GA-STNL-0343

This wall plaque with a moulded surround is very similar to No. 312. The Ins. is neatly Inc'd. in conjoined script. The stone seems to have been painted at some stage. The circumstances of the death of Lieutenant Henry Jolly have been summarized in an article by Maguire (1950) in The Galway Reader Vol. 2, Nos. 3 and 4 (1950). Robert Martin of Dangan, Co. Galway was charged with the murder of Lieutenant Jolly. The trial took place at the King's Bench, Dublin on the 2nd of May 1734 and Martin was found not guilty. The dispute arose when Captain Edward Southwell (the witness giving evidence) and Mr. Jolly ..."were playing billards in a coffee-house in Galway, the prisoner (Robert Martin) rushed into the room, drew his sword and instantly demanded satisfation from "the rascal who spat on him as he was passing by." Witness answered that it was he who spat, but not deliberately, on Mr. Martin, and tendered his apologies. Martin, however, insisted on further satisfaction, and witness asked permission to return to his barrack for a sword promising that he would return quickly and give the satisfaction asked for." Martin claimed that he was then attacked by Jolly and the result was that Jolly was killed ".. pierced out of his back quite through the body." Martin was found not guilty. A report of the trial "in the form of a pamphlet was hastily printed and circulated... to gratify public curiosity. " According to the pamphlet the Jury panel was Galwegians and the not guilty verdict was typical of a Galway Jury. Robert Martin subsequently built Cleggan House in 1740, became a Protestant in 1745 and died in 1792. Lieutenant Jolly was probably buried in the graveyard though the present monument (which Maguire quotes from) is in the church. For further details of this court case see Cullen (1962), (as quoted below), and references therein. See Cullen ibid, footnote 16, p. 9 "The whole tryal and examination of Mr. Martin, who was try'd at the King's Bench Barr, on Friday the 2d of May 1735 for the murder of Lieutenant Henry Jolly' (National Library, Dublin, Thorpe MS., p. 12). This murder took place in 1733 and is recorded in Faulkner's Dublin Journal of 10 July 1733 "Galway, June 7. Last Tuesday night, between eight and nine o'clock, Lieutenant Henry Jolly, of General Dormer's Regiment, was most barbarously and inhumanly murdered by Robert Martin without any provocation, the said Martin having just fled from France for committing murder there". Later on 3 December 1734 the same Journal noted that "last Sunday died at Castle Street Captain Jolly brother to Lieutenant Jolly who was killed some time ago in Galway by one Mr. Martin, who is now in custody, and hourly expected in this town to be tryed for that fact. Several gentlemen of Galway are to be jurors on his tryal".