CO-KLBG-0105

Record Date: 
26 June 2013
Graveyard: 
Exact wording of epitaph: 

HERE LIETH THE BODY

OF ANN DYKE, ALIAS

HERRISON , A VIRGIN

ANNO DOM. 1623

AND THOUGH AFTER

MY SKINNE, WORMES

DESTROY THIS BODY

YET SHALL I SEE GOD

IN MY FLESH.

 

 

Memorial Type: 
Headstone
Grave location
County: 
Number of people commemorated: 
1
People commemorated: 
Title: 
A Virgin
Name: 
Ann
Surname: 
Dyke
Date of death - year: 
1623
Notes: 

This is the oldest recorded marked headstone in Ireland until proven otherwise.

John Desmond. 087 2606499

Ann Dyke was a native of Bristol, who came to Bandon with Phane Beecher and the first settlers towards the close of the 16th century. Historians have passed down that Ann Dyke died of a contagious disease, contracted while ministering unselfishly to some of her fellow planters, who suffered at the time from a plague, which caused many deaths among them.

Cross reference with 1616 cloth worker mortuary monument from Taughboyne, Co. Donegal