Grafton Underwood, St James

A late 13th/early 14th century gothic church with interventions in the 18th century – the pulpit, and in the 19th century – stained glass. On the outside huge grotesque gargoyles, the inside slightly plain but with some good monuments. Monuments Here lie the tombs of the Lords Gowran who lived at Fermyn Wood in the 17th and 18th century. The 1st Earl of Gowran (1643- 1676) was a son of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, the great Irish Jacobite peer. Young Butler was ennobled in 1676 the same year as his marriage to Anne, daughter of Arthur Chichester, 1st Earl of Donegal. None of this last long as he died in Paris that year of consumption. The Barony of Gowran was recreated for another Irishman, Richard Fitzpatrick (1662-1727). He is the first to be commemorated here. He was a ...supporter of William III who gave him large grants of forfeited estates in Ireland after the defeat of James II. He died in 1727, his widow, Anne Robinson, in 1744. Their son, John Fitzpatrick went further up the peerage becoming Earl of Upper Ossory. This would appear to be on account of his connections rather than his brilliance, unless his most brilliant move was to marry in 1744 the daughter of Earl Gower who was also the granddaughter of the Earl of Kingston. (This lady remarried Richard Vernon which accounts for the Vernon line which leads to the 1st Lord Lyveden.) Their son became the 2nd Earl and he too is commemorated in this monument together with his wife, Anne Liddell. The divorced wife of Augustus, 3rd Duke of Grafton. The whole monument is a confection of Westmacott incorporating an oval relief of the 2nd Earl with suitably sorrowful maiden. Nearby is another Westmacott, later in date, and more sentimental. It’s a neo-classical scene depicting feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. Rather incongruously caught in a gothic arch put up to commemorate Lady Anne Fitzpatrick who died in 1841.

Please refer to the Glossary for any terms in the text that you are unfamiliar with.