Henry Chevers

Henry Chevers b. Monkstown Castle, Dublin Ireland d. 1640 Monkstown Castle, Dublin Ireland

Henry Chevers was probably buried at Carrickbrennan Graveyard in 1640. Grave robbers and body snatching in Ireland have reduced ancient and historic cemetery sites to empty graves and mutilated final resting places of the Chevers family. The same continues even today in America as cemeteries are being destroyed at an alarming rate.

Henry Chevers d. 30 June 1640 Head of the junior branch of the Chevers family, had property in Monkstown. Married Catherine, the daughter of Sir Richard Fitzwilliam of Merrion, County Dublin, a sister of the 1st Viscount FitzWilliam. Children: Walter; Thomas; Patrick; Margaret.

• ** Need Newspaper Clips *** Equipping themselves with spades and pick axes, crowbars and ropes, dark figures were reported prying open tombs at Carrickbrennan Graveyard in Monkstown; at Glasnevin, armed parties stood guard for the critical period of decomposition; at Drumcondra Churchyard, in 1824, a Body Snatcher was arrested "as he carried about with him the nauseous smell of mortality".

Newspapers of the day reported shattered tombstones, vandalised graves left open and exposed. Sanders. Newsletter of February 1830 Of the 150,000 ancient monuments in Ireland. The Office of Public Works maintains 700 48 are currently undergoing major restoration works Skellig Rock Knowth Tumulus Mellifont Abbey Parke's Castle in Sligo. Office of Public Works position on this : Some of these monuments are scattered, they are small and they might not seem to be of major importance.

Ballyhealy Castle was a Norman castle built by Sir Richard Whitty It later became the principal residence of the Chevers family through marriage to a Whitty. Wexford was captured in October 1649 Cromwell led the attack on Ballyhealy Castle, it was destroyed and became a burial ground for the Chevers family caught within. The four Towers remained after the battle and in 1973 only (1) one Tower remained. The Tower was renovated by Nicholas and Maura Whitty. They sold it out from the family name. Today it is a Holiday Castle. The Chevers are described as "Anglo-Norman descent"

Other References

• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland 6th ed. London : Harrison 1879. Vol I. page 303

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Henry Chevers (Cheevers) was the head of a branch of the aristocratic Chevers family in Ireland, his land and estate holdings primarily in and near Monkstown, near Dublin. In 1610, Monkstown Castle passed from Sir Gerald Aylmer into the hands of Henry Chevers, by nature of the following inheritance: Henry Cheevers was the son of John Cheevers and Catherine Travers,grand-daughter of Sir John Travers, Master of Ordnance. Her sister, Mary Travers was married to James Eustace, 3rd Viscount Baltinglass. She married Sir Gerald Aylmer as her second husband. The Chevers estate consisted of the Monkstown Castle (the main Chevers residence) and lands including forty- seven townships comprised of 73 Castles were awarded the family as keepers of the Abbey of St Mary's. Scattered across the countryside of Ireland were the various Cadet leaders of the Chevers family that maintained the Franciscan Monks of St Mary's Abbey". As epilogue to the Norman/Irish histories, and prologue to the times that resulted in the migration of the Chevers family to Connaught and the American colonies, it is noted here that several of the Chevers family were involved in the 1641 Rebellion. They were also strongly loyal to the Catholic cause. In the summer of 1649, Cromwell was sent to Ireland with two objectives: to place it firmly under English control; to superintend the confiscation the land of all 'rebels' - as a result almost forty per cent of the land of Ireland was redistributed from Catholics born in Ireland to Protestants born in Britain. His first target was the town of Drogheda north of Dublin which he stormed and captured. Perhaps 2,500 men, mainly in arms, were killed during the storm and several hundred more - all the officers, all Catholic priests and friars, every tenth common soldier - were killed, many clubbed to death. It was in accordance with the laws of war, but it went far beyond what any General had done in England. Cromwell then perpetrated a messier massacre at Wexford. When Cromwellian troops massacred the women of Wexford at the Crosse, seven Franciscans - five priests and two lay persons - were also massacred: Priests John Esmond, Peter and Raymond Stafford, Paul and Richard Sinnott. Lay Persons: Didacus Chevers and Paul Rochford. Monkstown Castle was the site of another massacre orchestrated by Oliver Cromwell during the war. Over the doorway of the castle, carved in stone, is a statuary head representing the Blessed Virgin Mary. Legend tells that during the siege, one of the Cromwellian soldiers leveled an insult at the holy statue and was at once smitten with blindness...At the present day a stone cross still stands in the middle of Blackrock village (Co. Dublin) and ...On a certain day every year a representative of the family came to throw a spear over the cross in order to assert their claim to the land as far as he could see from where he stood... At present, the only part that remains of the original castle is part of the tower and a small portion of the chapel. Henry Chevers was probably buried at Carrickbrennan Graveyard in 1640. Grave robbers and body snatching in Ireland have reduced ancient and historic cemetery sites to empty graves and mutilated final resting places of the Chevers family in Ireland. An 1824 Monkstown newspaper clipping records the following: "Equipping themselves with spades and pick axes, crowbars and ropes, dark figures were reported prying open tombs at Carrickbrennan Graveyard in Monkstown; at Glasnevin, armed parties stood guard for the critical period of decomposition; at Drumcondra Churchyard, in 1824, a Body Snatcher was arrested as he carried about with him the nauseous smell of mortality".

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CHEVERS FAMILY:
Henry was the second son of John (also a second son) and Katherine (Peyphoe) Chevers born in Monkstown, Dublin County, Ireland in 1577 according to FamilySearch records. He married Catherine Fitzwilliam, daughter of Richard and Jane (Preston) Fitzwilliam. They had three sons: Walter (1605-1678) who married Allison Netterville, daughter of Viscount Netterville; Thomas Sr (1607-1664) who resettled in the Virginia Colony in North America; and Patrick who died young and unmarried. Their daughter, Margaret, died young and unmarried. Henry died on 7 Jul 1640. (source: patented 23 Aug 1869. A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire. A record of the Chevers ancestral link to William Chevers who accompanied Strongbow in the 12th century invasion of Ireland and who claimed descent from the Lordes of Chievers, a town in the Netherlands in the county Hainault.)

MONKSTOWN CASTLE, County Dublin, Ireland: "Today Monkstown Castle is situated in the suburbs of Dublin. In medieval times the castle here was the centre of a large farm owned by the Cistercian monks of St. Mary’s Abbey in the city of Dublin. When St Mary’s Abbey was dissolved in 1540 the castle at Monkstown was granted to John Travers who came to Ireland from Cornwall. Travers was Master of the Ordnance and a Groom of the Chamber to the King. During the Cromwellian period the castle was granted to General Edmund Ludlow, Cromwell’s Master of the Horse in Ireland, and one of the signatories of the death warrant of Charles I. We know from early paintings that this was a very large castle with a number of buildings, though many of these have long since disappeared. Today the castle consists of the original gatehouse with a high vault overhead and a large three-storey tower that formed one side of a large hall that has disappeared." Monkstown overlooks the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland. (courtesy of National Monument Service)