deeds, and bonds, aswell mad, geven, and graunted by the said John Coping to the said Kalin is wife is use, and pperty due, or lickwise made, geven, and pfirmth be the said John unto the said Domynick Roche from their first thouch to gither in, of, for, and concerning the taking and maryadge, keeping, and honest using the said Kalin as wif, alwayes do stand in full strenght and vtue in lawe. In witnes of the pmisses we have laid hereunto o" names at Cork, the xxij. day of Janua", Ao 1555, et ĩ Phi et Marie rege et regine 2 et tertio. JAMES DESMONDE. EDMOND, Dean of Clon. ST PATK. ROCHE, Archedeak. gen' all official of Cork, notary publick. JAMES GOWLL. ARMORIAL BEARINGS AND INSCRIPTIONS, ON THE BLAZON OF ROCHE OF THE CITY OF CORK, AND OF DUNDER- Having troubled Mrs. Cuthbert Kearney, of Garretstown, county of Cork, with an inquiry respecting a blazon of the old armorial bearings of the Roche family of Dundurrow, which I had heard was at Garretstown, that lady with very great kindness sent it to me for inspection. It is a painting on vellum, and the latter, for more safety, laid on panel. The arms are, Vert, three rocks proper: crest, On a helmet argent, (profile to its right,) a mountain vert, in front of which is a leg (sinister) coupée proper, (the foot resting on something just above the helmet). Mantlings, gules and argent (?) * "Dunderrow" is an Irish word, compounded from No other bearing than the three roaches, barwise, is borne by any family of the Roches in this part of Ireland; and in the Roche MSS. the property of James Roche, Esq. of Cork, I find various deeds of the period of Charles the First, A.D. 1630 to 1644, executed by persons of the name of Roche, whose seals are all charged with the three fishes. It is therefore most probable that the arms borne by the Dunderrow family were the same, and this blazon of the ancient Lords de la Rupe was a piece of heraldic antiquity got up by the researches of the student of Gray's Inn. (See further observations on this subject at p. 435.) The shield, surrounded by a collar of esses, intermixed with roses and portcullises or. Over the crest, on a scroll, PES TERRA: CAPUT CELIS. (Foot on Earth: Head in Heaven.) Below the shield, on a scroll, PER RUPEM: VIRESCO: CHRISTUM. (I flourish through Christ the Rock.) Below, and across the field, Insigne gentilitium nobilissimæ et illustris familiæ Rochæorum ab honoratissimis et antiquissimis Baronibus de la Rupe intra Regnu Galliæ oriuntium ab intimis recordis atq, antiquitatum monumentis petitum ex opere et impensis insignis viri Mauritij Rochæi in Hospitio Graiensi Studentis, filij et hæredis Ricardi Rochæi Armigeri, filij Johannis Domini de Dunderrow senatoris et aldermanni inclitæ civitatis Corcagiæ intra Hiberniam. "RIC. ST. GEORGE, Clarenceux Rex armor. "RICHARD ROCHE, of Dunde.*" TRANSLATION. "The family armorial bearing (escutcheon) of the most noble and illustrious family of the Roches. Descended from the most honourable and ancient Barons de la Rupe, in the Kingdom of France, obtained (sought out) from private records, and ancient documents (monuments) of antiquity at the trouble and expense of that illustrious gentleman, Maurice Roche, student of Gray's Inn, son and heir of Richard Roche, Esquire, son of John Lord of Dunderrow, senator and alderman of the renowned city of Cork, in the Kingdom of Ireland." Sir Richard St. George was made Clarenceux A.D. 1623, and died A.D. 1635. John Roche was Mayor of Cork A.D. 1624. Richard Roche was Mayor of Cork A.D. 1634. The blazon was therefore probably drawn after 1624, and before 1634. * Dunderrow (?) 66 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities: all is vanity." And before a century had passed away after this blazon of gentry had been "depicted" by Clarenceux King at Arms, the Roche Lords of Dunderrow became extinct "in the right or male line," and their possessions had become the property of another family! Of the Roche family I had no knowledge whatever, nor ever gave them thought, until I came across the collar of esses; for of all pursuits I think none can be less interesting than that of pedigree, unless it happens to relate to your own ancestors. Then, indeed, self-all-absorbing self-comes gallantly up to the rescue; and if we can keep our own counsel, and not bore the world with our burrowings, and are content with worshipping alone the image we have set up, which, if it even have a head of fine gold, assuredly stands on feet of clay, and as we carry back our view on the long line from which we have brushed off the dust and cobwebs, we keep, however slightly, in our recollection, that the thousand and odd millions of mankind, our contemporaries, in some manner or other, either in the direct male or female line, or as a collateral branch, are all, through Noah, descended from one common ancestor, Adam: though, to be sure, when we have even tracked back to him, I don't know whether we have much to be very heraldically elated with; for in a German court of gentility, where sixteen pure descents are indispensable, Herr Adam would have been "turned back and disclaimed" as a very novus homo indeed, and not entitled to write himself, "in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, armigero." Shakspere has written that there are sermons in stones, which I shall not dispute; but, if so, may there not be also a moral extracted from the dry and marrowless bones of the now-forgotten deceased and departed? But to get back to the subject in hand. Accidental circumstances and the kindness of a friend enable me to concentrate a few scattered gleams of light on the latter days of the house of the Esquire of Queen Elizabeth. Our student of Gray's Inn, London, seems to have died A.D. 1666; at least, there is a legal acknowledgment, dated 27 August, 1666, by John Roche, of the validity of the will of his brother, Maurice Roche FitzRichard, late deceased, which will is dated at Dowenderow, 20 March, A.D. 1665, in which he describes himself as Maurice Roche FitzRichard, of Dowenderow, Esq., directs that he shall be buried at Dowenderow Church, and leaves to his wife Marye Roche ats Archdeacon all his real estate for life, and gives to her all his goods and chattels for ever, “leaving the chardge upon her to have a careful remembrance of my soul, and of my brother and poore friends." And after her death he leaves the estates to his brother, John Roche. A deed dated "20 March, 1703, old style," by Maurice Roche, of Dublin, but who, in a recital of 1702, was then of Cork, records that on the 12th January, 1702, Maurice Roche had married Mary Meskill, of said city, for whom he now settles a jointure on Dunderrow and other estates, which Maurice Roche had in him the reversion in fee simple expectant upon the death of Mary Roche, wife of Edmond Roche, of Rinebelly in the county of Cork, Esq. No relationship is expressed. Edmond may have been the son of John, and the father of Maurice who executes the deed. A deed dated 4th June, 1731, by and between Francis Kearney, of Garrettstowne, Esq. of the one part, &c. recites, "Whereas Maurice Roche, late of Dundurrow, in the county of Cork, Esq. deced, was in his life-time lawfully seized in his demeasne as of fee of and in ye mannor of Dundurrow, and of sev messuages and tenements and hereditamts situate, lying, and being in ye county of Corke: And whereas ye said Maurice Roche of Dundurrow dyed intestate on or about the twenty-second day of March last, leaving Mary his only child and heir-at-law to ye said afore-menconed lands, tenements, hereditamts, who, in ye lifetime of ye said Maurice Roche, was marryed to sd Francis Kearney, party to these presents, and who now is, in right of his sd wife Mary, become entitled thereunto." I have a small MS. book, on the first page of which is written, by the author of the first "Cork Remembrancer" (from whom I learnt mensuration in A.D. 1801), "John FitzGerald's Monumental Records, or, Miscellaneous Works." The last monumental date in it is 1783: we may therefore presume that it was compiled in 1784. At page 4 we have, "Review of Christ Church Yard:" "On a large, handsome tomb, all composed of hewn stone, and by or joining the north wall of the church-yard, on the south side of which tomb is the following inscription: IN HOPE OF A GLORIOUS RESURRECTION, HERE LYE THE REMAINS OF MAURICE ROCHE, OF DOWNDERROW, ESQ. WHO ENDED HIS COURSE OF DAYS IN THIS LIFE MARCH 22, 1730, AS DO ALSO THOSE OF MARY HIS WIFE, WHO FINISHED HERS NOVEMBER 18, 1747. On the wall is a neat coat of arms (perhaps of the Roches), carved on a stone, and joining over this tomb." The year at this period commencing on the 25th March, the time of Maurice Roche's death, as recorded on the tomb, agrees with that stated in the deed of the 4th June, 1731. I have since visited Christ Church yard, and found the monument and inscriptions as recorded by my old master and instructor, who was a kind of village Doctor Johnson. I was doubtful whether "Downderrow" had been correctly copied, but I found it so engraved 66 on the south side.” On the upper slab of Maurice Roche's has been placed the fragment of a much older tomb, which, for reasons to be mentioned, cannot be later than the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It consists of part of a line of armorial shields, being the whole of three and part of two escutcheons. The escutcheon on the heraldic right (the extreme of the line and the spectator's left) is the sinister half of the arms of England-three lions above, three fleurs-de-lis below; which are the second and fourth charges of the royal shield, surmounted with the imperial crown. This shield is double the breadth of any other, and fills the whole height of the line. The others are under pointed arches, and the vacant spaces above are filled up with ornamental work. The second shield from the right appears to have three piles in chief. The next seems charged with three fishes, pro |