ARLES (KILLABBAN)
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 The ancient name of this parish was
know as Killabban, named after St
Abban, who built a monastery nearby in c.650. The parish's present name came
about with the building of the parish church at Arles. The earliest
chapel on this site appears to have been built in 1686. An inscribed
stone in the wall of the present church records the building of this old
chapel in the 1680s.
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- According to tradition it was built by a lady of the Hartpoles.
It had a thatched roof and was built in the form of a cross (see picture above). In one arm of the cross was the tomb of the Grace family.
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In 1795 this structure was replaced by
another church, which, in turn was replaced by the
present beautiful church in 1868. The present
church is a most impressive structure, whose height
is accentuated by its elevated site. It is lavishly
built, in cut limestone, which was quarried
locally, The church was constructed by local
tradesmen, stone cutters and masons.
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The cost of building the chapel was in the
region of about £3,000 which was provided by Mrs
Grace and was built mainly by voluntary workers
from around the parish including my family. This
chapel replaced the one which was built in the
early 17th century in the shape of a cross and had
a thatched roof.
- The Grace
family were the descendants of William Fitzgerald, called Raymond
Fitzwilliam, who accompanied Richard "Strongbow"
de Clare to Ireland in 1170 and who got the name
Raymond le Gros from his great size and strength. They got great grants of
land in Ossory and were sometimes styled Barons of Tullaroan. They came to
Queens County over 200 years ago and settled in the ancient district of
Shangana, which they styled Gracefield. They were a rich and enterprising
family and worked a colliery for many years They also had a cotton factory
which was later transformed into a corn mill.
A descendent of the local Grace family, William Russell Grace
founded the well known international company W.R. Grace & Company (1854).
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- One of them emigrated to South America early in the
1800's and was so successful in the shipping business that he established
the "Green Line" shipping company. He returned to Ireland and invited
emigrants from Laois, Carlow and Kilkenny to travel on his ships to South
America where they would get employment.
The Graces of America now operate an air line known as
Pan AGRA
to South America. One of the family came to Ireland in the 1960's and became
interested in Urney Chocolates Ltd.
The last member of the Grace
family in Laois married a Captain White and the beautiful mansions and
property passed to J.J. Parkenson, the famous race-horse owner. The place
passed through many hands since including an Italian Countess who sold the
mansion for the sum of £30,500 in the 50's.
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In 1885 William was Mayor of
New York and he accepted the Statue of Liberty from the French on behalf of
the American people.
The circumjacent cemetery has been extensively used during the
last two centuries for the interment of both priests and laity; of the former it
is said that scarcely less than 40 lie at rest here. Over the remains of a few
of these appear the following inscriptions: -" Here lieth the body of the
Rev. Bryan Moore, who departed this life August 3rd, 1746, aged--." (Age
obliterated; but as he is stated, in the Registry of 1704, to have been then
"aged 49 and some months," he was therefore in his 92nd year at the period of
his death.).
On the same stone: -
"Here lieth the body of the Rev. William Moore, P.P. of ----"
(Name of place effaced.), "who departed this life the 19th of April, 1766, in
the 66th year of his age. Requiescat in Pace."
"Here lieth the body of the Revd. William Keating, who
departed this life November the 12th, 1755, aged 74 years. Req. in pace."
"Here lieth the body of the Revd. William Keating, who died
November 12th, 1764, aged 44 years. Requiescat in pace."
"Here lieth the body of the Rev. Patrick Lalor, who departed
this life, January the 11th, 1773, aged 33 years. Also the Rev. Felix Nowlan of
Rarou. County Carlow, who departed this life August 31st, 1794, aged 42
years. Lord have mercy on their souls."
"Here lieth the body of the Rev. James Wall, who departed this
life the 27th of April, 1771, aged 49 years. Requiescat in pace.
"Here lie interred the remains of the Rev. Patrick Murphy,
Parish Priest of Castle Carbury, County Kildare, who departed this life the 2nd
March, 1794, aged 52 years. Requiescat in pace."
"Here lieth the body of the Rev. James Taaffe, who departed
this life the 10th of February, 1763, aged 35 years. Requiescat in pace."
"Here lieth the body of the Rev. Michael Fleming, who departed
this life the 30th day of January, 1823, aged 30 years. Requiescat in pace."
On mural tablets within the church, are the following: -
"Here lie the remains of the Very Rev. Jeremiah Lalor, P.P of
Killabane, and Penitentiary of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. Learned,
pious, meek, and disinterested during life, he died poor, and lamented as a
father by a grateful people, over whom he presided for 28 years. Born in 1754,
he departed this life on the 1st January, 1821, in the 66th year of his age.
R.I.P.
"Erected in memory of the Rev. James Doran, who departed this
life, 9th January, 1845, aged 40. Requiescat in pace."
Another tablet has an inscription to the memory of the Rev.
Henry O'Neill, C.C. of Arles, who died 12th of July, 1876.
Inserted in the floor, in front of the high altar, is a
monumental brass to the memory of the Rev. James Bray, Administrator of the
Parish, who died in February, 1879.
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland:
1844-45. Volume 1, A to C.
ARLES, a small but pleasant and
picturesque village, in the parish of Killabin, barony of Slievemargy, Queen’s
co, Leinster. It stands on the border of the county about 4 miles north of
Carlow on that road between that town and Maryborough. Its name is a corruption
of Ard-glass, ‘the green hill’. Amidst a grove on the summit of the tufted
height to which the name refers, a crude form and thatched place of worship was
built up wards of 160 years ago, by a lady of the family of Hartpoles, and
contained, in one arm, a small funereal chapel belonging to the ancient and
respectable family of Grace. On the site of this chapel now stands a cut-stone
mausoleum, in imitation of St. Doulough’s church in co Dublin, and for its
combination of strength, chasteness and beauty. A lower and arched apartment is
the repository of the dead; an upper chamber, also arched, is disposed for the
reception of mural monuments; and the roof, wholly composed of stone, tests on
the high pointed arch of the upper apartment, and is imbedded in Roman cement.
The simple and unostentatious variety of the pointed style adopted, displays
great correctness of taste; and the interior is chaste, solemn, and imposing. On
each of the exterior flanking walls is an old marble monument of the Grace
family; and over the entrance to the burial vault is a tablet of Kilkenny
marble, with a long appropriate inscription in Greek and Latin. The Graces trace
their ancestry to Raymond Fitzwilliam, surnamed Le Gros., who accompanied
Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, to Ireland in the 12th century; and, through him,
they further trace it to Other de Windsor, who descended from the Dukes of
Tuscany, and was a Baron of England in 1057. Grace’s castle in Kilkenny, and a
large tract of country lying to the west of it, and still called Grace’s
country, indicate their naturalised position and importance. Branches of them
became fixed in co. Wexford, at Ballylinch, Carney, and Leighan in co.
Tipperary, and at Shauganah, afterwards called Gracefield, in Queen’s co. Their
principal modern representatives are the family of Grace, Barons of Courtstown
and Lords of Grace’s country, and the family of Fitzmaurice, Earls of Kerry, and
Marqueses of Lansdowne. Area of the village, 14 acres. Pop., in 1831, 205; in
1841, 231. Houses 47.
ARLES and Ballylinan, a Roman Catholic
parish in the dio, of Kildare and Leighlin. It includes the village just
noticed; and its post town is Ballylinan by Carlow. The statistics are
given under the civil parochial divisions.
Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland: Adapted to
the New Poor-Law, Franchise, Municipal and Ecclesiastical Arrangements and
Compiled with a Special Reference to the Lines of Railroad and Canal
Communication as Existing in 1844-45. Volume 1 A to C. Page. 70/71
(257/8).
Parish is
Killabban (now known as Arles)
The ancient and more proper title for this parish is Killabban.
It receives its present name from the parish church being placed in modern times
at Arles. This name is derived from Ard-glas, i.e. "the verdant hill;" or,
according to some, from Ard-lios, i.e. "the forted hill." The earliest place of
worship here appears to have been a chapel built in 1686, of which there is a
description and an illustration (Pl. 34, Vol. II.) in Grose's Antiquities. It is
there described as having been "built, according to tradition, by a lady of the
family of Hartpole. It is erected in the form of a cross, and is thatched. In
one arm of the cross is a small chapel, the place of interment for the Grace
family. A long Latin metrical epitaph to Dame Frances Grace, alias Bagot, wife
to Sheffield Grace, who died 3rd May, 1742, aged 32, is given; and another, in
English, to Mrs. Martha Grace, wife of Michael Grace, who died Nov. 28, 1736, in
the 55th year of her age." Grose's illustration shows this chapel to have been a
very plain structure, with the thatch sadly in need of repair. An inscribed
stone, let into the wall of the present church, records the name of the builder
of the old chapel: "Madam Scurlock, alias Walsh, alias Hartpole, built this
chapel, A.D. 168-" (last figure broken away).
According to the annals of the Grace family, this chapel was
pulled down in 1795, and was replaced by that which existed until the present
beautiful church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was built, towards the erection of
which the late Mrs. Grace Grace was a munificent contributor. The Grace
mausoleum is a conspicuous object in the adjoining grave-yard. It was built in
1818, in place of the original one-erected in 1687, by Oliver Grace, Chief
Remembrancer of the Exchequer; by Mrs. Alicia Kavanagh, daughter of Michael
Grace of Grace-field; Sir William Grace, Bart; and his brothers Sheffield
Juris consult, and Percy, Admiral of the Royal fleet, for themselves and
posterity, on the site of the southern wing of the church of Arles. The
following is the inscription upon it, recording the above: "Hoc sepulchrum
Alicia Kavanagh, filia Michaelis Grace de Gracefield, Arm.; Gulielmus Grace,
Baronettus, et fratres ejus Sheffieldus, jurisconsultus, Perceus Regiae Classis
Praefectus, poni curaverunt, A.D. MDCCCXVIII., sibi posterisque. Quo loco fuit
olim Australis ala aedis Arlesianae ab Olivero Grace de Shangano sive Gracefield,
Armig. Anno Salutis MDLXXXVII. aedificata, jamdiu vetustate collapsa." This
mausoleum is fully described and illustrated in the family Annals, compiled by
Sheffield Grace, who traces their pedigree to Raymond Fitz William, surnamed Le
Gros, who accompanied Strongbow to Ireland, and through him further back to the
Ducal House of Tuscany.
(Above as was written)
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