Inside the ruined church of Kilcredan, County Cork can be found what was evidently once a fine tomb, its remains protected from the elements by a corrugated tin roof. This marks the final resting place of Robert Tynte, a Somerset-born soldier who came to Ireland in the late 16th century and settled in Youghal, where a late-mediaeval tower house is still called Tynte’s Castle. In 1612 he married Elizabeth Spenser, widow of the poet Edmund Spenser who is said to have begun work on the epic The Faerie Queen while staying in Youghal with his friend Sir Walter Raleigh. Tynte died in 1663 and the tomb has since been much mutilated, both his head and those of the mourning figures who kneel on either side (presumably his wife and daughter) are missing – together with their hands and the commemorative plaque formerly beneath the family coat of arms. Similar butchery has taken place on another memorial tomb high on the facing wall, this one commemorating Edward Harris, a Devon-born lawyer who became Chief Justice of Munster and was buried here, together with his wife Elizabeth, following his death in 1636.
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How sad to see these fine carvings mutilated. I wonder if Tynte originally came from the part of Somerset near Bristol where there is now a fine house called Tyntesfield, built by a merchant family called Gibbs in the 1800’s. Perhaps there was once an earlier house on the site?
Robert Tynte came from Wraxhall, near Bristol which is close to where Tyntesfield is located, so I imagine there is a connection…
Richard Gibbs (Lord Wraxal) who died in 2001 was the last owner of Tyntesfield
before the National Trust took it on.
I hope there is a special place in Hell for the vandals that mutilate monuments this way, although it will need to be a pretty big space.