GA-SRMY-0079

This limestone recumbent slab, measuring 5ft9ins(H) x 2ft11ins(W) x 5ins(D), is damaged at its lower end, and no inscription has yet been identified with certainty on the surviving central portion other than the word Pray.

At the head of the slab, which faces East, is a coat of arms featuring what appears to be an impaled shield. The arms appear to represent Blake on the dexter (viewer’s left) and Kirwan on the sinister (viewer’s right). Under heraldic convention, such an arrangement would be consistent with the marriage of a Blake man to a Kirwan woman. The presence of the cat passant guardant, associated with the baronetcy, may further point to the Blakes of Menlo.

One possible identification is Anne Kirwan, first wife of Sir Walter Blake, 6th Baronet of Menlo. Anne was a daughter of Sir John Kirwan and married Sir Walter on 10 August 1687. She died in August 1705.

In the absence of a surviving legible inscription, however, the identification of the memorial as that of Anne Kirwan Blake cannot presently be confirmed and should be regarded as tentative pending further research. Sir Walter subsequently remarried and died in Dublin in 1748.