Introduction

by William Roulston

The introduction of thousands of English and Scottish settlers to Ulster in the seventeenth century was of immense economic, political and social significance. These settlers brought their own cultures with them. These were manifested in a number of ways, such as dress, houses and agricultural practices. The settlers also brought with them their practice of erecting inscribed gravestones often with highly decorative carvings. This essay will look at a selection of the memorials, gravestones and headstones that were erected in the course of the seventeenth century in counties Donegal, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone and see what they tell us about the people who erected them.