 deep architrave meet in a high point, surmounted with a 
 large trefoil leaf, on either side of which are smaller trefoil 
 leaves, that terminate in an extremely rich catenation 
 work, formed from the interwoven stocks of bearded 
 corn ears and trefoil leaves, which project alternately 
 from this vegetable chain. At the turn of the arch 
 on each exterior side of the architrave, is a knot of 
 four leaves curiously entwined, somewhat similar to a 
 Stafford knot, and lower down, another description of 
 knot with two leaves, and at bottom a large single rose. 
 The intricate moulding of these Uowers, in Kilkenny 
 marble, exhibit an astonishing degree of accuracy and 
 delicate precision. A rose is also on each side of the 
 large trefoil leaf, already mentioned, as surmounting the 
 architrave, and over this trefoil leaf stand the armorial 
 bearings of the founder, viz. a lion rampant, with the 
 two following inscriptions in alto relievo Gothic cha- 
 raclers : " Orate, pro. anima. haronis.gras johannis. 
 
 PILII. OLIM. QUI. ME, FIERI. FECIT." 
 
 " Et. PRO. ANIMA. ONORINE. BRENACH. UXORI. EJUS. 
 ANNO. DOMINI. MCCCCXLUI." 
 
 The burial place of the Grace family being in the 
 cathedral of Kilkenny, may account for the little re- 
 mains of monumental inscriptions which appear in this 
 church. There are however six tombstones of consi- 
 derable antiquity. The inscriptions in Gothic characters, 
 which have been deciphered on three of them are as 
 follows : 
 
 " HlC JACENT. CORPORA. JACOBI. GRAS. QUONDAM. 
 DE. CORSTOWN. BARONIS. GRAS. PILII. ET. ELLIS. UXORIS. 
 EJUS. QUI. QUIDAM. JACOBUS. OBIIT. ULTIMO. DIE. AU- 
 GUSTI. ANNO. DOMINI. MCCCCCXLIII. ET. DICTA. ELLIS. 
 OBIIT. TRICESSIMO. DIE. DECEMBRIS. ANNO. DOMINI. 
 MCCCCCXLIII. 
 
 " HlC. JACUNT. PETHUS. BUTLER. QUONDAM. DOMINUS. 
 DE, BONNESTOWN. QUI. OBIIT. OCTO. DIE. MENSIS. JANU- 
 ARII. ANNO. DOMINI. MCCCCCLXV. ET. HELENA. GRAS. EJUS. 
 UXOR. Q1".E. OBIIT. DIE. MENSIS. MCCCCC 
 
 " RlCARDUS. GRAS. FILIUS. ROEERTI. DE. ADAMS- 
 TOWN. ET. ONO." 
 
 The cantred of Grace's country is rich in traditionary 
 lore, as well as extremely fertile in the more general and 
 visible subjects of antiquarian research. But these are 
 rapidly disappearing by the appropriation of their ma- 
 terials to the purposes of building, road mending, and 
 lime-burning. In Grose's Antiquities of Ireland, pub 
 lished in 1791, it is stated *, that " the practice of de- 
 molition bids fair in a short time to level most of our 
 old fortresses, whose only memorial will be found in 
 thi6 work Such already has been the case with many 
 of them, even during the period of its publication," 
 
 * Vol. II. p. 46. 
 
 

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 /wife-..-' >ffeKu£^> TBAiií AirJíw„„ 
 
 .•' : *-iéá5S§S?V' Í: ADAMS 
 
 /SLEWMABBY/ BJ.JS^ 
 
 OUD<viel CMIin£all JPÚ&T& rS/^~" 
 
 Moot of Mad 1 |>" 
 
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 i?2L>40r«nh foa mOe 
 =Jmé "aTJloViarJU to o miír 
 
 t^tf, <,>,-c j^fa^. 
 

 Cartte Dermet 
 Shruít Cturáe 
 
 lajtlc (Tail! 
 
 COUNTY OF KILKENNY. 
 
 
 A Seal* of Afi/*s 
 *"*' 1,5- ^ J _L * 
 
 Watcrfolil 
 
 Mil IhF"I 
 
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U &jji t)A ©jtivf a ! if aIuit) fttlSe 8uic! 
 SÍT pAb TIT T^WS I^cat) bo bAOirje, 
 <S> briuAc u]]*ce 5gl t;a ÉJleóriAÓ CAOile, 
 3Do ceircAijt ^úrbAiT) t)a mb.-\c bojibTqiie, 
 ^T at fúb c6ATj bo cAob ?tb-A-TiiúiTbT;e, . 
 
 <5o £íUco]íje — at) bcuAÓ riu5 biiAib ó tjoírbbe. 
 %t leACAT) bo batjcA, tat 3W A b^euTicAib, 
 ^T bAt) ^Ab bo ctjuic l& c]oroAb a btfteAtAib, 
 ?tT aIu]1i bo criAT)*ib ; a scoill, t a rieigteAb; 
 Sx y.At>& Tír í^TI^Sj le^Aib a r)5eu5Aib : 
 «Do jjoricAib trjAji óti, T A t) bporbATi curt) TeAcviri, , 
 
 ?t]5 T°31 tA 'F A T v T Y ' t '5 e ^IT 1 3 A fP* A1 ? ctaocaiti. 
 ©o cjtiTclAc fiici&, bo fTtocAib tja 5leAT)CA 3 
 (So qoroAbac liT)5]&, a i)éiT5>íb AtitjcA : 
 31t) ]tttA6poc it bJAi}, 8a TÍ A ^ Aí3 flélbte, 
 Sat) TÍ°i3*c TAi) TT)íol, bA 5clAOibÓAT) c<voble-|T. 
 StT T ce 1"? eA c b0 f u 15 e 3 IT b0 HT 1 cu"? feAcuiirc! 
 ^T cóTirtcAc bo caIait) Ó CAICrjeATT) AT) 5|t&lt) ; 
 3y le*cT A 3 A ^ jtAic, atti caIatíj it T^irt, 
 ^T 3AÓ tdóti TbA^éioT a bq5ii) t a T> ctaojjaI. — 
 ?tf roo crieAÓ brtór>! IT cúttjaó ttjo ctiaoi6 &; 
 3Í-T T A&A '* i^ATiib tao] 5|tA6ATb bo fAO]ée : 
 lEuf A T)oíri)be tat) cAJTJTliof bo cjiaocaó ; 
 lEuf leórjAÓ t)a bc|ieoiTiA& aij T^pe-lT^I 00 ; 
 5- u f 3 A 1f5 e A 3 u f T eAn6A ^ c ^ beAijArij : 
 
 3X buA]& CACA Alfl AT) rt)ACA1]te C]tA01TtAC; 
 lEuf T)A CAITleATJAb T)A ccat) Arib AolriiATi ; 
 
 iCuf tja rtjAiJiTCTt^S beAT)AiJ>íb gleuTCA ; 
 Haif t)A t)&út;6a A3UT cuiriqTje be<uiATT); 
 <flA]t a b]oc cAcu]je, A15 T^Acujje cutrj T ei »T c<v 5 
 <T1ati a TPTteA3AbA0iT a T)CATCATiAib ójtcA, 
 
 .PÍOITCA TATlTpJ^Ó bob -jl-AbA CATl bóÓT)A. 
 
 3l]rt TAlluióe bAijA bub 5T)aic at) cofftie fl 1 '; 
 5t]5 eiTbeAf bAT)CA óbAi]tb ceATic £iTieiT). 
 31 bfAitie at) Tiítice, ta bj biri l& ceól at), 
 ^t t^apacat TÍ ^ ^IT 1 5T)iórr;ATtcA aJétrjuiii— 
 ?Ct) ceAp óijtóeiTicAc, bot) toóti-tuiI ©]t^r A ^j 
 ?tiTi bcuiT TttAIT 1 ^ 6 ^^ IT T eA N> f* t)ÁicTo; 
 S.TIAC 5IUAIT A SA^TSI 6 rr;ÓTib\;biT; c^ coíbe, 
 $Ybó' X-vU'W búcAÓ A5UT clú Óa ÓAO]t)e. 
 
Translation. 
 
 GRACE'S COUNTRY. 
 
 Country of Grace ! by Heaven divinely plann'd ! 
 Well till'd and peopled is thy fertile land, 
 From narrow Nore's bright stream extended wide, 
 By smooth Momonia's gay and flowery side, 
 Thence (widening far, where Minister river flows) 
 To famed Kilkenny, powerful o'er its foes. 
 
 Thy fields are spacious, and thy meadows green, 
 And snow-white lambkins gambol o'er the scene; 
 Thy groves, delightful, decorate each glade, 
 And, widely spreading, form a grateful shade ; 
 While wavy Autumn gilds the fruitful soil, 
 To recompense the hind's industrious toil. 
 
 Through golden vales thy crystal rivulets flow, 
 
 There silvery fishes leap and sport below ; 
 
 With hounds and horn, chased o'er the mountain's height, 
 
 Thy native roebuck flies from mom till night ; 
 
 And fox and hare, the nimblest of their race, 
 
 Are hunted down, and wearied in the chace. 
 
 Country of Grace ! by Heaven divinely plann'd ! 
 A cloudless sun illumes thy smiling land : 
 Each good is thine, that nature can bestow, 
 
 And every other bliss enjoy'd below. 
 
 But ah ! what woes these iron times impart ! 
 Woes that must sadden every feeling heart. 
 Ill-fated land ! thy joyous days are o'er ; 
 Thy good, thy generous chieftains are no more ; 
 Whose mighty arm pour'd vengeance on the foe ; 
 Who laid th' invader in the battle low ; 
 Whose hardy valour ne'er was known to yield, 
 But triumph'd ever, in the ensanguin'd field ; 
 
 Whose castle-towers in feudal splendour rise ; 
 Whose sacred abbeys glisten to the skies ; 
 Who rear'd the fort ; and rear'd the palace halls, 
 Where festal merriment oft rung the walls, 
 Where mantling wine in golden cups went round, 
 And Erin's harp pour'd forth its silver sound ; 
 
 Where, ceas'd the dance, the tuneful harper done, 
 A minstrel'sung the praise by Raymond* won ;— 
 Illustrious Raymond ! author of that race, 
 Which, settling here, first took the name of Grace ; 
 When to Ierne's shores the warrior came, 
 And crown'd his followers with immortal fame. 
 
 ^Raymond Crassus, or le Gros, al. Raymond Fitz- fVilliam de Carew, (second sen of William 
 ■Fitz-Gerald de Carew, who was eldest son of Gerald Fitz- Walter de Windsor,) married 
 Basiliade Clare, sister of Richard Strovgbow, al. Richard Fitz-Gilbert de Clare, Earlot 
 Pembroke, whom he accompanied to Ireland, and was Viceroy thereof in W]6. 
 
IN 
 
 
 ■fell 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 >w 
 
 a 
 
 c 
 I 
 
 s 
 
 B 
 
On Sir Oliver Grace, of Leagan, Carney, and Ballylinch 
 
 Castles. 
 
 Hie jacet Oliverius Grace miles, quondam Dominus de Lea- 
 gan, Carney, &c., ex antiquissima, nobilissimaque familia Gra- 
 caeorum, scilicet de Courtstown, oriundus. Pace belloque conspi- 
 cuus, et plurimis virtutibus animi corporisque dotibus imprimis 
 spectatus. Domina Maria Fitz-Gerald ob memoriam mariti sui 
 hoc monumentum posuit. 
 
 Vivit post funera virtus. 
 Si generis fama, aut virtus, aut gratia formas, 
 
 Si doctrina micat splendida praeter opes ; 
 Si decor armorum sit maximus inter honores ; 
 
 Omnibus ille fuit dives in orbe bonis. 
 Dotibus his raris haud clarior extitit alter, 
 
 Sed nunc virtutis dona beatus habet. 
 
 Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 On Dame Mary Grace, al. Fitz-Gerald, of Decies, the wife 
 of Sir Oliver Grace, of Leagan. 
 
 Hie jacet, certa spe resurgendi, domina Maria Fitz-Gerald, 
 nobilissimi Geraldi Fitz-Gerald militis, quondam baronis de De- 
 cies filia, et vidua clarissimi Oliverii Grace militis, quondam 
 domini de Legan, Ballylinch, et Carney ; cui peperit Geraldum 
 Grace, nunc dominum de Legan, &c, qui hoc monumentum fieri 
 
 fecit. 
 Stirpe Geraldina fuit haec exorta Maria, 
 
 Nobilis hospitio, moribus atque domo : 
 
 Larga parens miseris, pietati dedita, summo 
 
 Grata Deo summum clauserat ilia diem. 
 
 Obiit ii°. die Decembris jvi. dc. v. 
 
 Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
 On Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch, &;c. and on his wife, Mar- 
 garet Hartpole, of Shrule Castle. 
 
 Hie jacent corpora Geraldi Grace de Ballylinch, &c, anniger, 
 qui obiit iv die Martii anno Domini m.dc.xviii, et Margarettae 
 Hartpole, uxoris ejus, quae obiit xi. die Februarii, anno Domini 
 
 M.DC.XIX. 
 
 Stemmate praeclaro, praeclarus et ipse, Geralde, 
 
 Matre Geraldina, belligeroque patre ; 
 Siccine morte jaces, homini dilecte Deoque ! 
 
 Heu ! flos virtutum siccine magne jaces ! 
 Corpus habet tellus, Animus super astra volavit. 
 
 Sponsum et ad astra suum sponsa secuta tua est. 
 Alter in alterius gremio requiescit uterque ; 
 
 Ante thronum aeterni fulget uterque Dei. 
 
 Jerpoint Abbey. 
 
LINES 
 
 WRITTEN AT 
 
 JERPOINT ABBEY. 
 
 So sleeps the pride of former days ! 
 So glory's thrill is o'er I 
 
 MOOR 
 
 But where are they? and where art thou, 
 My country ? on thy voiceless shore 
 
 The heroic lay is tuneless now— 
 The heroic bosom beats no more ! 
 
 And must thy lyre so long divine 
 
 Degenerate into hands like mine.? 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY R. WATTS, CROWN COURT, TEMPLE BAR. 
 
 MDCCCXX. 
 
 The following Stanzas are reprinted with Mr. S. C. Hall's permission. Independent of their poetical 
 merit, the suhject and local allusions render them a desirable addition to this collection. 
 
SHEFFIELD GRACE, ESQ. F.A.S. 
 
 THIS PRODUCTION 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY EN-SCRIBED, 
 
 BT ONE WHO admires; his; TALENTS 
 AND VALUES HIS FRIENDSHIP. 
 
I. 
 
 How the earth darkens ! not a day-beam cheers 
 
 Its pensive look, or gilds the evening sky ; 
 While through the gloom, from other worlds, appears 
 
 No smile, to bid the gathering shadows die. 
 All is so sadly still ! the cooling breeze, 
 
 That from yon mountains 1 their mild freshness bears, 
 Now breathes not, — floating through the blossom'd trees, 
 
 To fan the sable garb which Nature wears. 
 No star upon our world's dark curtain beams, 
 
 And the moon mounts not her etherial throne, 
 Where other eves have seen her sit supreme 
 
 In power and brightness, beautifully lone : 
 While o'er the track of heaven deep clouds advance, 
 
 And Nature sinks into a sullen sleep; 
 So like the unearthly stillness of a trance, 
 
 From which 'tis luxury to wake and weep. 
 
 II. 
 
 I gaze where JerpointV venerable pile, 
 
 Majestic in its ruins, o'er me lowers : 
 The worm now crawls through each untrodden aisle, 
 
 And the bat hides within its time-worn towers. 
 
 (1) This range or region of mountains takes a southerly direction; and being situated irt 
 the district of Walsh's country, which extends to the city ofWaterford, are thence denomi- 
 nated "the Walsh Mountains." The family of Walsh was among the earliest of the English 
 settled in the county of Kilkenny (temp. Henry 110, and for more than four centuries was 
 inferior only to that of Butler and of Grace in poweror possessions. Jerpoint Abbey appears 
 to have been their most general place of interment, and many of their ancient tombs still 
 remain there. The monument erected in 1501 to Robert Walsh of CasUe-Hayle, or 
 Castle-Hoel, intlie Walsh Mountains, affords a singularly interesting specimen of the 
 rude funereal grandeur of that period. During the events of the Usurpation and Revolution , 
 the loyalty of this family to the House of Staart occasioned the loss of their entire patri- 
 mony. From a younger branch, settled in France, are descended the Counts Walsh de 
 Serrant, whose magnificent chateau and extensive estates are situated near Angers, 
 in the department de Maine et Loire. The Author takes this early opportunity of 
 acknowledging himself indebted for historical facts to the account of Tullaroan or 
 Grace's Parish, in the Third Volume of that interesting and truly-useful work, The 
 Statistical Survey of Ireland, by William Shaw Mason, Esq. 
 
 (2) This noble Abbey is situated on the river Nore, and is distant nearly two 
 miles south of Thomas-town ; and between eight and nine in the same direction from 
 Kilkenny. It was founded in 1180, by Donogh Fitz-Patrick,King of Ossory. for Cistertiau 
 Monks, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Among the mitred Abbeys, that of Jerpoint 
 was, in wealth, possessions, and architectural splendour, esteemed the fourth in the 
 kingdom. Its extensive and beautiful ruins strikirgly attest the justice of this ascribed 
 distinction, as well as irresistibly command the admiration of every beholder. On 
 its suppression in 1540, it possessed 1500 acres in demesne land ; which being sur- 
 rendered by Oliver Grace, the last Lord Abbot, were granted, tocether with its other 
 estates, to Thoma* Butler, tenth Earl of Ormond. The Abbot of Jerpoint was a Peer 
 of Parliament. 
 
It was not thus, when, in the olden time, 
 
 The holy inmates of yon broken wall 
 Lived free from woes which spring from care or crime, 
 
 Those shackles which the grosser world enthral. 
 Then, while the setting sun-beams glistened o'er 
 
 The earth, arose to heaven the vesper song: 
 But now the sacred sound is heard no more, 
 
 No music floats the dreary aisles along; 
 Ne'er from its chancel scars the midnight prayer, 
 
 Its stillness broken by no earthly thing, 
 Save when the night-bird wakes the echoes there, 
 
 Or the bat flutters its unfeather'd wing. 
 
 III. 
 
 Here, where I tread perchance, was once the scene 
 
 Sway'd by the feudal Chieftains of the spot ; 
 No record lives to tell what they have been, 
 
 Their laurels faded and their fame forgot; 
 Save when some peasant quotes the name of Grace, 
 
 Allied to thoughts of noble deeds and days, 
 To give that ancient and heroic race 
 
 The heartfelt tribute of a peasant's praise: 
 Then sings, in rude but energetic strains, 
 
 Some legendary tale of times gone by ; 
 Beholds yon Abbey's desolate remains, 
 
 And quotes the annals of her brilliancy; 
 When to its weed-o'ergrown and roofless nave, 
 
 In better days, the poor and sorrowing hied, 
 And, as the holy fathers solace gave, 
 
 Found their griefs softened and their wants supplied. 
 
 IV. 
 
 But why do I, beneath these clouded skies, 
 
 In such a chill and cheerless evening stray, 
 To sketch the picture Fancy bids arise, 
 
 And yield to feelings which I cannot sway ? 
 There is some spell in this dark lonely hour 
 
 To wake the spirit of the days gone by, 
 And ask a tear for perishable power, 
 
 And claim for long-departed worth, a sigh. 
 I will not check the feeling that pourtrays 
 The deeds and heroes of the olden time, 
 If Fancy lead my soul to other days, 
 
 When they were link'd in song with themes sublime ; 
 
When Erin's minstrels slept not In their graves; — 
 
 Then, towering to the air, the falcon rose; 
 The swan majestically stem'd the waves, 
 
 And the white lion trampled on his foes 1 . 
 
 V. 
 
 Those days are gone ! their glories are no more ! 
 
 Time has pass'd over them with its dark flood! 
 When Raymond 2 trod Ierne's peaceful shore, 
 
 And left her pathless mountains stain'd with Mood: 
 His bride, the sister of the chief, whose name 
 
 Has long been link'd with Erin's tale of woe ; 
 With him he sought the warrior's path to fame, 
 
 And wore the wreaths that in her temples grow. 
 But yet he loved the land his sword had won. 
 
 And joy'd to cast away his crimson'd shield ; 
 While even the victor wept, when in the sun 
 
 The red dew glisten'd on the battle-field; — 
 The noble founder of a noble race, 
 
 Whose words in council, and whose deeds in war, 
 Shed the first splendours on the name of Grace, 
 
 And bade it, like the watch-fire, beam afar. 
 
 VI. 
 
 And now Molana 3 , where his ashes rest, 
 
 Retains the marble that preserves his name, 
 
 And still the emerald isle that gems the west, 
 His deeds remembers, and records his fame. 
 
 CO Allusion is here made to the crests of the three families, who, for some centuries 
 possessed the largest properties and the greatest power in the county of Kilkenny ; viz. 
 Butler — In a ducal coronet, or; a plume of five ostrich feathers, and thence a falcon 
 arising, all argent. Walsh— On a wreath; a swan, the wings addorsed proper, ducally 
 gorged, or, transfixed through the breast with a barbed arrow in an oblique direction, the 
 point appearing above the back. Grace — On a wreath ; a demi-lion rampant, argent. 
 
 (2) Raymond Crassus, or le Gros, al. Raymond Fitz-William de Carew (second son of 
 William Fitz-Gerald de Carew, Lord of Carew inWales.who was eldest son ot'Gerald Fit;:- 
 Walter de Windsor,} married Basiliade Clare, sister of Richard Strongbow.al.RkhardFitz- 
 Gilbert deClare, Earl of Pembroke, by whom lie had two sons, viz. William and Maurice ; 
 from the former of whom descend the family of Grace, and from the latter that of Fitz- 
 Maurice. The talents and achievements of Raymond were of the most brilliant 
 character. As, in Hannibal's invasion of Italy, Fabius and Marcellus were called the 
 shield and sword of Rome; so was this Chieftain considered both the one and the other, 
 in the Anglo-Norman expedition to Ireland. Nor was he less distinguished for humanity 
 than for wisdom and courage. History indeed scarcely presents, if it does at all pre- 
 sent, amore striking instance of that first and most powerful proof of greatness which 
 lies' in an ascendancy over other men's minds, than was exhibited by this successful 
 leader. The soldiery, who without him were nothing, with him were every thing; and 
 Earl Strongbow, says Hollinshed, constrained himto become joint Viceroy with himself; 
 an office which he afterwards held singly in 11~6. Giraldus Cambrensis calls him " the 
 notable and chiefest pillar of Ireland," and concludes his description of him thus: " Ut 
 autem virivirtutes, mores, et modos, sub brevitate concludam ; vir erat liberalisetlenis, 
 providus et prudens. Et quanquamanimosus plurimuni, et armis instructus, prudentia 
 tamen rebus in Martiis et providentia praecellebat. Vir in utroque laudabilis, multum 
 quidem militis habens, plusquamducis." 
 
 (.*» In this ancient abbey, which St. Molanfide founded in the sixth century, Raymond 
 
 le Gros 
 
Joes the page of history forget, 
 His sons, who, lite him. were humane and brave ; 
 -Z-Mamace" name is noble even i - 
 Possessing still the courtrv I>ermod ■ gave. 
 Wfc3e ft ijwhihiT elder born enjoyed the land 
 Where Leánster borders rich Momonia-fi side, 
 WhJ _ :w granted with Basilia's hand. 
 
 A royal dowery -with a lovely bride. 
 Bui Cambria"? plains, their great forefathers* home. 
 The Grace's heritage not long remained. 
 
 i :-od of land, and goodly dome. 
 By piety, to Bradenstofee' were gained. 
 
 VII. 
 
 How oft, to sing of warlike Anselm's 3 praise, 
 The harp has echoed forth ks loftiest swell; 
 
 "Who lives not only in the minstrel lays— 
 His worth let Brechin and let Stirling tell 
 
 it Gtds vbí be- e m of his monument remains. Recently, however, a tablet 
 
 comment ■ rumstanc*. and celebrating bis exploits, has been erected by 
 
 :.t— -a. 
 
 ■ i :Ted Dermoid Mac Cany, the dethroned King of 
 -anions, obtained in rptnrn for trd» important service the grant of a con- 
 ■'tmtv of Kerry . wijere b± settled his second son Maurice, 
 ftoninAwn ..it name of Clan- Man- • -^chitisalmostnecdlesitoadd, 
 
 ^^sdown. who is a!sc I , t *. :: Ken 7. is the representative, Ray- 
 eidest son. William, not only retained the patronymic of Le Gros Ctfae usual » r*d 
 unerring mart : pa ncj, but succeeded also to his paternal inheri- 
 
 tance ir I --■<* lands in Leinster, granted to Raymond by Farl Strong. 
 
 bow, re dower v- Tni& princeiy grant consisted of Odrone, Fethard, 
 
 and Glai .. an extensive district in the connty of 
 
 Kilkenny. borderinE for several miles the county of lipperary, in the province of Mon- 
 ster or Mainour crated by the Minister River. The tract thus 
 possessed by JLzyziond'i eldest son constitutes the present Cantred of Grace's Country, 
 vLict belonged to his second son does the present 
 [ LJL-Maurice, in the county of Kerry. 
 
 -, . that Kfeymond Ie Gros was second son of William de 
 
 "_.-'. 'í'ív i Peofaafcf9Efene.«beM :-t inherited some lands on the death of 
 
 fen iainer, in 111 'appears, descended to his eldest son, William le Gros, by 
 
 :/-£ntfcd totht priory of Bradenstofce, in the county of Wilts. The 
 
 charter ; . I'ugdalt (Mon-voLii. p. 206), is thus headed : *' Cartado- 
 
 ■ .It dt Waipí canocicis, prioratas de Eradenstoke in 
 
 agroWíltoni'ínsK,Í:c. T " and it. witnessed by" Domino WilhelmoMarescalio.ComitePem- 
 
 brokis, Wiliielmo Marescailo nlio sno, Willielmo le Gras juniore, Hamone le Gras, 
 
 Anselm-. It may be added, that tbit Anselm leGras was, in 
 
 1230, consecrated Bishop of St. David's in Pembrokeshire, and died in 1247 ; and also, 
 
 _ _ e --J Raymond le Gros, had formerly been bishop of this see, 
 
 and died in 117£. 
 
 •'■■ae Edward I "terp*-di*.j^r. '-0 Scotland, sereral of the chief men of Ireland were 
 summoned to join the royal standard. Amone thenomber was Baron Anselm le Gras, 
 Richari i bcbbbI E-arl of Ulster (called from bis complexion the red Earl), and 
 
 John Fita-Gerald, Baron of Ophaley, cs taxed arterwards, in 1316, Ear] of Kildare. The 
 snmmoni to Baron Ans-eim It Gras, in 1302, on Out subject of the Scottish war, is as fol- 
 -., Anselmole Gras, salunsm— Volentes in omnem eTentum 
 circiter fioem treuga quam nuper Scotiis duximus concecentam, si forte pads reformat© 
 interim non prooedat, de hominibus ad arma potentibus provideri, et tone si opus foerit 
 in erpeditione guerre nostro Scoue viriliter procedere, et earn deo prospero possimus 
 finaliter terToinare ga&Aa teste Rege apud Morpeth. >.xiii die Febru- 
 
 aril.*' Rot. clans- de ann. 30 Edw. I. in. 16, in schedule pendenta. 
 
Shall his compatriots 'gainst the vanquish'd Scot, 
 
 Ulster's red Earl, be unrecorded here? 
 Or Ophaley's achievements be forgot, 
 
 Whose race to grateful Erin still is dear ? 
 They saw the royal Edward's banner wave 
 
 Above them, by the northern breezes fann'd, 
 And with him none more courteous or more brave 
 
 There wore the spur of knight or belted brand. 
 Then in Dunfermline % when the war was o'er, 
 
 The Chieftains, resting from the battle-fray, 
 Shared in the joyous feast, and proudly bore 
 
 The trophies of the tournament away. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 On Ascul's plains was heard the sound of woe ; 
 
 And, as the gentle Barrow glided by, 
 All blood-tinged were its waters in their flow, 
 
 Where heroes died — but not for victory. 
 There Hamon s perish'd in his flower of days, 
 
 While many a fresh wreath bloom'd his temples round, 
 The warrior-laurel with the minstrel-bays 
 
 Entwined, and by the land, he died for, bound. 
 Oh ! sacred be the turf above his breast, 
 
 And hallow'd be the spot, almost unknown, 
 Where fall the parting sun-beams of the west, 
 
 And gild the earth, unmark'd by tree or stone ! 
 The grass grows wildly o'er his lowly bed, 
 
 And nought but common clay enwraps the brave, 
 While many, as they o'er his pillow tread, 
 
 Know not they trample on a hero's grave. 
 
 (4) After King Edward's successful invasion of Scotland in 1303, he passed the winter 
 with his Queen and Court at Dunfermline, where his victories were celebrated with all 
 the martial festivities for which that age of chivalry was remarkable. 
 
 C5J The Lord Edward Bruce, brother of Robert king of Scotland, arrived in May 
 1315, to assert his claim to the Crown of Ireland. He was accompanied by 6000 Scots, 
 and was immediately joined by above 20,000 of the Northern Irish. The first check 
 given to the desolating progress of this horde of merciless savages was by Sir Hamon 
 le Gras ; the frequent success and unwearied activity of whose army effectually frus- 
 trated their design of seizing and plundering the Capital. A general engagement, 
 however, at length took place ; the number of Sir Hamon le Gras' forces scarcely exceed- 
 ing a fourth of those under the Lord Edward Eruce. The conflict was obstinate and 
 sanguinary ; but Sir Hamon being, after much fighting, unfortunately slain, his army 
 fell into confusion, which terminated in defeat. Tradition as well as history has carefully 
 perpetuated the memory of an event, which, at that period, nearly proved of fatal 
 importance to the country. The scene of battle was near Ascul, in the county of Kil- 
 dare, about a mile N. E. of Athy, situated on the River Barrow; and Sir Hamon le 
 Gras, together with the Lord John de Bonneville, and Sir William Prendergast, were 
 buried in the Dominican Abbey of that town. A very ancient crest of the Grace 
 family, formerly in partial use among some of its branches, is described, in the hooks of 
 the Office of Arms, to be, a Lion passant, argent, trampling on a Royal Scotch Thistle ; 
 in allusion to Sir Hamon le Gras' valour and loyalty, in opposing Lord Edward 
 Bruce's invasion. The crest of the Barons of Courtstown was, a Lion rampant, per 
 fess argent and or; but that of the Ballylinch, or Gracefield family, is a demi Lion 
 rampant, argent. 
 
IX 
 
 But turn awhile to gentler, happier themes: 
 
 Not all were deeds of ruthless war, but peace — 
 As when through darkest clouds the day-star beams — 
 
 Would sometimes bid the raging tempest cease. 
 Almaric ' loved (when, in this olden time, 
 
 Base laws existed, which no longer live) 
 
 The fair Tabina : — love was then a crime, 
 
 Which only royal favour could forgive. 
 
 In Saint John's holy aisle their ashes rest, 
 
 Beneath a marble tomb in sculpture fair, 
 Which, while its base his blazon'd arms exprest, 
 
 Did long the martial Baron's image bear : 
 His hands upon his breast in prayer upraised, 
 
 Beneath his feet a couchant talbot lay; 
 The warrior seeni'd as if on heaven he gazed, 
 
 While, all-forgotten, earth had pass'd away. 
 
 X. 
 
 'Midst many Chieftains lived another one, 
 
 Endear'd to Erin's stranger-trodden land ; 
 
 Oh ! 'tis a theme the muse might dwell upon, 
 
 And Fancy bid the pensive mind expand. 
 He loved the daughter of the brave O'More 2 , 
 
 The blue-eyed Ellen, fair as her own isle, 
 Before the hue of blood had tinged its shore, 
 
 Or war had chased away its placid smile. 
 
 (1) On the subject of Baron Almaric Grace's marriage with a daughter of the 
 Dynast of Ikerrin, it may be desirable to observe, that English families and their 
 descendants were sternly prohibited from intermarrying with the native Irish, by an 
 express law, entitled the " Statute of Kilkenny," which deemed it high-treason : and we 
 learn that Thomas Fiiz-Gerald, eighth Earl of Desmond, was executed in 1417 " for 
 having broken his allegiance by an Irish alliance and fosterage." This line of policy was 
 for some centuries adhered to by the English Government : and in public documents we 
 find the distinction uniformly made between Irish Enemies and English Rebels. Thus» 
 Sir John le Gras was empowered by a commission, dated at Naas on the 6th of March, 
 1381, to assemble and array all the inhabitants of the county of Kilkenny, having tem- 
 poralities there, to treat with Irish Enemies and English Rebels, and to muster forces 
 as often as was necessary, &c. &c. The marriage, therefore, here noticed between 
 Baron Almaric Grace and Tibina the daughter of O'Meagher, Prince or Dyoast of 
 Ikerrin. necessarily required a particular act of exemption ; which is dated at Trim the 
 28th of December ,18th of Richard II. , and runs as follows :— 
 
 " Ricardus &c. omnibus Ballivis &c. Sciatis, quod de gratia nostra speciali, et pro 
 melioratione pacts nostri comitatus Kylkenniensis, concessimus et licentiaro dedimus 
 Almarico Gras, Baroni de Gras, quod ipse Tibinam filiara O'Meagher Hibernici sure 
 nationis Capitanei ducere possit in uxorem, quibuscumque statutis, ordinationi- 
 bus,"&c.&c. Rot. Pat. Cancel. 90. Ric.2.m.l6. 
 
 (C) Sir Oliver Grace (called Feaseg , the Pearded,) Lord of Grace's Country and Baron 
 of Courtstown, married Ellen, youngest daughter of Anthony O'More, the Dynast or 
 Sovereign of Leix (or LeaO ; and with Dorothea, the eldest daughter of this Chieftain, 
 Thoma^Fitz-Gerald, seventh Earl of Kildare, received in dower the Manorsof Rheban and 
 Woodstock : it appears also that another of his daughters was the wife of Bryan Fita- 
 Palrick, Lord of Upper-Ossory. — The greatness of the O'More's family, previous to the 
 year 16.TO, may be inferred from the direct alliances it formed with the noble houses of 
 Kttdare.Onuond Tyrone, Kingsland, Upper-Ossory ,Glanmalyra,and others.— It is stated 
 
Then did the minstrel-music breathe again, 
 
 To sounds of joy the harp once more was strung; 
 And, while it struck upon a bolder strain, 
 
 The bard the deeds of Leix' brave Dynast sung. 
 Then hearts were warm within his castle walls, 
 
 Where dwelt Sir Oliver, the "bearded" chief; 
 And Erin joy'd to see, in Courtstown halls, 
 
 The rose united to her triple leaf 3 . , 
 
 XI. 
 
 His heir, who tarnish'd not his noble name, 
 
 And oft protected yonder ruin'd shrine, 
 Here, with his kinsman, noble Butler, came, 
 
 To crush ambition in the Geraldineí. 
 'Twas here the " iron-belted John" then hurl'd 
 
 The spear, and bore upon his arm the shield; 
 And here the standard of the Grace unfurl'd, 
 
 The white lion rampant on a blood-red field 5 . 
 Alas ! the helm that crown 'd his manly brow, 
 
 The greaves, and corslet, unregarded rust; 
 The sword he bore, supinely rests ; and now 
 
 St. Canice 6 towers inclose his noble dust. 
 And little of the great and brave is known, 
 
 Around whose brow was twined the laurel wreath, 
 Save the few words engraven on a stone, 
 
 To tell us who it is that rests beneath. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Nor let thy last Lord?, Jerpoint, be forgot, 
 
 Whose sorrows teach a lesson man should learn ;— 
 
 But Fancy leads me to the very spot 
 From whence he parted, never to return. 
 
 in the Dissertations'on the Ancient History of Ireland, that " the actions of the O'Mores of 
 Leix might fill a history of considerable extent ; nor could the English pale reckon 
 itself secure till their enemies (the O'Mores), were removed, in the reign of Philip and 
 Mary." In civilization, talent, and political consequence, the Dynasts of Leix are said 
 to have greatly surpassed the other native Chieftains ; and the ruins of their many 
 splendid religious and military edifices throughout the Queen's County (Leix) evince a 
 degree of taste and munificence highly illustrative of this characteristic preeminence. 
 
 (3) It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the " triple leaf" is meant to designate the 
 Shamrock, which is the ancient emblem of Ireland, as the Rose is that of England. 
 
 (4) Lord Thomas Fitz-Gerald, afterwards tenth Earl of Kildare, having in 1534 gone into 
 open rebellion, iudulged the hereditary feud of his family against the house of Ormond, 
 by laying waste the County of Kilkenny. In these turbulent times of feudal warfare, 
 we find the family of Grace firmly adhering to that of Butler : and it is accordingly 
 stated, that Sir John Grace (called Crios-iartmn, the Iron-belted), Lord of Grace's Country 
 and Baron of Courtstown, was engaged on the side of Lord James Butler in the 
 battle with Lord Thomas Fitz-Gerald, which took place about midway between Thomas- 
 town and the Abbey of Jerpoint. 
 
 (5) The armorial bearings of the Grace family are, gules.a lion rampant, per fess argent & or. 
 
 (6; Viz. the Cathedral Church of St. Canice in Kilkenny, or St. Canice's Church where 
 the family of Courtstown had their place of interment, though some of thera were 
 occasionally buried in Grace's Chapel at Tullaroan. 
 
 '7) The last Lord Abbot of Jerpoint was Oliver Grace Fitz-Oliver, a younger brother tt£ 
 
 Baron 
 
8 
 
 I mark the venerable Abbot stand 
 
 Beneath the shadow of his church's towers, 
 Grasping the wicket in his trembling hand, 
 
 Reverting to past scenes of happier hours, 
 And dwelling on the many years gone by 
 
 Since first his young lips breath'd his earliest prayer, 
 To lisp of Him who lives beyond the sky, 
 
 And nurse the hope he might behold him there. 
 And now he gazes,, ere his steps depart, 
 
 While earthly feelings wake that long had slept ; 
 Then, with a look which spoke a breaking heart, 
 
 He turn'd him from his hallow'd home, and wept. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 How little dream we, in our days of joy, 
 
 That sorrow's stab will reach our bosoms yet, 
 And wound the heart it cannot all destroy, 
 
 When the blight sun of early hopes is set- 
 Who that had seen the Abbot in his power, 
 
 Lord of a palace and a rich domain, 
 Had thought that time would bring a Blighting hour, 
 
 And prove that all his honours bloom'd in vain? 
 Oh ! what is man ? even in his brightest day, 
 
 An insect whom the summer sun gives birth, 
 To bask and perish in the solar ray, 
 
 Then sink again into his kindred earth. 
 But he whose good deeds form his monument, 
 
 Whose heart the world may wound, but not defile, 
 To whom Heaven's image not in vain is lent, 
 
 May still, amid the wreck of Nature, smile. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Forget not him — while many a noble name 
 
 The memory of the spot I tread, supplies — 
 Who to the sacred fount of learning came, ; 
 
 And gain'd the appellation of " the wise," 
 The founder of " the Leagans '," honour'd line, *• 
 
 Whose name is unforgotten even now, 
 When war unfurl'd his standard, sought to twine 
 
 The olive-branch around his country's brow. 
 
 Baron John(Crios-iarann) Grace, and Uncle both to Baron John (A/ore) Grace of Courts- 
 town, and to Sir Oliver (Ciallmhar) Grace of Legan, Ballylinch, and Carney, each of 
 whom were men of considerable note in their time. He enjoyed the privileges of a peer 
 of Parliament, and the plentiful revenues of one of the most splendid Abbeys in the 
 Kingdom were at his command. On the suppression of this religious house in 1540, the 
 Abbot and Monks were expelled, and thrown upon the world, with the dole of a scanty 
 and precarious pittance for their subsistence. 
 <p Sir Oliver Grace (called Ctallmhar, The Wise) of Leagm Castle fi;c. was a younger 
 
Rewarded by his regal Mistress, long 
 
 He bore the honours he had earn'd so well; 
 And still the herald's list and minstrel's song 
 
 The deeds and virtues of "Ciallmhar" tell. 
 And now within yon abbey.towers he sleeps; — 
 
 But oft the peasant, wandering through its walls, 
 Upon the grave, that "holds his ashes, weeps, 
 
 And the high name, his fathers loved, recalls. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Mourn for thy Chieftain, Ballylinch 3 ! the field, 
 
 The battle-field, where met the young and brave ! 
 That sun which shone o'er many a broken shield 
 
 Gleam'd o'er thy youthful Gerald's 3 soldier-grave. 
 There, by his kinsman bold Mountgarret's side, 
 
 While o'er the crimson'd plain high waved their crests, 
 There, as a soldier loves to die, he died ; 
 
 There, where a soldier loves to rest, he rests. 
 Oh ! weep for him ; and let the minstrel strains 
 
 To other times his worth and valour tell ! 
 
 Kilrush ! Kilrush ! accursed be thy plains, 
 
 Where the bright star of Grace's lineage fell !— 
 
 son of Sir John Grace (called Crios-iarann, the Iron-belted;, Lord of Grace's Country and 
 Baron of Courtstown. " Grwsagh ciallmhar an Leagan " (The wise Grace of the Lea 
 gan), furnishes in this neighbourhood, even to the present day, subject for a comparison 
 and material for a proverb. His services to the Crown are noticed in Sir Henry Sid' 
 ney's State Letters ; and Queen Elizabeth, in 1563, granted the site, estates, and livings 
 in the counties of Tipperary, Kilkenny, the King'sCounty, and elsewhere.of the dissolved 
 Priory of St. John, near Nenagh, to Sir Oliver Grace of " the Leagan," to be held by the 
 sole tenure of homage and fealty, with remainder to his issue male by Mary sister of 
 Maurice Lord Viscount Decies, and daughter of Sir Gerald Fitz-Gerald, third' Lord of 
 Decres, by Ellice, daughter of Pierce Butler, eighth Earl of Ormond. He died about 
 1580 ; and was interred in Jerpoint Abbey, where his wife, who died in 1605 was also 
 buriea. ' 
 
 G) " The primitive choice," says Gibbon, " of every word must have had a cause 
 and a meaning ; an observation which the significance of the Celtic language strikingly 
 exemplifies. In Ireland as in Wales, the original denominations of places are uniformly 
 descriptive of their topography, unless where altered by some strong effort of human 
 exertion, or by some extraordinary revulsion of the laws of nature. Thus Bally-Inch 
 (sometimes corruptly called .Ballyhinch as well as Ballylinchji.e. ' the peninsulated 
 townland or the dwelling-place of the peninsula,' obtained its name from the large curve 
 or bend of the river Nore, commencing on the north between Killerney and the junc- 
 tion of the Oon-Bigh or King's-river, and terminating on the south, a little beyond 
 Thomastown. The whole tract of land Here encompassed on three sides by this great sweep 
 was formerly known by the general name of Bally-Inch, though parts of it are now ex- 
 clusively recognized by its sub-denominations. 
 
 (3) Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch, Leagan and Carney Castles, was son of Oliver Grace of 
 Ballylinch Sic. (who dying in 1626, was interred at Jerpoint Abbey), by his wife, Mar- 
 garet Butler, daughter of Edmund, second Viscount Mountgarret, and sister of Richard 
 the third Viscount. It is well known that this last nobleman was President of the Su- 
 preme Council of Catholics, and Commander-in-chief of their army which was defeated 
 in 1642, with great slaughter, at Kilrush, in the county of Kildare. Lord Mountgarret 
 was accompanied by his nephew, Gerald Grace, who was slain in the battle ; and also by 
 his kinsmen, the Lords Ikerrin, Dunboyne, Loughmoe, Sir Morgan Kavanagh. and 
 others. 
 
10 
 
 But tranquilly the youthful warrior sleeps, 
 And on his grave the lark has built her nest, 
 
 While o'er the hero's head the willow weeps, 
 And many a floweret blooms above his breast. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 But, when the battle, vainly fought, was o'er, 
 
 And the bright sun had drunk the hero's blood ; 
 When his heart beat with youthful hope no more, 
 
 Its life-stream mingled with the passing flood ; 
 The democratic Despot ' seized the land 
 
 Of him who, fighting for his country, fell : — 
 'Tis melancholy, that the spoiler's hand 
 
 Can touch the temple where the free should dwell ! 
 Then, Leix 3 , thy plains received the injured race, 
 
 Denied the shelter of their castle walls ; 
 And Gracefield, thy sweet spot, their resting-place; — 
 
 They grieve no longer for their ancient halls. 
 There, tranquil Aries 3 , on thy wood-crown'd hill, 
 
 Beneath whose base thy waters, Barrow ! spread, 
 The hallow'd Mausoleum stands, and still 
 
 Inurns the honour'd ashes of the dead. — 
 
 XVII. 
 
 But other feelings rise to speak of him, 
 
 The splendours of whose virtues gild the Grace ; 
 
 The lustre on the warrior's sword grows dim, 
 And the proud statesman's honours, years efface; 
 
 CD On the death of Gerald Grace (slain at KilrustO, Oliver Cromwell seized the estates of 
 the Ballylinch family, in the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary,and also in the King's 
 and Queen's Counties, containing above seventeen thousand acres of land, and sixteen 
 rectories, which he distributed among his followers. The loss of this great patrimony 
 ■was soon afterwards rendered irretrievable, by the Act of Settlement, which, on the 
 Restoration, secured to thegrantees of Cromwell.with some few exceptions,whatever pos- 
 sessions they then enjoyed. A very ancient and curious original MS. contains the 
 following extract relative to the Kilkenny Estates, " Ballylinch, Leagan, Raduth, 
 Killearney, Fussamacnda, Grace's-Court, Thomastowne, and Aghaviller, were at the 
 same tyme given to the Captaines Rogers and Joyner. Sir John Barlowy had some 
 interest in the said lands from Captain Joyner, but reconveyed the same to Joyner, 
 who was cook to King Charless, tho' not his friend ; wherefore to secure said estate 
 hee conveyed it to his brother-in-law. Col. Daniel Redmonds, who gave Ballylinch aud 
 Legan to his daughter the Lady Ikerin, and the remainder to his other daughter mar- 
 ryed to Sir John Meade." 
 
 " Capt. Rogers save Killearney and Raduth to one Myhell, on a marriage of Rogers 
 his daughter to Myhell." 
 
 (2) The Queen's County was formed in 1557, out of the great territory of Leix ("or 
 Leas), of which the O'Mores were Lords; and obtained its present appellation in com- 
 pliment to Queen Mary, the reigning Sovereign. The King's County was also so 
 denominated from her Consort, King Philip. Hence also was the County town of the 
 former called Maryborough ; aud that of the latter, Philipstown. 
 
 (3) The picturesque little village of Aries is distant about two miles south of Grace- 
 field; and the only building within the ancient limits of its Church-yard is the Grace 
 Mausoleum, embosomed in venerable trees of great size. This burial-place occupies 
 the highest point of an arm or promontory of the Sleivemarigue Hills, that stretches 
 into the spacious vale through which the river Barrow pursues its way to the town of Car- 
 low, and is distinguishable fromRathcoole in the Countyof Dublin, distant above 3f miles. 
 
11 
 
 But time can never blot a virtuous deed ; 
 
 And his of Shanganagh 4 shines bright and fair: 
 He little reck'd his adversary's creed, 
 
 Who sought his hearth, and found protection there. 
 The children loved him, and their parents bless'd 
 
 The hand that fed their offspring: even his foes 
 (Foes only in the field of war) attest 
 
 His worth, whose heart in danger did not close, 
 But opened like that fair and fragrant flower 5 , 
 
 Which, leaving other blooms to deck the light ; 
 Shines not, unfolding, in the sunny hour, 
 
 But gives its sweets and beauty to the night. 
 
 (4) Oliver Grace of Shanganagh (now Gracefield)was the son of William Grace, denomi- 
 nated of Ballylinch, and the grandson of Gerald Grace, who accompanied, as already 
 noticed, his Uncle, the Lord Mountgarret, to the battle of Kilrush, where he was slain 
 in 1642. At the period of the Revolution, Oliver Grace held the high office of 
 Chief Remembrancer of the Exchequer, and was also of King James's Privy Council, 
 and a member of his Parliament. But during the short gleam of prosperity his party 
 enjoyed, though thus officially circumstanced, he threw open his house at Shanganagh, 
 as a place of sure refuge to the helpless wives and children of the absent Protestants. 
 This service, so valuable at such a season, was gratefully acknowledged in the petition 
 of the Protestant Gentry of the Queen's County to King "William, that its beneficent 
 author should be exempted from the penalties incurred by his attachment to the fortunes 
 of the fallen Prince. It is but just to King William's memory, to add, that with the 
 prayer of this petition he not only immediately complied, but expressed his satisfaction 
 at being enabled so to do, in favour of conduct so honourable and humane. He died in 
 1708, aged 47, and is interred in the Grace Mausoleum at Aries. The conduct also of 
 Colonel Richard Grace of Moyelly Castle, while Governor of Athlone, is further illus- 
 trative of the feelings by which men of sense, of honour, and of principle, to whatever 
 party they belong, always are, and always must be, influenced. In King James's Me- 
 moirs, edited by Clarke, it is stated, that " Colonel Richard Grace, after having served 
 *' the late King Charles till the surrender of Oxford, then going over into Ireland, had 
 ** there served King Charles II. so long as any part of that island held out for him : 
 "when that war was ended, he obtained leave from the English rebels to carry over a 
 " regiment into Spain of his own countrymen, consisting of twelve hundred fine effec- 
 *' tive men." He appears, by Heath's Chronicle, to have been the last person of note 
 who resisted the power of Cromwell ; and his individual importance may be gathered 
 from a rudely-executed engraving, under which is written," The pourtraiture of Collonell 
 " Richard Grace, now utterly routed by the coragious Coll. Sanckey," — "are to be 
 " souldby J. Smith in Back layne, 1652."— We find, inStrean's account of Athlone, that" 
 *' during the Usurpation of Cromwell, Colonel .Grace had been for many years the 
 " Chamberlain to King JameswhileDukeof York. When the Duke, in 1655, took refuge 
 " in the Spanish territories, he alone was confided with the secret of his sudden journey, 
 " and accompanied him. He also attended him to Breda, when his brother, Charles II . 
 " was recalled from thence, in 1660, to his dominions. And it appears, by a letter still 
 " extant, acknowledging the receipt of a thousand gold pieces from John Grace of 
 ** Courtstown in the County of Kilkenny, for the use of the exiled princes, that 
 "his royal master, during that period, treated him with the familiarity of an equal 
 " rather than the reserve of a sovereign. Hence arose that warm attachment to his 
 " person, and those indefatigable exertions in his service, that so preeminently distin- 
 a * guished him on all occasions." — " His conduct to the Protestant inhabitants of the 
 " district (Athlone) under his command is said to have been so singularly humane and 
 "'just, as to bring censure upon him, for granting them protections too profusely, and 
 " administering to them justice too impartially. Hence it was that, till the arrival of 
 " General Douglas, this neighbourhood enjoyed a degree of tranquillity unknown 
 " elsewhere. The lifeless bodies of ten of his soldiers, executed together beyond the 
 ** walls of the town, proclaimed his determination to repress military outrages : but 
 *' though the severity of his discipline was contrasted with the prevailing licentiousness 
 *• of the Irish army, he nevertheless possessed, in an eminent degree, the affections as 
 *' well as the confidence of his soldiers." 
 
 (5 J The great night-blowing Cereus begins to open between seven and eight o'clock 
 in the evening, is fully blown by eleven, and by three or four in the morning it fades, 
 and hangs down quite decayed. It is likewise singularly beautiful, odoriferous, and 
 magnificent, and the calix when open is a foot in diameter. 
 
12 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Oh ! can the good, the honour'd, be forgot, 
 
 When virtue claims the tribute of the Muse ; 
 And he of Boley 1 be remember'd not, 
 
 "While many a tearful eye his tomb bedews ? — 
 There Genius loves his station still to keep, 
 
 And dignify the tomb affection rears ; 
 There Piety bends o'er the spot to weep ; 
 
 And Pity gems his sepulchre with tears. 
 There the lone mother brings her infant child, 
 
 There breathes the woe-fraught accents of distress, 
 For him, beneath whose smile the widow smiled, 
 
 For him, the father to the fatherless. 
 The peasants loved their master as their sire, 
 
 And grieve for him as for a parent dead ; 
 They mourn him, whom to know was to admire; 
 
 And bless him, as his grave they lightly tread. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Who, when Rebellion rear'd her wither'd form, 
 
 And pour'd her baneful stream on noblest hearts — 
 Hearts kind by nature, and by country warm — 
 
 Disarm'd the daemon of her poison'd darts ? 
 Who in the Senate gave his country laws? 
 
 And who, when Discord levell'd at her weal, 
 Stood forth the champion of his country's cause, 
 
 And hallowed language with the patriot's» zeal? 
 
 (13 Richard Grace, of Boley, M.P. was son of William Grace, who was third son of 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefield. He died at Southville, oo Friday the 9th of January, 
 1801, aged 40 ; and is interred in the Grace Mausoleum at Aries ; leaving issue, by Jane, 
 daughter of the Honourable John Evans of Bulgaden Hall, three sons ; viz. Sir William 
 Grace, Bart. ; Sheffield Grace, of Lincoln's Inn, F. S. A. formerly of Winchester Col- 
 lege, and afterwards of St, Mary Hall, Oxford; and Percy Grace, a Captain in the Royal 
 Navy, commanding his Majesty's ship Cyrene. 
 
 Í2J The term patriot has undoubtedly been debased in a promiscuous circulation ; but 
 be it remembered, that while it retains its sterling value, the medal is the proudest 
 upon which the name of man can be impressed. Be it likewise remembered, that the 
 same term bears no necessary connection with political interferences ; for he is the best of 
 patriots by whom the brightest example of all the domestic virtues is exhibited. In the 
 present instance, the public services of this gentleman, at a very disastrous period, were 
 of no ordinary kind ; and must be regarded with the more complacency, as having been not 
 enforced by violence, but rendered efficacious by the milder influence of an affectionate 
 authority. His zeal to suppress the rebellion of 1798, both in his military and private 
 character, though tempered by humanity and governed by law, was perhaps, in solid 
 results, unequalled. The love and veneration which the whole tenor of his conduct had 
 previously established among a people warm-hearted and grateful, when gratitude is 
 deserved, so influenced his exhortations, that he recovered from them seven hundred 
 stand of arms, in the sincerity of their repentance. This important proof of contrition , 
 strengthened by their subsequent good conduct, enabled him to obtain a full pardon and 
 security for their lives and property, which their delusions had forfeited. His disin- 
 terested parliamentary conduct likewise contributed to this influence, as well as the 
 
 practice 
 
13 
 
 'Twas Richard Grace !— and if a noble mind, 
 
 A genius brilliant, and a heart sincere, 
 If feelings soften'd, and if taste refined, 
 
 Gone from us, claim the tributary tear, 
 We weep for him. That tear can never cease, 
 
 Which flows when virtue's mortal course is o'er; 
 When the earth's excellent depart in peace, 
 
 And, fading from us, are beheld no more. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Yet with him perish'd not the name of Grace : 
 
 His Son 3 , to whom my muse inscribes her lays, 
 Bears with the name the virtues of his race, 
 
 And claims a portion of the muse's praise. 
 Long may he tread the path his sires have trod, 
 
 Like them to deck his brow with wreaths of fame ! 
 And when he sleeps beneath the clay-cold sod, 
 
 The bard shall eulogize his honour'd name. 
 
 Yet blame him not, if, while he breathes the lay 
 
 To worth departed, ere his efforts end, 
 He seeks— though weak those efforts be— to pay 
 
 The tribute of affection to his friend; 
 That hallow'd name round every heart entwines, 
 
 And all the feelings of the soul awake ; — 
 Sheffield! thou wilt accept these nerveless lines— 
 
 Deem kindly of them for the minstrel's sake. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 But my thoughts wander: 1 again retrace 
 
 The path from whence those feelings led astray, 
 
 Now I have paid that tribute to the Grace, 
 Which still is claim'd by grandeur in decay. 
 
 Tf^lT^ hÍS ^ k T !C CirC ,' e ° f ™ aCtiTC Md ""-"«"latei benevolence. In a year 
 of generaldearth.bnttonwell remembered through the country, bis extensive and On p". 
 port,™ to h,s property) splendid charity was of the most decisive service to a distressed 
 
 fZ Í ££:„"? ll ■ fi r hundred peop,e were indebted t0 bim f ° r their *a* -»W 7 of 
 
 Zt'^l^ t t Tr"?^«»n. But it seemed good to that Being who measure out 
 
 a ,n hi' 3 man f ? lfWd ' 5 ° ad0med ' S ° actiTe ia "" ««eof virtue, so emTnent ly 
 
 valuable in every relauon of life, should have been so immaturely lost to his country 
 ZZ th and P°™ rt y- *° u ' h »d age, testified, in a funeral procession of nearly 10 w 
 oossM'e ^ 1 ' vehe5 VH ntImentS „ 0f l0VC ' eSttem ' and *™ tUud °- B ™- mdeeX scarce 
 pS£lv S »*' unlnfiuen « d ^the captivating power, with which he TO so 
 bfc'rfS, h pre I>° 5s ? s , lng a PP earan « of Person, refinement of manners, 
 onll.ancy of talent, and extent of knowledge, were as untainted by affectation m hi» 
 
 b,?oÍv enC i;r IT !!' 6 " ^ "j^- "Morality by ostentation^r his reigion by 
 n MB ? ' I J i - e character °f *> accomplished gentleman was unequivocally exem 
 •?i?£ he dut.es of a virtuous citizen conscientiously discharged 
 
 -£*^Z%^o™- A ' the SeC0Dd S °° ° f Ri ^ *-• of Bo!ey. M.P. 
 
14 
 
 And if my fancy has been with them long, 
 
 And with their former greatness — now gone by, 
 It is the minstrel's pride to breathe in song 
 
 Of deeds and heroes that should never die. 
 And if no longer Rulers in the land ; 
 
 Their ancient power and splendour traced alone 
 In ruins, touch'd by Time's unsparing hand, 
 
 O'er which the plough has . pass'd, or weeds have grown ; 
 Yet they are numberless 1 ; and o'er each scene 
 
 Exist the broken walls of castles fair, 
 To tell what Courtstown's Earons once have been, 
 
 And what the Lords of Grace's Country 2 were. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 No more the banners o'er their ramparts wave, 
 
 Or lead their Chieftains onward to the fight, 
 Where die the vanquish'd, or exult the brave, 
 
 For victory — basking in its worshipp'd light. 
 Gone are the heroes of the days of yore ; 
 
 Their enemies, like them, have felt decay; 
 The Chiefs of Ossory, and Leix' O'More 3 , 
 
 Are mingled in the dust with common clay. 
 
 (1) Among the Castles built by different branches of the Grace Family, the Ruins are 
 still standing of those of Inchmore, Gaulstown, Tubrid, Rathely-Grace. and Killaghy in 
 the barony of Cranagh and in Grace's Country ; of Ballylinch, Killerney , and Leagan near 
 Thomastown; of Agheviller near Knocktopher; of Grace Castle near Castletown in the 
 Queen's County ; of Grace-Town Castle near Kellenaule ; of Grace Castle near Clogheen ; 
 of Carney Castle near Neuagh ; of Brittas Castle near Thurles, and of Uskane in the 
 county of Tipperary ; of Castle Grace near Tullow, county of Carlow : and there have 
 been, doubtless, many others belonging to this family, throughout their extensive pos- 
 sessions, of which no vestiges remain. Time and innovation have, however, hitherto 
 spared the foregoing venerable landmarks of towering greatness and mighty ruin. 
 
 (2) Grace's Country comprehends the barony of Cranagh ; and extends northwards, 
 by the liberties of Kilkenny and the river Nore, to the borders of the Queen's County ; 
 and thence southwards, along the borders of Tipperary and the Munster-river, to the 
 liberties of Callan ; forming a district between eleven and twelve miles in length, and 
 between five and six in breadth. The attachment of the last baron of Courtstown to 
 the House of Stuart, at the period of the Revolution, induced the loss of all that then re- 
 mained to the family of this ancient and princely patrimony. According to the analysis 
 of the Down Survey, the forfeiture on that occasion, of estates in this county and else- 
 where, amounted to 32,870 acres of land. 
 
 C3J Amoug the peasantry of Grace's Country, many traditionary tales, both in prose and 
 verse, are still preserved, illustrative of scenes of feudal warfare between the Barons of 
 Courtstown and the royal Milesian Septs of the Fitz-Patricks of Ossory, and the O'Mores 
 of Leix Cor Leas). The tales of these exploits are the tales most dear to the descendants of 
 the combatants engaged in these encounters ; and, with a filial piety of forgetfulness, they 
 cannot remember one single occasion upon which they were ever worsted. There are 
 also other Poems still extant in the Irish language, of a moie domestic character, com- 
 memoratiug births, deaths, marriages, feasts, hunting, and other occurrences of the 
 Grace family. Several of these traditionary effusions have been transcribed from their 
 oral sources, and are far from being destitute of merit. The peculiarity of their style is 
 remarkable for that excessive luxuriance of figurative language and hyperbole of ex- 
 pression which characterize the Poetry of Ossian. The prasantry of the Walsh moun- 
 tains, in this neighbourhood, could furnish many a weapon to those who contend that 
 Ireland is the birth-place of the ancient bard. 
 
15 
 
 Nor now through Tullaroan's 4 sacred aisles 
 
 The holy fathers meditating tread ; 
 Or Rossibercon near the waters smiles; 
 
 Or o'er the vale Rathely lifts its head. 
 The wonted minstrel in Killerney's halls 
 
 Awakes no more his lone harp's tuneless string; 
 No longer now from Inchmore's echoing walls 
 
 The sounds of revelry and rapture spring. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 But mark where yonder dusky clouds roll on, 
 
 To cast a darker shade on all below ! 
 Now that the minstrels of the woods are gone, 
 
 The stream makes lonely music in its flow: 
 Thy stream, thou lovely river ! thine, sweet Nore ! 
 
 Flowing, though all around thee feel decay; 
 Thy banks still verdant as in days of yore; 
 
 Through the same plains thy crystal waters stray; 
 Still through the same untrodden pathway glide, 
 
 On to the trackless ocean's silver shore, 
 Till, mingling with the dark and briny tide, 
 
 Its clear and taintless nature is no more. — 
 How like each early hope, each infant thought ! 
 
 When the young heart like yonder stream could stray, 
 Till from the world its spotless hue has caught 
 
 The taint and tinge of sorrow on its way. 
 
 C4) A small Friary -was founded by the Grace Family at Tullaroaji, in Grace's Country, 
 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The foundation walls, situated to the south of Tul- 
 laroan church and Grace's chapel, are now scarcely discernible, though it appears that 
 part of the eastern window was standing when Mr. Anthony Chearnley, of Burnt Court, 
 formed his collection of views from ancient remains, about the year 1750. It is said to 
 have been a dependent Cell on the great Dominican Priory of Rossibercon; conjointly 
 founded in IC67, by the families of Grace and Walsh. The monastic ruins of Rossibercon 
 are singularly picturesque and attractive. From the lofty tower of the church, supported 
 on four pointed arches, and adorned with pinnacles, an arcade extends, formed by the inte- 
 rior south wall of the aisle, containing five Gothic arches of noble dimensions, over which 
 are ten windows, each divided bymullions, and terminating in circular tops. Other less 
 interesting remains, together with numerous tomb-stones, are dispersed around. But to 
 the adjoining scene, as connected with this monastery, must be attributed the chief at- 
 traction. Seated on the river Barrow, which here magnificently expands, and is navi- 
 gable for ships of considerable size, the eye contemplates, through a lofty row of ivy- 
 covered arches, the larger vessels occasionally passing in full sail, amongst the scattered 
 and almost motionless specks of fishing-boats. To this animated scene a noble back-ground 
 is furnished by the town of Ross, which occupies the side of a precipitous hill, majesti- 
 cally crowned by the extensive and venerable ruins of the great conventual church and 
 monastery of St. Saviour. The interspersion also of trees in the gardens" through the 
 town, and about the cottages in its outskirts, even down to the water edge, contribute to 
 the enlivening variety of the picture. It is indeed scarcely possible to imagine a hap- 
 pier or more eloquent or more impressive combination of circumstances than this grouping 
 presents, for the pencil of the artist, the reasoning of the philosopher, or the reflections of 
 the moralist to pause upon. The eastern window, gable-end, and side walls of the 
 church of Rathely -Grace, in the Barony of Cranagh and Grace's Country, is still stand- 
 ing. This very ancient structure of the Grace Family measures, internally, 30 feet in 
 length, by 18 in breadth.— Eillerney was a seat of the Graces of Ballylinch Castle; and 
 Inchmore, situated in Grace's Country, was formerly a residence of considerable note, 
 belonging to the Barons of Courtstown. 
 
16 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 O Night ! how many a thing we learn from thee — 
 
 Mother of contemplation ! we may gaze 
 Through thy deep curtains on the Deity, 
 
 With eyes unblinded by the sun's bright blaze. 
 Oh, nurse of fency ! on thy spotless wing, 
 
 When in thy holy west the day-beam falls 
 To happier, brighter worlds, the soul may spring, 
 
 And leave the day to its ephemerals. 
 How oft, when thou wert passing o'er the earth, 
 
 And trampling Nature's fairest on thy way, 
 Thy shadows gave my pensive feelings birth, 
 
 And I have loved in thy lone hour to stray ! 
 Thy coronet was gemm'd with worlds of light, 
 
 By distance soften'd ; and thy sable dress 
 Was sparkled o'er by orbs, that beam'd so bright, 
 
 As they were conscious of thy loveliness. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 But now it seems as 'twere thy mourning hour; 
 
 The dew, thou weep'st, falls heavily around ; 
 And Nature feels not thy refreshing power, 
 
 Give trees their bloom and verdure to the ground. 
 Farewell! — all chill and cheerless as thou art, 
 
 Thy clouds hang o'er yon fane ; whose fallen state- 
 How true an emblem of the human heart ! 
 
 Which, once deserted, soon is desolate. 
 
 Farewell ! — those relics of the days gone by, 
 
 Have waken' d feelings which thy shadowy reign 
 Has call'd forth into being; and thy sky, 
 
 Though dark, I have not gaz'd upon in vain. 
 
 Farewell ! — yon ruin'd tower and broken wall, 
 
 Near which on many an eve I've loved to stray, 
 Teach me, that thus our proudest hopes must fall, 
 
 And leave us, time-worn, darkly to decay. 
 
= 
 
 
 2 
 = 
 
 
On JoBif Grace of Brittas Castle, and on his Wife 
 Ellen Pvrcell of Loughmoe. 
 
 Siste Viator, et vide 
 
 Non Epitaphium sed Epithalamium, non Tumulum sed 
 Thalamum, extructum anno Domini 1683. Marituset Uxor, 
 alter in alterius gremio recumbentes, hie pleni gratia? 
 requiescunt. Joannes Grace, Armiger, legum et juris 
 potens, antistes, vir pectore et lingua inculpatus, pater patrias, 
 propaginis solicitus. Ellena Purcell obiit sexto Junii 
 1681 : fcemina ccelestis, claris orta natalibus, pauperibus 
 matrona, mater studiosa. Uterqueunus, non duo; ambo beati, 
 non mortui hie, sed vivi latitant. Precare ergo Viator, et cane, 
 Io Triumphe ! 
 
 One faith in Christ us joined in bonds of love, 
 Nor life nor death our tie could e'er remove, 
 We lived. Christ was our guide through life alone ; 
 Christ holds us up, though laid within this stone. 
 
 Tnurles Church. 
 

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TRANSLATIONS 
 
 MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS 
 
 AND OTHER COMMEMORATIVE COMPOSITIONS 
 IN THIS COLLECTION. 
 
 Over the North Entrance to the Grace-Mausoleum at Aries, in the 
 Queen's County. 
 
 Here, in heaven-hallow'd sleep the Graces lie. 
 They sleep :— we dare not say the good can die.* 
 
 This Mausoleum 
 
 Was erected in the year of our Lord, 181S, 
 
 By 
 
 Alicia Kavanagh, daughter of Michael Grace, of Gracefield, esq. 
 
 Sir William Grace, baronet, 
 
 And his brothers, 
 
 Sheffield Grace, a barrister at law, and 
 
 Percy Grace, a captain in the royal navy, 
 
 For themselves and their posterity, 
 
 On the site of the south wing of Aries-church, 
 
 Founded in the year of Christ, 1687, 
 
 By Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh, now Gracefield, esq. 
 
 For the cemetery of the Grace-family, 
 
 But long since fallen into ruins. 
 
 Lo ! where those fallen monuments recline, 
 
 The lords o'erwhelming of an ancient line; 
 
 With omens good, and hope of lasting days, 
 
 This pile fraternal love unites to raise — 
 
 Hail, pious work ! and may'st thou shelter those 
 
 In death, who rear'd thee for their sires repose. 
 
 S.G. 
 
 • The Greek disticb, of which these lines are the translation, has been also thus 
 rendered: 
 
 Within these walls in sacred dust recline 
 
 The long, long train of Grace's noble line: 
 They are not dead — though silent here they lie, 
 How can the noble and the virtuous die ? 
 And in Latin thns, 
 
 Hie Crassi, gens clara, jacent, sacroque fruuntur 
 Sornno: crede mihi morte carere bouos. 
 
 And thus, 
 
 Hie GracKorum sacra gens pace quiescunt 
 Nobilis: baud credas posse perire bonus. 
 
2 TRANSLATIONS OF 
 
 Epitaph on the first Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, al. Shanganagh. 
 
 Here lies the body of Oliver Grace, late of Shanganagh, esquire, 
 Who departed this life on the 8th day of June, 1708, 
 And in the 47th year of his age.* 
 His name above — beneath his virtues trace, 
 His actions noble as the name of Grace ; 
 Pious and just, to spouse and offspring kind, 
 Frank to his neighbour, and in death resign'd. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 • In the original epitaph this part is in English, and is followed by four lines of 
 Latin verse, translated as above. 
 
 On the first Michael Grace, of Gracefield, and on Jiis wife, Mary 
 Galway, of Lota-House. 
 
 To the memory of 
 
 Michael Grace, 
 
 A man of untainted morals, 
 
 Of boundless charity, of exalted vu'tue: 
 
 He lived 78 years, and died in 1760 
 
 And of Mary his wife, 
 
 Who was faithful to her husband, 
 
 Exemplary to her children, most devoted to her God. 
 
 She lived 55 years, and died in 1736. 
 
 To his very deserving parents, 
 
 Oliver, 
 
 Their eldest son, has erected this monument. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 On Frances Grace, al. Walker, the first wife of John Grace, 
 of the Grange. 
 Here lies the body of Madam Frances Walker, 
 Widow of colonel Thomas Dalzell, and late wife unto John Grace, esq., 
 Who departed this life the 26th day of July, 
 In the five and thirtieth year of her age, 
 And in the year of our Lord 1709.* 
 Lo ! stranger, thou who wand'rest thro' the gloom 
 In faith unsettled, haste to Frances 1 tomb ; 
 There, there the light, tV unerring light you'll find, 
 Pursue each virtue that adorn'd her mind ; 
 E'en from the tomb these brilliant virtues glow, 
 They'll light your footsteps thro' this world of woe ; 
 They shine a torch to all that wander here, 
 She shines an angel in th' exalted sphere. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 ■ In the original epitaph this part is in English, and is followed by four lines of 
 Latin verse, translated as above. 
 
 On the second Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 
 D. O. M.* 
 
 Sacred to the memory 
 
 Of Michael Grace, of Gracefield, in this county, esq., 
 
 Son and heir of Oliver Grace, esq. 
 
 " Deo Optimo Maximo. To God the most excellent and the Almighty. 
 
INSCRIPTIONS, &c. 3 
 
 He was distinguished by 
 
 The extensive knowledge he acquired 
 
 As well in ancient as in modern learning, 
 
 His extraordinary candour of disposition, 
 
 His peculiar sweetness of manners, 
 
 His spotless integrity of heart, 
 And his sincere piety towards God. 
 He lived not less beloved than he died lamented. 
 He was born at Gracefield, in 1735, 
 Was married in 1765, 
 And, dying in Dublin, on the 25th day of August, 
 Was buried in this cemetery, 
 On the 1st day of September, a.d. 1785. 
 Cease, dearest spouse, thy pious tears to shed, 
 Not floods of woe can renovate the dead : 
 Not e'en thy faith, thy duteous deeds thro' life 
 Th' unfeigned affection of a pious wife, 
 The vital spark from certain death can save — 
 Know all must die — then think upon the grave. 
 
 Alicia, his most affectionate only daughter and heiress, has erected 
 this lasting monument of her love and fond regret. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 On Mary Grace, al. Plunket, of Dunsoghly-Catfle, the wife of the 
 second Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 
 P. O. M. 
 
 Sacred to the memory 
 
 Of Mary Grace, daughter and co-heir of Nicholas Plunket, 
 
 Of Dunsoghly-Castle, in the county of Dublin, esq., 
 
 And widow of Michael Grace, of Gracefield, in this county, esq., 
 
 She was distinguished by 
 
 Her extreme charity towards the poor, 
 
 Her great fidelity towards her friends, 
 
 Her singular piety towards her parents, 
 
 Her most faithful love towards her husband, 
 
 And her perfect devotion towards her God. 
 
 Thus indued with pure faith and Christian virtues, 
 
 And already matured for heaven, she died. 
 She was born at the castle of Dunsoghly, in 1734, 
 
 Was married in 1765, 
 And, dying in Dublin, on the 9th day of October, 
 
 Was buried in this cemetery 
 On the 16th day of the same month, A. D. 1797. 
 Dear spouse, most cheerfully submiss to fate, 
 I follow thee through life's eternal gate ; 
 With heart most williug thro' the shades of night 
 1 fly to seek thee in the realms of light. 
 Oh! may our concord, truth, connubial love, 
 Unite our spirits in the realms above. 
 Alicia, her most affectionate only daughter and heiress, has erected this 
 lasting monument of her love and fond regret. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
4 TRANSLATIONS OF 
 
 On Jo/in Dowell Grace, of Mantua- House, second son of the 2d Oliver 
 Grace, of Gracefield ; and on kis wife, Mary Hussey, of Ardimore. 
 
 A * & • fl* 
 
 Sacred to the ashes and the memory 
 
 Of John Dowell Grace, of Mantua, in this county, 
 
 The youngest son of Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, 
 
 Iu the Queen's County. 
 
 Who, devoted in his youth to arms, 
 
 Acquired much honor, under the Austrian generals, 
 
 While commanding a corps in the Wirtemberg dragoons, 
 
 In the German and Turkish wars : 
 
 He was moderate in prosperity, and not dejected in adversity, 
 
 Was kind towards his associates, faithful towards his friends, 
 
 Of a most sweet disposition : 
 
 He lived 75 years ; 
 
 And, exhausted by a lingering illness, but unconquered in mind, 
 
 He died 
 
 On the 25th day of April, in the year of Christ, 1811 ; 
 
 And lies buried in this sepulchre, 
 Together with his most beloved and most virtuous wife, 
 
 Mary, the daughter and co-heir of 
 
 Patrick Hussey, of Ardimore, in the county of Kerry, 
 
 Who died on the 7th day of November, in the year of Christ, 1819, 
 
 Aged 57 years. 
 
 Oliver, their only son, 
 
 Erected this marble to his most excellent parents, A.c. 1820. 
 
 Hail, ye pious spirits ! may ye repose together in peace ! 
 
 Tulsk-Abbey, co. of Roscommon. 
 • To Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. 
 
 On JFiliiam Grace, Sdsonofthe 1st Michael Grace, of Gracefield; fy on his 
 ipife,Mary Harford, of Marshfield; fyalso onJohn Grace, their2dson. 
 
 D. O. M. 
 
 Sacred to the memory 
 Of William Grace, esq., third son of Michael Grace, of Gracefield, in 
 this county, esq., descended from the ancient family of the Graces, of 
 Ballylinch-Castle, in the county of Kilkenny. He died in London, on 
 the 23d day of November, 1777, and was interred in the burial vault of 
 the church of St. Giles in the Fields. 
 Sacred also to the memory 
 Of Mary Grace, eldest daughter and eventual heir of Richard Harford» 
 esq-, of Marshfield, near Dublin, and widow of the said William. She 
 died also in London, on the 10th day of April, 1799, and was interred 
 in the same tomb with her husband. 
 Two sons and one daughter blessed this marriage. 
 Richard, the eldest son and heir, married, in 1781, Jane, daughter of 
 the honourable John Evans, of Bulgaden-Hall, in the county of Limerick, 
 and grand-daughter of George baron Carbery. John Grace, the other 
 son, made his first campaign as aid-de-camp to the celebrated field-mar- 
 shal count de Lacy, his kinsman, in the Imperial German service : soon 
 after he was nominated to a command in the life-guards, the emperor 
 Joseph II. himself appointing him ; finally, he fought against the Turks 
 
INSCRIPTIONS, &c. 5 
 
 with distinguished hravcry, and accompanied the prince of Anhalt- 
 Coethen as his aid-de-camp, to the siege of Belgrade. There, on the 21st 
 day of October, 1789, and in the 29th year of his age, he died, un- 
 married, and was buried at Semlin. Clara Louisa Grace, the only 
 daughter, married, in 1782, William Middelton, of Stockeld-Park, in 
 the county of York, esq. 
 
 Who slumbers here 5 lo ! 'tis an empty tomh,* 
 Interr'd far distant lies the warlike Grace : 
 Far from his home the hero met his doom — 
 But deathless laurels mark the fatal place. 
 
 They mark where fiercely through the foes he broke, 
 While hostile blood Pannonia's-f champaign steeps; 
 But (where his patriot wish a tomb bespoke) 
 Here the fond marble for the warrior weeps. 
 
 This marble long his valour shall relate, 
 Though his pale dust renowns an alien strand- 
 Such also was his parents' hapless fate, 
 Remote they perished from their native land. 
 
 Yet oft when death's too certain hour drew nigh 
 
 Their hearts would vibrate with their country's love ; 
 
 And often for their home would heave the sigh, 
 
 Or pant to join some kindred souls above. Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 * Viz., a cenotaph. t Hungary, Servia, &c. 
 
 Greek Poem, of thirty-two lines, to the Memory of Richard Grace, of 
 Boley, M. P., eldest son of William Grace, who was third son of 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefwld. 
 
 TO MY BELOVED FATHER, RICHARD GRACE, INTERRED IN THE 
 GRACE MAUSOLEUM, AT ARLES. 
 Thou, sacred dome, whose lofty walls inshrine 
 The hallow'd dust of Grace's noble line! 
 Though in thy silent chambers of the dead 
 Rest many a dauntless heart and able head, 
 Yet can I boast of all that honour'd race, 
 Whose ashes blend within thy cold embrace, 
 Not one has yet excell'd my blameless sire 
 In virtuous act or intellectual fire : 
 My blameless sire, whom unrelenting fate, 
 That strikes alike the lowly and the great, 
 Ere forty summers had impair'd his bloom, 
 Sent a rich victim to the greedy tomb: 
 My sire — whose mansion in Ierne's isle, 
 (Where green Queen's County sees her meadows smile,) 
 Welcom'd the wand'rer to its opening door, 
 And for the houseless stranger spread its store : 
 My sire — in whom a friend the friendless found, 
 Whose soothing hand relieved the bosom's wound : 
 Who cheer'd the poor, who pleased the wealthy guest ^ 
 At home, abroad, by ev'ry tongue confess'd; 
 Of husbands, fathers, patrons, friends the best. 
 In his pure heart, when minist'ring the laws,* 
 No private feelings wrong'd the public cause : 
 Justice his single aim ; beneath his sight 
 Contention died, and feuds dispersed in flight. 
 * As a magistrate of the Queen's County. 
 
Q TRANSLATIONS OF 
 
 When o'er the land fell discoid rear'd her head,* 
 And, breathing venom, foul contagion spread ; 
 When the wide realm, convulsed with strong alarms, 
 Saw lawless thousands madly fly to arms, 
 His kindness moved e'en men with fury blind, 
 And his soft words chased error from the mind. 
 
 In him the senate of Ieme saw 
 A patriot, true to freedom and to law, 
 Averse from ends, which meaner souls pursue ; 
 Apart from all the mercenary crew, — 
 His aim — his noble aim was but to see 
 Ierne rich in British liberty. 
 
 To learning early led, her choicest flowers 
 He cull'd, and revell'd in her rosy bowers ; 
 And thence, to speak his elegance of mind, 
 Wreaths for his youthful brow, in Fancy's hour, he twined. 
 Yet nought scholastic stiffen'd in his mien : 
 There in full ease the polish'd man was seen ; 
 While from his lips, in purity of tone, 
 Each foreign language glided as his own. 
 
 All hail, thou best of parents '. and farewell '. 
 Long, long on thee my ev'ry thought shall dwell. 
 Though sever'd from me by the tomb's deep night, ~f 
 Affection still shall hold thee in her sight, > 
 
 Her day's fond musing, and her dream's delight. J 
 
 Loved she ! the second of thy filial trine, 
 Thy Sheffield hangs this offering on thy shrine. 
 From London, 1820. 
 
 • The rebellion of 1798. 
 
 On Richard Grace, of Boley, M.P., son of William Grace, who was 
 third son of Michael Grace, of Gracejkld. 
 
 A- & «XI 
 
 Here are deposited the ashes 
 
 Of Richard Grace, of Boley, 
 
 The son of William Grace, and the grandson of Michael Grace, 
 
 Of Gracefield, in this County : 
 
 A man honourable in lineage ; handsome in form and countenance ; 
 
 Bright in genius ; and most kind in disposition: 
 
 Who, having traversed nearly the whole circle of the sciences, 
 
 Was extensively conversant 
 
 With the world of men, with its manners, its languages, and its literature; 
 
 Distinguished by his integrity, and by the constancy of his friendships, 
 
 He most honourably fulfilled all his duties 
 
 In the senate, in the magistracy, and in the home of his domestic felicity : 
 
 For his country he manifested a paternal affection ; 
 
 For his children, an affection even more than paternal. 
 
 He died at Southville, on the 9th day of January, A.C. 1801, 
 
 Having lived 40 years, 1 mouth, and 10 days. 
 
 This marble, 
 
 Still bedewed with the tears of his countrymen, 
 
 His second son, Sheffield Grace, 
 
 Caused to be erected, in the year of Christ, 1819. 
 
 Most excellent of fathers, hail! and farewell. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
INSCRIPTIONS, &c. 7 
 
 On Jane Grace, al. Evans, of Bulgaden-Hall, the wife of Richard 
 Grace, of Boley, M. P. 
 
 A • :£ • £1 
 
 Underneath, 
 
 Entombed with her beloved husband, Richard Grace, of Boley, 
 
 Reposes Jane Grace, 
 
 The daughter of John Evans, of Bulgaden, in the county of Limerick, 
 
 And the grand-daughter of George lord Carbery ; 
 
 Who, enriched with the fairest endowments of person and of mind, 
 
 Was gentle, benevolent, and pure : 
 
 Loving and beloved, 
 
 She maintained an uniform intercourse 
 
 Of kindness, fidelity, and piety 
 
 Towards her friends, her children, her husband, and her God : 
 
 With a constitution long harassed by disease, 
 
 But with a spirit soothed by the hopes of immortality, 
 
 She gradually and quietly faded from this life, 
 
 And breathed her last in Dublin, 
 
 On the 24th day of March, in the year of our holy redemption, 1804, 
 
 And in that of her age 41 . 
 
 This marble is erected, by Sheffield Grace, 
 
 To the memory of his most deserving mother. 
 
 Jane, 
 
 Thou delight and thou fondly bewailed loss of thy kindred ! farewell 1 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 Greek Poem, of twenty-five lines, addressed to Sheffield Grace, F. S. A. 
 second son of Richard Grace, of Boley, M. P. 
 
 THE LINES OF JOHN SYMMONS, ON GOING ABROAD, TO HIS FRIEND 
 SHEFFIELD GRACE. 
 
 Good from the good ! of an illustrious line, 
 
 The virtues, Sheffield ! with the name are thine ; 
 
 To thee, my Grace ! this heart-indited strain 
 
 I seud where Themis holds her ancient reign , 
 
 Where in the Temple's innermost recess,* 
 
 Thou livest with comfort and with cheerfulness. 
 
 Hail ! thou my friend, affectionate and kind, 
 
 Hail ! for thy virtues of the heart and mind ; 
 
 Hail ! for the friendship which, as first we met, 
 
 At once matured, improves in vigor yet. 
 
 Yes ! 'tis from me, thy fond and faithful friend, 
 
 Whose heart with thine, long blended, long shall blend, 
 
 These lines salute thee, as my cheek is fann'd 
 
 With the last breathings of my native land. 
 
 While o'er the waves I mark our ship advance, 
 
 To the gay capital of warlike France ; 
 
 And the fresh breeze of morning fills the sail, 
 
 I turn to think of thee, and bid thee hail ! 
 
 But change of place can never change the soul, 
 
 Our hearts still one, though seas between us roll, 
 
 When my stray foot shall press an alien shore, 
 
 My love shall yet be with thee as before. 
 
 Companion kind and cheerful, fare thee well ! 
 
 I pause awhile on thee, and all thy worth to dwell : 
 
 * No. 5, King's-Bench Walks, iu the Inner-Temple, London. 
 
8 TRANSLATIONS OF 
 
 Thy varied converse I enjoy no more, 
 Thy skill in ancient and in modern lore ; 
 I leave thee, to thy books devoted still, 
 Thy mind from learning's holy spring to fill ; 
 To cheer the graver's toils with bounteous hand, 
 Toils that the painter bear from land to land. 
 Thou filial love ! thou record of thy sires, 
 Whom still the land that gave them birth admires : 
 Thou kin of peers, who, shining round the throne, 
 Boast not of blood more noble than thine own ; 
 Thou, that my honest praise may justly swell, 
 Thou friend and blessing of the poor, — farewell. 
 
 From Chiswick. J. S. 
 
 On Frances Grace, al. Bagot, of Castle-Bagot, the wife of Sheffield 
 Grace, fourth son of the first Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 
 Of lofty genius, modest, gentle, fair, 
 
 Beneath this sod the lovely Frances lies: 
 
 Yet the pure soul, through blissful realms of air, 
 
 Seeks the bright recompense this earth denies. 
 
 As faith and duteous piety ordain'd, 
 
 Child, wife, and parent, virtue's paths she trod ; 
 
 The world's vain cares and joys her soul disdain'd, 
 
 Her care the poor, her only joy her God. 
 
 For her Religion weeps, each Virtue mourns, 
 The matron's pattern, and the virgin's pride : 
 Sheffield laments— his mournful muse adorns 
 The deathless memory of his much-loved bride. 
 Yet were it folly long for her to pine, 
 Who lives for ever on her Maker's breast ; 
 He trusts to meet her in the realms divine 
 Of love unfading and eternal rest. 
 
 Frances Grace, otherwise Bagot, wife of Sheffield Grace, died the 3d 
 day of May, in the year of our Lord 1742, and in the 32d of her age. 
 
 Executed by Du Plessis, at Rouen. Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 On Sheffield Grace, 4th son of the 1st Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 
 D. O. M. 
 
 Here reposes in peace 
 
 Sheffield Grace, the youngest son of Michael Grace, of Gracefield, in 
 
 this county, and grandson of Oliver Grace, (chief-remembrancer of 
 
 the Irish Exchequer in the reign of James II.) and great-grandson of 
 
 William Grace, of Ballylinch-Castle, in the county of Kilkenny, esq. 
 
 A man of no ordinary talents ; 
 
 Pre-eminent for probity, wisdom, beneficence, 
 
 And sweetness of manners : 
 
 He was distinguished among his contemporaries 
 
 For his pursuit of literature, 
 
 (Having himself successfully cultivated the Muses,) 
 
 His quickness of apprehension, 
 
 And his soundness of judgment. 
 
 He married Frances, daughter of John Bagot, of Castle-Bagot, in the 
 
 county of Dublin, by whom he had an only son, Raymond Grace. 
 
 He was born in 1710, 
 
 And, dying in Dublin, on the 5th day of September, A.D. 1746, 
 
 Was buried in this cemetery. 
 
INSCRIPTIONS, &c. 9 
 
 Here, where in chilly drops the marble weeps, 
 Where their sweet bard the Aonian virgins mourn, 
 Loved Sheffield, sprung from high-born Raymond,* sleeps ; 
 Sheffield, whose worth would any race adorn. 
 
 In manners nobly mild ; in friendship proved : 
 Admired for soul benevolent and free : 
 In bounty lavish : much by heaven beloved : 
 Leam'd, and most dear, Pierian Muse to thee. 
 
 And art thou gone, Ierne's favorite child ? 
 Does Sheffield's harp of song melodious cease ? 
 Yes, Frances calls : no longer here exiled, 
 With Christ she'l meet thee in the realms of peace. 
 
 Castaliam maids ! with roses deck his tomb : 
 Ye Barrow nymphs ! f around your lilies shed ; 
 And, Stranger ! here bid laurels ever bloom ; 
 And bliss eternal be his peaceful bed. 
 
 * Viz , the celebrated Raymond le Gros, who came into Ireland, in 1 170, and was 
 viceroy of that kingdom in 1176. 
 
 + Bervades, the nymphs of the Ban-ow, which river flows through the plains, ad- 
 joining the hill of Aries, on which the mausoleum of the Grace family is situated. 
 
 Grace- Mausoleum. 
 
 On Sir Oliver Grace, of Leagan, Carney, and Ballylinch Castles. 
 Here lies Sir Oliver Grace, knight, lord of Leagan, Carney, &c. 
 descended from the most ancient and noble family of the Graces, of 
 Courtstowu. He was distinguished both in peace and war, and sig- 
 nally endowed with very many mental virtues and personal accomplish- 
 ments. Dame Mary Fitz-Gerald erected this monument to the memory 
 of her husband. 
 
 Virtue survives death. 
 If noble race, if virtue, form divine, 
 If heavenly science, earthly wealth outshine, 
 If deeds of arms superior honours claim, 
 All these endowments dignified his name ; 
 All these and more, which nature could bestow : 
 What greater blessings can be wish'd below ? 
 These Heaveu rewards; and thus the hero won 
 A wreath of glory for the race he run. 
 
 Jerpoint- Abbey, CO. of Kilkenny. 
 
 On Dame Mary Grace, al. Fitz-Gerald, of Decies, the wife of 
 Sir Oliver Grace, of Leagan-Castle. 
 
 Here lies, in certain hope of a resurrection, dame Mary Fitz-Gerald, 
 daughter of the late noble Sir Gerald Fitzgerald, knight, baron of Decies, 
 and widow of the late illustrious Sir Oliver Grace, lord of Leagan, 
 Ballylinch, and Carney, to whom she bore Gerald Grace, now lord of 
 Leagan, &c. who erected this monument. 
 
 Mary, descended from a princely line, 
 
 The great, the ancient house of Geraldine ; 
 
 Of noble soul, of hospitable mind, 
 
 And only equall'd by the spouse she join'd : 
 
 A bounteous parent to the child distress'd, 
 
 With pure religion glowing in her breast : 
 
 She praised the Lord : then closed her dying eyes, 
 
 And, borne by angels, sought the exalted skies. 
 
 She died the 2d of December, 1605. Jcrpoint-Abbey. 
 II 
 
10 TRANSLATIONS OF 
 
 On Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch, Leagan, Sfc; and on his wife, 
 Margaret Hartpole, of Shrule-Castle. 
 
 Here lie the bodies of Gerald Grace, of Ballylinch, &c, who died on 
 the 4th day of March, in the year of our Lord, 1618, and of Margaret 
 Hartpole, his wife, who died on the 11th day of February, in the year 
 of our Lord, 1619. 
 
 Gerald, descended from a noble line, 
 Whose generous deeds still dignify thy name, 
 Thou, by thy mother, born a Geraldine, 
 Of sire distinguish'd in the field of fame ; 
 Beloved of heaven and earth ! is such thy doom ? 
 Must virtue's flower thus seek the silent tomb ? 
 
 No, no — thy spirit flew to realms of light ; 
 
 Thy mortal relics only slumber here, 
 
 Thy consort, too, repairs with joyous flight, 
 
 To join her consort in the heavenly sphere. 
 
 Here each with 'each in mingling dust reclines ; 
 
 Yet each with Christ a spotless angel shines. Jerpoint- Abbey. 
 
 On John Grace, of Brittas-Castle ; and on his wife, Ellenor Purcell, 
 of Loughmoe. 
 
 Stop, passenger, and behold 
 Not a funeral plaint, but a wedding song; not a tomb, but a bridal 
 chamber; constructed in the year of our Lord 1683. The husband 
 and the wife, reclining on each other's bosom, repose here replete with 
 bliss. John Grace, esq., was learned in law and equity, a devout man, 
 blameless in thought and word, a father to his country, and a fond pa- 
 rent. Ellenor Purcell died on the 6th of June, 1681, a heavenly-minded 
 woman, illustrious by birth, a mother to the poor, and an attentive 
 parent. They are not two, but one; both blessed : they are not dead, 
 but living, though here lost to mortal sight. Pray, then, O passenger, 
 and rejoice. 
 
 One faith in Christ us join'd in bonds of love, 
 
 Nor life, nor death, our tie could e'er remove ; 
 
 We liv'd. Christ was our guide through life alone ; 
 
 Christ holds us up, though laid within this stone.* 
 
 Tkurles-Church, co. qfTipperary. 
 
 * These four lines of verse are in the original epitaph in English, as here given. 
 
 Inscriptions composed for the Commemorative Tablet of the Grace- 
 Mausoleum, at Aries, but not adopted. 
 
 By the Rev. Robekt Bland. 
 
 See p. 55 of Memoir. 
 
 • The south wing of Aries church 
 
 (Originally erected by Oliver Grace, of Shanganagh or Gracefield, 
 
 In the year of our redemption, 1687, 
 
 And destined for the Sepulchre of the Gracefield family,) 
 
 Having, from the decays of time, recently fallen into ruin, 
 
 Mrs. Alicia Kavanagh, formerly Grace of Gracefield, 
 
 Sir William Grace, baronet, 
 
 Sheffield, a barrister at law, and 
 
 Percy, a captain in the royal navy, 
 
INSCRIPTIONS, &c. II 
 
 All of the same name and family, 
 Unite in consecrating 
 This resting-place of the dead 
 Fov themselves and their posterity, 
 In the year of our Lord, 1818. 
 For us and for our progeny we raise 
 This tomb, and ask our meed from future days. 
 Let unborn races, to our labours just, 
 Gaze on these stones, and venerate our dust : 
 And, moved as by their fathers' urns they stand, 
 Refuse their ashes to an alien land. 
 
 By D. B. Hickie, Esq. 
 See p. 55 of Memoir. 
 
 STRANGER, whoe'er thou art, whose wand'ring feet 
 Conduct thee, musing, to this lone retreat, 
 With holy rev'rence come — with awe profound ; 
 Hence all unhallow'd ! — this is sacred ground. 
 But thou, accursed, who darest profane this shrine, 
 Heaven's vengeance heavy lie on thee and thine : 
 Last of thy race be thou pursued by woes, 
 Nor sod, nor stone, thy scatter'd bones inclose. 
 
 By Charles Bathurst, Esq. 
 See p. 56 of Memoir. 
 
 Here, as thy silent step is hast'ning on, 
 All- wasting Time, pass gently on thy way ; 
 Stay thy rude hand, nor let this hallow'd stone 
 Fall by the cank'ring tooth of slow decay. 
 
 Let not the tomb, where memory's tender strain 
 Tells of departed worth, resign its trust; 
 Nor future sons this record seek in vain, 
 And tread unconscious on their fathers' dust. 
 
 And ye, whose wand'ring footsteps here repair, 
 Where the tomb stands at filial duty's call ; 
 The mansion of the hallow'd sleepers spare- 
 Enough, that once it has been doom'd to fall. 
 
 By the Hon. Algernon Herbert. 
 See p. 56 of Memoir. 
 
 Thou, Earth, be sacred where these ashes rest. 
 For not with us expires the name of Grace ; 
 Hope lingers still — sweet Erin, in thy breast 
 Give to the dead at least a resting-place : 
 
 Here, with a mother's tender care, protect 
 Our limbs committed to their silent home; 
 Thrice happy, whom our sons, with fond respect, 
 Deck with the brightest honours of the tomb. 
 And ye, the future offspring of our line, 
 From violation shield this mould'ring clay ; 
 So shall your hallow'd dust in peace recline, 
 And find Heaven gracious at the last great day. 
 
12 TRANSLATIONS, &c. 
 By . 
 
 See p. 56 of Memoir. 
 Here we repose from toiling life, and trust 
 To our dear natal earth our crumbling dust. 
 Respect it, countrymen! The bard of Rome * 
 Found from barbarian handsf an honour'd tomb. 
 O! guard this dome! lest, mocking its intent, 
 Its lords once more survive their monument. 
 • Ovid. + The Getse. 
 
 ON LEAVING ST. MARY'S COLLEGE, AT WINCHESTER. 
 See p. 85 of Memoir. 
 Norse of my studies, Winchester ! farewell 
 Farewell! but long, where limpid Itchin glides, 
 My thoughts, yet sporting on his grassy sides, 
 Shall, ling'ring, 'mid thy sweets delight to dwell. 
 And you, ye comrades of my life's young hours, 
 My love shall clasp with fond remembrance still. 
 Long, — long the name of Wykehamist shall thrill 
 My heart, and waken all its finer powers. 
 My kind companions, ye, the Muse's friends! 
 May you be happy ! recollections dear 
 Of you, and of that dome we all revere, 
 Will cheer me till my mortal being ends. 
 Yes ! that your Sheffield once has cropt their flow'rs, 
 As by your side he traced those classic meads ; 
 Near which his Naiad train old Itchin leads, 
 Will brighten all his fading age's hours. 
 Oh ! be it tbeu my joy, my pride, to rear 
 The flowers which there I cull'd and nursed with you, 
 "When our hope sparkled as our sun was new ; 
 And grasp them as life's richest fragrance dear. 
 That lore are they, which all the great of old, 
 In lands that shone amid a world of gloom : 
 When both Minervas crown'd their Greece and Rome, 
 Form'd, loved, and nourish'd, in an age of gold. 
 
 Another Translation of the Latin Lines 
 
 ON LEAVING ST. MARv's COLLEGE, AT WINCHESTER. 
 
 Venta, farewell ! by classic lore refined, 
 Thy fostering care first rear'd my youthful mind. 
 Farewell ! while Itchin rolls her crystal stream, 
 Still shalt thou live in memory's pensive dream. 
 And ye, beloved associates, fare ye well! 
 Long in my breast shall your dear image dwell ; 
 With you I climb'd the sylvan height, and quafFd 
 At Helicon's pure spring the inspiring draught : 
 Here to have studied Sheffield counts for fame, 
 Proud of a Wykehamists' illustrious name ; 
 Here from the bards of Greece he caught new fire; 
 Here his soul melted at the Roman lyre : 
 Oh ! may the sweet reflection long remain, 
 That Venta's Muses were not wooed iu vain. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by Weed and Rider, LilUe Britain, London. 
 
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Eo tSe j^ueeit'a moat cxcctt'ent IlLaigatu , tée unani- 
 mous aDDteóó of fier. £oua£ auGjcctA , visiter* at (6e 
 aea-CatSiua town of ^Dieppe, m téc Doiiiuuona of fiet 
 mZjateitu'a auaiut aff i» , tfic King of t&cj^cucfi. 
 
 s.^^s=» 
 
 We, your Majesty's British subjects, the undersigned resident 
 clergy and visitors at the town of Dieppe, beg leave to approach your 
 Majesty with the expression of our feelings on the momentous and 
 interesting event, which, through the medium of Parliament, you 
 have been graciously pleased lo communicate to a free and loyal 
 People. 
 
 The great empire which Providence has committed to your govern- 
 ment , can , in it's appeciation of public and private virtue, indulge 
 in deep and honest aspirations for your individual happiness. 
 
 Permit ', us therefore to assure your Majesty, that every Briilish 
 breast feels a lively interest in your announced marriage with his 
 Serene Highness , the Prince Albert of Saxe-Cobourg and Golha; and 
 though the first emotions are those of heartfelt prayers to the Almighty 
 for your personal felicity, they are not unaccompanied by a con- 
 viction, thatfew'events, within the exclusive conlroulof the Sovereign, 
 could more effectually contribute, as well lo the future welfare and 
 tranquillity of your realm, as to the present satisfaction of your 
 people. 
 
 The amiable disposiliou, high principles, and many excellent qual- 
 lilies of this young and illustrious Prince afford a pleasing guarantee 
 of his concurring with your Majesty in supporting the best interests 
 of morality by examples of domestic virtue. 
 
 Descended, through the royal house of Saxony, from the mosi 
 ancient male dynasty now extant-, and po#ssessing the advantages of 
 a highly cultivated intellect , his Serene Higbness's enligtened views 
 on the subject of civil and religious liberty, eminently quality him 
 for the distinguished position he is about to occupy in a free 
 country, where the expression of political opinions, and where all 
 modes of worshiping the Deity are most fully sanctioned, while, at 
 the same time . a due obedience to the supremacy of the law, whether 
 an illegal excitement has reference to the church or to the slate, 
 is wisely, promptly and firmtly enforced. 
 
 We, the undersigned also concur in deputiing to Sheffield Grace of 
 Knole House Esq., K. H., one of her Majesty's Deputy Lieutenants 
 and a Magistrate of the County of Sussex, the honor of presenting 
 this adrerss to her Majesty. 
 
 Dieppe, January 29. 1840. 
 
 Printed by Corsange. - Dieppe. 
 
Co ""éis oeieue 'j^tgSueia , tfíe iPuiico (Stfdetu, of 
 Jaxe-Cofjoutq and Gotécu, tfie unanimous aSSteaa of 
 b&i TTbaieAtu ó ^ouaf óufijectó, vwitoM at t&e .sea 
 {jattnwq. tow« of CDieppe , tw tee Dominion! of Set 
 nbatestu 4 auqudt affti , t£e KLiua of tée ^ieuc&. 
 
 We, her Majesty's British subjects, the undersigned resident 
 clergy and visitors at the town of Dieppe, beg leave to approach 
 your Serene Highness with the offer of our sinceresl congratulations 
 on the transcendent favor with which you have been hnooured by 
 our beloved and highly gifted "Sovereign , in her Majesty having 
 selected you for her consort, in preference to many other distinguished 
 Royal personages. 
 
 Through two previous alliances of your illustrious house with the 
 kingly line of Britain, the fullest practical opportunities have necessa- 
 rily occurred of appreciating its innate worth. And the first, and 
 most assuredly the very warmest emotion that induces us to value 
 such worth, is the strong conviction hence derived , that a union, 
 thus as obviously sanctioned by the head as by the heart , has every 
 prospect, under the Almighty's blessing , of contributing to the do- 
 mestic felicity of our most amiable and accomplished Queen. 
 
 In a generous and manly breast, the attractions of great personal 
 beauty, of singularly engaging manners, of a confiding and gracious 
 nature, and of high and varied mental endowments combined with 
 all the endearing charms of her present youth, will be scarcely more 
 tenderly prized, than the fond friendship of her malurer years. 
 
 But on the occasion of this auspicious marriage, the duties of a loyal 
 subject and of a good citizen are happily combined, for the'proverbial 
 principles of your illustrious house havebeen so admirably exemplified, 
 as well in Catholic Belgium as in Protestant Britain, that unnumbered 
 testimonies might be adduced, manifesting a profound respect for the 
 laws, and a zealous participation in the honor and welfare of their 
 adopted countries. 
 
 Deriving your descent from the most ancient male dynasly now 
 bearing regal sway, and from an ancestor, to whose celebrated 
 Protest in favor of religions liberty, the name of a protestant » is 
 attributeable, your princely house has not been more emineutly 
 conspicuous for its paternal government, liberal institutions, and 
 freedom of political opinion , than for the privilcdges which all its 
 subjects enjoy, of obeying the dictates of their consciences in the ado- 
 ration of the supreme mmg. J?/?/ng- 
 
 AVe, the undersigned also concur in deputsing to Sheffield Grace of 
 K.iole House Esq. , K. H. , one of her Majestys Deputy Lieutenants 
 and a Magistrate for the County of Sussex , the honor of presenting 
 this address to his serene highness. 
 
 Dieppe, January 29. 1840. 
 
The following; interesting Communication from his Holiness, is taken 
 from the London Catholic Miscellany for 1827. pp. 161 &, 251. 
 
 HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XII. 
 
 Our readers will no doubt feel highly gratified at the testimony 
 which the following letters afford of the marked urbanity of the Court 
 of Rome to British subjects, and of the flattering notice which his 
 Holiness takes of every suitable manifestation of their respect. The 
 late Pope's attention, and, it may be almost said, affectionate par- 
 tiality towards Englishmen, was proverbial throughout Italy, as well 
 as in the capital of the Christian world. These feelings which ex- 
 tended themselves to all around him, and were uniformly evinced on 
 every public and private occasion, were in this country erroneously 
 supposed to have expired with the deceased pontiff. But the very 
 reverse is certainly the case, for his present Holiness, who with a 
 strong understanding and considerable literary attainments, com- 
 bines all that innate benevolence of feeling and refinement of man- 
 ners which so invariably characterised the parental conduct of his 
 venerable prcd«cessor, omits no becoming opportunity of testifying 
 his regard for every thing English that has any just pretext to claim 
 his patronage, require his attention, or attract his notice. Mr. John 
 Gage,* with whose name most readers of taste are acquainted, having 
 a short time back presented to him his truly elegant work on the 
 Antiquities of Hcngrave — the interesting mansion of his distin- 
 guished family, — received from his Holiness in every possible way, 
 during his residence at Rome, the most gratifying acknowledgments 
 tor this very trivial instance of personal respect. Mr. Sbeflield 
 Grace,f being also desirous of depositing in the Vatican Library an 
 illustrated copy, on yellow coloured drawing paper, in two volumes 
 quarto, of the " Memoirs of the Family of Grace," his accomplished 
 friend Mr. Charles Bathurst, I of Lydney Park, conveyed it to Rome, 
 together with a letter from Mr. Butler,^ of Lincoln's Inn, to Dr. Orad- 
 
 * The brother of Sir Thomas Gage, Bail, who married the Lady Mary Anne 
 Browne, daughter of the late Earl of Keninarc. 
 
 t It appears by Debrelt's Baronetage, that Mr Sheffield Grace is the second 
 son of the late Richard Grace, Esq. M.P. who married a sister of the present 
 Lord Carbery's father, and is brother of Sir William Grace, Bart, and of Captain 
 Percy Grace, R.N. and cousin of Oliver John Bo well Grace, Esq. of Mantua House. 
 Sir William Grace inherited the baronetcy from his near relative, Sir Richard 
 G. Gamon, Bart. M.P. whose sister married the last Duke of Chandos, and had 
 an only child, the Lady Anna Eliza Brydges, married to the present Duke of 
 Buckingham and Chandos. 
 
 { The eldest son of the Right Hon. Charles Bathurst, M.P. who in 1S23 
 resigned the high ofiices of Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster, and President 
 of the Board for Control of the Affairs of India, together with his seat in the 
 Cabinet. —Mr. Bathurst is of the family of the Earl Bathurst, and of the exem- 
 plary Bishop of Norwich, and is married to a sister of the Viscount Sidnioutb. 
 
 § This eminent lawyer is not more distinguished for extent and soundness of 
 legal knowledge than for a variety, which may be almost termed, a universality, 
 of literary attainments. He has been long and most deservedly considered :ui 
 ornament to ftie English bar, and every friend to religious liberty as well as those 
 of his own persuasion must peruse with profit and with pleasure his "mild and en- 
 lightened and persuasive productions on that subject. The Lives of the Saints 
 compiled by bis uncle the Rev. Alban BuUer, have elicited the approbation of even 
 the fastidious and hostile Gibbou, and have been translated into all the languages 
 of modern Europe. 
 
well, president of the English college there. The following highly- 
 interesting answer has beeu recently received to that letter: — 
 
 "Rome, July 21,1827. 
 " Dear Sir, — On the 10th instant I wrote to yon to apologize 
 for my delay in presenting Mr. Sheffield Grace's Memoirs of his 
 Family to the Pope, on account of the state of his Holiness' health. 
 I have now the pleasure to inform you that the week following he 
 recovered, and towards the end of it began to receive visits as usual. 
 I lost no time in executing your commission. Last Sunday evening 
 Dr. Wiseman and I went to the Vatican with the books, and a short 
 letter drawn up by Dr. Wiseman in the name of Mr. Sheffield Grace, 
 of which I insert a copy : — 
 
 •' ' Beatissime Pater, — Quum historiain Gentis mea; hisca; 
 tomis absolverim, nihil putavi aut mihi jucundius aut ipsi honoro- 
 ficentius posse accidere, quam ut ipsam benigno oculo Sanctitas tua 
 dignetur respicere. 
 
 " ' Ipsam igitur Sanctitatistiuevenioecommendo ; necaccipere 
 recuset velim pertenue, sed sincerum, obsequii et reverentia? monn- 
 nientum. Sanctitatistuaj huinillimus et obsequentissimus Famulus, 
 
 " ' Londini, Die lOMaii, 1827. ' Sheffield Grace.* 
 
 " ' Sanctissimo Domino Nostro. 
 " 'Leoni Pupae XII.' 
 
 '• The Pope, who knew for some time past the object of our 
 coming, called us first into the hall of audience, and received us with 
 his usual kindness, and I may almost say familiarity. He read the 
 letter, then took and examined the books, admired the paper, the 
 print, and the plates, observed that it was " veramente un libro di 
 lusso,' and surpassed in costliness and execution the work of Mr. 
 Lj sons, and the elegant volume of the Antiquities of Hengrave pre- 
 sented to him a few months ago by Mr. John Gage, and made some 
 remarks on the public spirit of English gentlemen in printing such 
 very elegant and expensive works. In turning over the leaves he 
 fixed his eye on the names of Buckingham and Chandos,t which are 
 
 * Translation. — " Most blessed Father, — When in these volumes I compiled 
 the history of my family, I felt that nothing coald be more agreeable to me, or 
 conld confer more honour upon the work itself, than that your Holiness should 
 deign to regard it with favonr. 
 
 " I therefore commend it to the indulgence of your Holiness, and beg you will 
 receive it as a slight but sincere testimony of the devotion and reverence of 
 Yonr Holiness' most humble and most obedient Servant, 
 "London. May the 10th, 1827. " SHEFFIELD Grace. 
 
 " To our most holy Lord, 
 
 " Pope Leo XII." 
 
 t The powerful influence of this distinguished Nobleman, and of the Lords 
 Grenville, Glastonbury and Nugent, who are younger branches of his illustrious 
 house, has uniformly beeu exerted to regain, for the adherents to our more ancient 
 faith, a full admission to all the constitutional rights and unalienable privileges 
 of free born Britons, which their forefathers of the same faith fought and bled for, 
 won and enjoyed. Bat his Grace's decision of character and sincerity of profes- 
 sion, have been iu an especial manner evinced by the adoption of a measure which 
 has been justly pronounced the most important service that has yet been rendered 
 to the cause of religious liberty. It is, of course, unnecessary to more distinctly 
 allude to the spirited and admirable resolutions of the 79 Protestant Peers pos- 
 sessing properly in Ireland who assembled at the meeting convened by him at 
 Buckingham House, on which occasion the justice, policy and imperative expe- 
 diency of Catholic Emancipation is distinctly and forceably expressed. Noris 
 national welfare more indebted to his patriotic views than national literature is to 
 his disinterested generosity. Three quarto volumes printed at his private expence 
 have given to the world a catalogue of those invaluable treasures, the " Stowe 
 Manuscripts," the celebrity of which has carried the name of their princely reper- 
 
familial' to him. I told him that the duke was expected in Italy. 
 We then spoke of the nature and contents of the work . I told his 
 Holiness that only twenty-five copies were printed in that superb 
 manner, and not for sale but presentation ; and that Mr. Sheffield 
 Grace was ambitious that his Holiness should do him the honour to 
 accept one of them. ' Surely,' said the Pope, ' I am much obliged 
 to Mr. Sheffield Grace for thinking of me, and tell him that I receive 
 his elegant book with pleasure and with thanks/ He asked if Mr. 
 Sheffield Grace was a Catholic. I answered that I understood not, 
 though many of his connections were, but that you, who are a parti- 
 cular friend of his, and who had desired me to do him this favour, 
 had assured me that you hardly knew an individual who had been 
 more active and successful in procuring votes in our favour in both 
 houses of Parliament. His Holiness kept us good twenty minutes 
 and I flatter myself he will return an answer to Mr. Sheffield Grace's 
 letter. 
 
 " I have the honour to remain, Dear Sir, 
 
 " Your very obedient and much obliged Servant, 
 
 " Robert Gradwell." 
 " To Charles Bntler, Esq. 
 
 " Lincoln's Iod, London." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Gradwell's Letter, addressed to Sheffield Grace, Esq. 
 is as follows : — 
 " Home, English College, 19th August, 1827. 
 
 ■' Dear Sir,— 
 
 " I flatter myself that our mutual friend, Mr. Butler, will have 
 informed you, that on the 15th of July I had the honour of present- 
 ing to his Holiness in person, your very superb present, with a short 
 note adapted to the occasion ; and how graciously both were received. 
 Yesterday I had the honour to receive the Pope's answer and ac- 
 knowledgment in a Breve ; together with a dispatch from Cardinal 
 Delia Somaglia, Secretary of State, requesting me to see the Breve 
 safely conveyed to you. I feel a satisfaction in observing, that the 
 Pope ha9 sent his answer to you not through the ordinary channel of 
 the Segretaria delle Lettere Latine ; but in a more dignified and 
 complimentary form of a Breve sub annulo Piscatoris, through the 
 Segretaria dé Brevi á Principi. It was minuted by my particular 
 friend, Monsignor Testa, Secretary of Breves to Princes. Not 
 knowing your exact address, I have taken the liberty of sending the 
 Breve, or Pope's answer, together with the Cardinal's letter, to Mr. 
 Charles Butler, of Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 " I have the honour to remain, dear Sir, 
 
 " Your very obedient Servant, 
 " To Sheffield Grace, Esq. London. " RocERT GRADWELL." 
 
 tory and of their still more princely proprietor into every literary society throughout 
 Europe. The materials for four quarto volumes entitled " Rerum Hibernicarum 
 Scriptores,'' have been selected from these M.S.S. and have been also printed at 
 his expence solely for private distribution. Nor should the name of the Rev. 
 Charles O'Conor, D.D. be omitted as the person to whose indefatigable zeal, 
 extensive, varied and minute erudition the public are indebted for the compilation 
 and production of these very curious and important historical volumes. Dr. 
 O'Conor was domestic chaplain to the late Marchioness of Buckingham, and since 
 her decease has continued, as the Duke's valued guest, to reside at Stowe. The 
 memory of his grandfather, Charles O'Conor, of Belanagare, Esq. is enshrined 
 in the literature of bis country, and embalmed in the grateful recollection of his 
 being the first open and efficient constitutional assertor of her religions liberty ; 
 while the sentiments of his brother, the present O'Conor Don, evince a mind 
 worthy of his enlightened and patriotic predecessor, a mind worthy of the ancient 
 name he bears, worthy of the descendant and representative of the last national 
 Monarch of Ireland. 
 
Cardinal Delia Somaf/lia's Letter, enclosing the Pope's Breve, and 
 addressed to the Rev. Dr. Gradwell, is as follows : — 
 
 " Dalle Stanze del Vaticano, 17 Angosto, 1827. 
 
 " II Cardinal Decano Segretario di Stato si fa un dovere di remet- 
 tere a V. S. il qui unito Breve di Sua Santita responsiro ad una 
 lettera che ella stessa fece tenere alia Santita sua. 
 
 " V. S. é pregata di volerne assicutare il recapito. 
 
 " Gi'i Card" Della Somaglia."* 
 
 11 Sigr. Rettore del Collegio Inglese, con Breve. 
 
 His Holiness Pope Leo XLIth's. Breve or Letter addressed to Mr. 
 Sheffield Grace, is as follows : — 
 
 " Leo P. P. XII. 
 
 " Nobilis Vir Salutem. — Pervenustam et ensigneni Generis tui 
 Nobilitatem, ac typographicae isthic artis prajstantiam admirati 
 sumns, in opere magnifica; a te edito, quod dilectus filius Eobertus 
 Gradwell Anglicani hujus Conlegii Rector, nobis tuo nomine reddidit. 
 In litteris autera qnas una cum eodem opere a te accepimus, officio- 
 sam voluntatem erga nos tuam, tuumque nobis gratificandi stadium 
 palam agnovimus. Nos igitur ut de munere, quod plane gratum 
 nobis accidit, et raulto magis de sensibus in nos tuis debitas tibi 
 graiias agimus, ipsarumque re aliqua testandarum desiderio teneri 
 le facimus certiorem. Tuum eret opportunas id agendi occasiones 
 nobis pra?bere. Interim Patoris omnium bonorum eupplicamus, ut 
 te cajlestibus sua? gratia; donis cumulet, perfectaque nobiscum cha- 
 ritate conjungat. Datum Roma; apud Sanctum Petrum sub annulo 
 Piscatoris die xi. Augusti MDCCCXXA r II. Pontificatus nostri 
 anno Quarto. 
 
 L. S. " DOMINICBS TESTA."t 
 
 •' Nobili Viro Sheffield Grace, Annie, L.L.D., S.S.A., &c. &c. &c." 
 
 * Translation. — " From the Chamber of the A'atican, 17 of August, Í827. 
 
 " The Cardinal Deacon, Secretary of State, feels it his duty 1o transmit to jour 
 Lordship the accompanying Breve of his Holiness, in answer to a letter that he 
 himself had conveyed to his Holiness. 
 
 " Your Lordship is requested to insure its being received. 
 
 " GDI. Cardinal Della Somaglia." 
 
 " To the Lord Rector of the English College, with a Breve. 
 
 t Translation. — " Leo XII. Pope.— Chief Bishop. 
 
 " Noble Sir, Health. — The very ancient and distinguished rank of your family, 
 and the typographical beauty of the magnificent work upon it compiled by you. 
 and presented to nsin your name by our beloved son, Robert Gradwell, Principal 
 of oar English College, have excited oar admiration. Together with the work 
 we have received your letter, and acknowledge yout spontaneous good wishes for 
 us, and your desire of giving ns pleasure. For the gift, therefore, which we 
 receive with satisfaction, but much more for your feelings towards us, we return 
 yon due thanks, and assure you that we desire to testify the same by every means 
 in our power. For you it will be to point out lit opportunities for so doing. In 
 the mean time we pray the giver of all good to bestow upon yon abundantly the 
 heavenly blessings of his grace, and to unite yon to us in perfect love. Given at 
 Rome, at St. Peter's, under the fisherman's seal, this eleventh day of August, 
 1827, and in the fourth year of jmr pontificate. 
 
 " Dominick Testa, Secretary of Breves to Princes.'' 
 
 " To the noble Sheffield Grace, Esq. D.C.L. and F:s.A. &c. &c. &c." 
 
 J. J. Hadley, Cheltenham. 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR ARRANGING THE LETTER-PRESS AND GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Memoirs of the Family of Grace, contain- 
 ing 104 pages. 
 The Descent (Genealogical) of the Family 
 
 of Grace, containing four pages. 
 A Table (Genealogical), explanatory of 
 
 Portraits, &c. 
 Frontispiece of " Graphic Illustrations." 
 Views of Gracefield-Lodge, Queen's Co., in 
 
 copper- plate and lithography, two plates. 
 Gracefield Antiquities, two plates. 
 Account of Gracefield-Lodge, containing 
 
 four pages. 
 Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, M.P. 1708. 
 Armorial bearings of Viscount Galmoy. 
 Elizabeth Viscountess Mountgarret, Wife 
 
 of Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, M.P. 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefield, 1760, with 
 
 back-ground. 
 Ditto, without back-ground. 
 Mary Galway, of Lota-House, Wife of 
 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefield. 
 Epitaph on Mary Grace, als. Galway, of 
 
 Lota-House, in the Grace-Mausoleum. 
 Armorial bearings of Michael Grace and 
 
 Mary Galway, 1712. 
 Oliver Grace, of Gracefield, 1781. 
 Epitaphs on the first Oliver Grace, of 
 
 Gracefield, als. Shanganagh, M.P., &c. 
 
 in the Grace-Mausoleum. 
 Michael Grace, of Gracefield, 1785. 
 Armorial bearings of Michael Grace and 
 
 Mary Plunket, of Dunsoghly-Castle,1767 . 
 Epitaphs on the second Michael Grace, of 
 
 Gracefield, &c, in the Grace-Mausoleum. 
 Alicia Grace, married to Morgan Kavanagh, 
 
 of Borris-House. 
 Armorial bearings of Alicia Grace and 
 
 Morgan Kavanagh, 1799. 
 Borris-House, Co. of Carlow. 
 Kilkenny-Castle. 
 
 James, second Duke of Ormonde, K.G. 
 Armorial bearings of Walter, Marquis of 
 
 Ormonde, K.P., 1816. 
 James, 19th E. of Ormonde & Ossory, K.P. 
 Armorial bearings of James, 19th E. of 
 
 Ormonde and Ossory, K.P. 
 J ohn Dowell Grace, of Mantua-House, 1811. 
 Epitaphs on John Dowell Grace, of Mantua, 
 
 &c, at Tulsk-Abbey, Co. of Roscom. 
 Tulsk-Abbey, Co. of Roscommon. 
 Oliver J . Dowell Grace, of Mantua-House. 
 
 Frances Nagle, of Jamestown-House, Wife 
 of Oliver J. Dowell Grace, of Mantua. 
 
 Armorial bearings of Oliver J. Dowell 
 Grace and Frances Nagle, 1819. 
 
 Mantua- House, Co. of Roscommon. 
 
 Elizabeth Grace, of the Grange, Wife of 
 Richard Gamon, of Datchworthbury. 
 
 Sir Richard Gamon, Bart., M.P. 
 
 Lady Amelia Murray, Wife of Sir R. Gamon, 
 Bart. 
 
 Armorial bearings of Sir Richard Gamon, 
 Bart., and Lady Amelia Murray, 1796. 
 
 Henry, second Duke of Chandos, K.B. 
 
 James, third Duke of Chandos. 
 
 Anna Eliza Gamon, Duchess of Chandos. 
 
 Armorial bearings of James Duke of Chandos 
 and Anna Eliza Gamon, 1777. 
 
 Richard, first Duke of Buckingham and 
 Chandos, K.G. 
 
 Richard Plantagenet, Marquis of Chandos. 
 
 William Grace, third son of the first Michael 
 Grace, of Gracefield, 1777. 
 
 Mary Harford, of Marshfield, Wife of Wil- 
 liam Grace. 
 
 John Grace, 2d son of William Grace, 1789. 
 
 Epitaphs on William Grace, Mary Harford, 
 and John Grace, in the Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 Richard Grace, of Boley, Queen's Co., M.P. 
 1801, with back-ground. 
 
 Ditto, without back-grouud. 
 
 Greek Poem, of thirty-two lines, to the Me- 
 mory of Richard Grace, of Boley, M.P. 
 
 Lines by Charles Symmons, D.D., on read- 
 ing the Memoir of Richard Grace, M.P. 
 
 Charles Symmons, D.D. 
 
 George, first Lord Carbery. 
 
 Anne Stafford, Lady Carbery. 
 
 Armorial bearings of George, Lord Carbery, 
 and Anne Stafford, of Laxton-Hal), 1715. 
 
 Hon. JobnEvans,ofBulgaden-Hall,Co.Lim. 
 
 Hon. Grace Evans Freke, of Castle-Freke. 
 
 Castle-Freke, Co. Cork. 
 
 John, sixth Lord Carbery. 
 
 Jane Evans, of Bulgaden-Hall and Castle- 
 Freke, Wife of Richard Grace, of Boley, 
 M.P. 
 Armorial bearings of Richard Grace and 
 
 Jane Evans, 17.90. 
 Epitaphs on Richard Grace, of Boley, &c. 
 
 in the Grace-Mausoleum. 
 Sir William Grace, Bart. 
 
Armorial bearings of Sir W. Grace, Bart. 
 
 Sheffield Grace, F. S. A. 
 
 Armorial bearings of Sheffield Grace, F.S.A. 
 
 Greek Poem, of twenty-fire lines, ad- 
 dressed to Sheffield Grace, F.S.A. 
 
 St. Mary's College, Winchester. 
 
 St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. 
 
 Percy Grace, R.N. 
 
 Armorial bearings of Percy Grace, R.N. 
 
 Ditto of Jane Brooke. 
 
 Sheffield Grace, 1746. 
 
 Raymond Grace, 1763. 
 
 Epitaph on Frances Bagot, of Castle- Bagot, 
 Wife of Sheffield Grace, in the Grace- 
 Mausoleum. 
 
 Ditto on Sheffield Grace, 1746, in the 
 Grace-Mausoleum. 
 
 Col. Richard Grace, of Moyelly-Castle, 1652. 
 
 Inscription to the Memory of Colonel 
 Richard Grace. 
 
 Sheffield Grace, 16S4. 
 
 Elizabeth Viscountess Dillon, Wife of Shef- 
 field Grace. 
 
 Twelve Portrait-plates of the Sheffield fa- 
 mily, commencing with Sir Robert Shef- 
 field, Speaker of the H. of C, who ob. 
 1516, & ending with Edmund Sheffield, D. 
 of Buckingham &Normanby, who ob.1735. 
 
 Armorial bearings of John Sheffield, first 
 Duke of Buckingham, K.G. 
 
 Epitaph on John, first D. of Buckingham. 
 
 Aries-Church, in the Queen's Co. 
 
 Grace-Mausoleum, at Aries. 
 
 Pinnacle and Interior of Ditto, 2 plates. 
 
 Inscription over north entrance of Ditto. 
 
 Account of Ditto. 
 
 Views of Courtstown-Castle, Co. of Kil- 
 kenny, two plates. 
 
 Poem, in Irish, entitled " Grasagh aboe," 
 being the Slogan or War-Song of the 
 Graces of Courtstown, with a translation 
 in English, and music to both versions. 
 
 Historical engraving of John Grace, Baron 
 of Courtstown, rejecting the Duke of 
 Schomberg's Proposal, 1689. 
 
 Inscription to the Memory of Robert Grace, 
 only son of John Grace, the last Baron of 
 Courtstown. 
 
 Baron of Courtstown's Tomb, 1568, 2 plates. 
 
 Tombstones of the Grace Family, in Kil- 
 kenny Cathedral. 
 
 Cathedral of St. Canice, in Kilkenny. 
 
 Baron Almaric Grace's Tomb, 1385. 
 St. John's Abbey, in Kilkenny. 
 Tullaroan-Church and Grace's-Chapel, near 
 
 Courtstown-Castle. 
 Ornamented Entrance to Grace's-Chapel. 
 
 Tombstones of the Grace Family, uiGrace's 
 Chapel, two plates. 
 
 Tullaroan Monastery. 
 
 Stone Crosses in Tullaroan, or Grace's- 
 Parish. 
 
 Account of Tullaroan-Church and Grace's- 
 Chapel. 
 
 Map of Ireland. 
 
 Ditto of the Queen's County. 
 
 Ditto of the County of Kilkenny. 
 
 Ditto of Tullaroan, or Grace's-Parish, 1655. 
 
 Ditto of Ditto, 1818. 
 
 Poem, in Irish, entitled " Grace's Country." 
 
 Molana-Abbey, Co. of Waterford. 
 
 Rossibercon-Monastery, Co. of Kilkenny. 
 
 Jerpoint-Abbey, Ditto, two plates. 
 
 Epitaphs on Sir Oliver Grace, of Bally- 
 liuch-Castle, who ob. 1580, and others, 
 at Jerpoint-Abbey. 
 
 Poem, entitled " Jerpoint-Abbey," con- 
 taining 16 pages. 
 
 Ballylinch-Castle, Co. of Kilkenny. 
 
 Legan-Castle, Ditto. 
 
 Aghaviller-Castle and Round Tower, Ditto. 
 
 Eniscorthy-Castle, Co. of Wexford. 
 
 Carney-Castle, Co. of Tipperary. 
 
 Brittas-Castle, Ditto. 
 
 Epitaph on John Grace, of Brittas-Castle, 
 &c. 1683, at Thurles, Co. of Tipperary. 
 
 Graceto—n-Castle, Ditto. 
 
 Castle-Grace, Ditto. 
 
 Castle-Gracc-Church, Ditto. 
 
 Castle-Grace, Co. of Carlow. 
 
 Grace-Castle, Queen's Co. 
 
 Tomb of Rhys apTudor,Pr. of S. Wales, 1096. 
 
 of Gilbert, first E. of Pembroke,1149. 
 
 of Sir Geoffrey de Morisco (al.Morres) 
 
 Lord of Lateragh, 1246. 
 
 of Theobald, fifth Lord Butler of Ire- 
 
 land, 1299, and of Edmund, first 
 
 Earl of Carrick, 1321. 
 
 of James, first Earl of Ormonde, 1337. 
 
 of Pierce, eighthE. of Ormonde, 1539. 
 
 of Margaret Fitz-Gerald, Countess of 
 
 Ormonde. 
 
 of Rich. 1st Vise. Mountgarret,1571. 
 
 ■ of Malachias O'More, Prince of Leix, 
 1486. 
 
 of Sir Robert Hartpole, of Shrule. 
 
 Castle, 1594. 
 of Edmund Walsh, of Castle-Howe], 
 
 1496, and of Robert Walsh, of 
 
 Ditto, 1501. 
 Translations of Monumental Inscriptions, 
 
 &c. containing 12 pages. 
 Topographical Plates, alphabetically placed. 
 Biographical Plates, chronologically placed. 
 
'V 
 
 ■9*.Z*