Irish Gravestone Inscriptions, Tracing your Irish Ancestors: Timeline

Historical Timeline



		Introduction






		1603 – Treaty of Mellifont brings to an end the Nine Years War

1603 – James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England

		1603 – Death of Elizabeth brings to an end the Tudor period.

1607 – Flight of the Earls

		1609-11 – Beginning of the Plantation of Ulster



1641 – Outbreak of rebellion

1642 – Beginning of English Civil War

		1649 – Charles I beheaded, monarchy abolished.

1660 – Monarchy restored, Chalres II becomes King.

		1688 – William of Orange invited to become king of England.

		1690 – Defeat of James II by William III at the Battle of the Boyne




1745 – Jacobite rebellion

		1750 – Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution

1776 – American Declaration of Independence


1778 – Irish Volunteers formed

		1798 – Rebellion involving United Irishmen



1801 – Union of Great Britain and Ireland

		1805 – Battle of Trafalgar

1815 – Wellington victorious over Napoleon at Battle of Waterloo



		1837 – Queen Victoria comes to the throne

		1846-8 – Great Famine

1854-56 – Crimean War



1885-6 – First Home Rule crisis

		1899-1902 – Boer War

1901 – Queen Victoria dies

		20th century – Break-up of British Empire


1914-18 – First World War

		1916 – Easter Rising

1920 – Government of Ireland Act

		1939-45 – Second World War

		1985 – Anglo-Irish Agreement

1998 – Good Friday Agreement



		Introduction

		11th-12th centuries – Anglo-Norman grave slabs erected in graveyards of east Ulster

Late 14th century – Cooey-na-Gall O’Cahan’s tomb erected in Dungiven Priory.

		15th-16th centuries – cadaver tombs erected in parts of Ireland

1585 – Earliest sculpted memorial bearing an inscription. Jones ,Ardglass CI, Co. Down

1552 – Office of Arms founded.

		Early 1600's – influx of English/Scots settlers to Ulster bringing their gravestone traditions




		1611-22 – Ulster Plantation records

1625 – death of Sir Arthur Chichester who commissioned the finest 17th-century monument in Ireland

		1630-1 – Ulster muster rolls



1659 – ‘census’ compiled

		1660s – Hearth money rolls.

Late 17th century – sculpted headstones in the north Fermanagh/west Tyrone area

		1697 – Law passed forbidding burial in the graveyard of a suppressed monastery or abbey

1708 – Registry of Deeds established in Dublin


		Early 18th century – headstones with mortality symbols in south Fermanagh/Monaghan

1737 – Belfast News Letter founded

1740 – ‘Census of Protestant householders’

		1766 – Religious census

1772 – law passed by Irish parliament banning burial within churches

		1775 – Dissenters’ petitions

Late 18th century – mortality symbolism almost disappears from Ulster gravestones

		1795 – Site acquired for a burying ground at Clifton Street, Belfast

1796 – Flaxgrowers’ List

		Early 19th century – Classical mausolea become popular in Ulster

1803-4 – Agricultural censuses for Antrim and Down

		1823 – Passing of Tithe Composition Act.

1824 – Law passed requiring clergy, other than CI, to apply in writing to perform a burial service.

		1830s – First or Townland Valuation.

		1838 – Poor Law in Ireland

1848-64 – Griffiths Valuation.

		1856 – ‘An act to amend the laws relating to the burial of the dead in Ireland’ passed

1867 – Public Record Office of Ireland established

1869 – Belfast City Cemetery opened by the Corporation.		1869 – Milltown Cemetery opened in Belfast by the Roman Catholic Church

1884 – Cremation ruled legal.


1898 – Local government act for Ireland

		1901 – earliest surviving census for the whole of Ireland.


1912 – Ulster Covenant


		1920s to present – war memorials erected in many towns in Ireland

1961 – City of Belfast Crematorium opened, the first of its kind in Northern Ireland.