Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/358

 

On the east panel of the sarcophagus is engraved:—

In front panel of sarcophagus is engraved the following:—

The edge of the cushion has the inscription,.

“This monument was erected by his widow, Mrs. Mary Drelincourt, before 1731. This elegant piece of sculpture was executed by the famous M. Ruysbrack, and is a noble specimen of his talents. The Dean is represented as recumbent. His attitude is graceful and dignified; and the several parts of the figure harmoniously combine in producing a pleasing unity of effect. The drapery is simply disposed, and so arranged as to excite in the mind of the spectator the idea of a perfect symmetry of form, slightly veiled beneath its flowing folds. The features are strongly expressive of intelligence, mildness, and benevolence, and were peculiarly admired by Dr. Drelincourt’s contemporaries for the strong resemblance which they bore to the original.” (Stuart’s Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh; Newry, 1819; p. 518.)

In 1732 Mrs. Mary Drelincourt founded and endowed a school, called the Drelincourt Charity, in Armagh, which still subsists under this name.

Dean Drelincourt was not an author. He employed the Rev. Marius D’Assigny to translate his father’s consolatory book regarding death. His wife, Mary, was probably a Welsh heiress, at all events he had a good estate in Wales. He spent most of his latter years in London, where he died on the 7th March 1722 (the “1720” on his monument is a mistake), (a quarterly periodical named The Historical Register says March 15th), his age was seventy-six. He was very generous with his money during his lifetime, beautifying the cathedral, building a church at St. Dulough’s, and founding an educational hospital for boys in Dublin. In his will he left £500 to the French Church in Dublin, £700 for a charity school in Wales, £800 to the blue boys’ hospital of Dublin, and £1000 for charitable and pious uses either in Armagh or in Clonfeickle, and £2000 for his own or his wife’s relations, at her discretion, but this £5000 was to be disposed of as above, only if his daughter married without her mother’s consent. This daughter, their only child Anne, was married on 21st June 1739, to Lieut-Colonel Hugh, third and last Viscount Primrose. Both charity and wedlock seem to have been pleasingly arranged; the school in Armagh, called the Drelincourt Charity, was founded in 1732 by the dean’s widow, Mrs. Mary Drelincourt; she also founded a chapel and school, named Berse-Drelincourt, in the parish of Wrexham in Wales, which subsists upon the income of a landed estate now yielding about £500 per annum, dedicated to the double object. As a widow she resided in London; she styled herself “of the parish of St. George, Hanover Square,” in her Will, which was entirely in favour of her daughter; the Will was proved on 14th June 1755.

&#42;&#8270;* Viscount Primrose died at Wrexham on 8th May 1741, in his thirty-ninth year. Anne, Viscountess Primrose, died in London on 3rd February 1775. Her Will leaves her freehold lands in Denbighshire, &c, to Thomas, Lord Dartrey, and to his son, the Hon. Richard Dawson, and their heirs, whom failing, to the daughter or daughters of the Hon Elizabeth Terry, wife of the Right Hon. Edmund Sexton Perry. (The above Lord Dartrey