St Giles Churchyard ? Plot 118, the unmarked tomb

Image: © D Gore Taken: Unknown

Not far from Thomas Gray’s large memorial, is this unmarked tomb, an imposing example of the sepulchral art of Napoleon’s time. It is totally anonymous, identified on the churchyard record only as Plot 118, and now hidden behind the Vestry that has since been built onto the north side of the Chancel. The clue to who lies here came from a note in a book about Irish history. The answer is that the 73 year old Thomas Dawson (then Lord Cremorne) of the Dartrey estate in Co. Monaghan Image removed the bodies of his first wife and his four deceased children from their graves at Dartrey, and brought them here in 1798 when he and his second wife Philadelphia decided to leave Ireland for good. The cause of this move appears to have been the turbulence of the 1790s in Ireland culminating in the unsuccessful but bloody revolution of 1798. Added to that, this faithful old Unionist found that his heir, Richard Dawson, was actually supporting the rebels. The Dawsons settled in Chelsea, but Stoke Poges was selected for the new family tomb because both he and his wife, the granddaughter of William Penn, had relations there. Yet the anonymity of their grave is puzzling. Despite the Dawson family motto ‘Toujours Propice’ (Always in Favour), this peaceful country parish may not have been particularly welcoming to Irish interlopers with ostentatious memorials! The Cremorne hatchment, which hangs high up in a dark corner of the church Image, seems to be the only indication that an Irishman and his family finally found sanctuary here “far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife” - Full story pp.116-125 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2_ZstVBZSfIC&lpg=PA1&pg=PA116#v=onepage&q=&f=true . For more about this ancient building see http://www.stokepogeschurch.org/pdf%20files/St%20Giles%20tour.pdf

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