The hatchment of Thomas Dawson, Lord Cremorne, in St Giles? church

Image: © D Gore Taken: Unknown

Following years of strife in the Ireland of the 1790s, this 73 year old Irish peer left his home on the Dartrey estate Image in County Monaghan to settle in London. With the help of Penn relations at Stoke Poges, he prepared a family tomb in St Giles churchyard Image where he and all his family were buried. But it is an unmarked grave, recorded only as Plot 118 on the churchyard record. Despite the Dawson family motto ‘Toujours Propice’ (Always in Favour), the peaceful country parish of St Poges may not have been particularly welcoming to Irish interlopers with ostentatious memorials. This Cremorne hatchment, which still hangs high up in a dark corner of the church, 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 old church http://www.stokepogeschurch.org/pdf%20files/St%20Giles%20tour.pdf

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