SU9782 : The hatchment of Thomas Dawson, Lord Cremorne, in St Giles’ church
taken 26 years ago, near to Wexham Street, Buckinghamshire, England
The hatchment of Thomas Dawson, Lord Cremorne, in St Giles’ church
Following years of strife in the Ireland of the 1790s, this 73 year old Irish peer left his home on the Dartrey estate H6117 : Inner Lough island and the history of the Dartrey estate 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 SU9782 : St Giles Churchyard – Plot 118, the unmarked tomb 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 Link . For more about this old church Link (Archive Link )
SPB Mais wrote in 1930 ' On crossing the field path by Stoke Poges, I was struck with horror, at the grotesque sarcophagus erected by John Penn in memory of Gray twenty-eight years after his death'.