Earliest Crie/Cree gravestone located

The first Cree or Crie gravestone from the seventeenth century has been located, so this is by far the earliest Cree gravestone that we know of!

The photograph above is by Bill Cardwell, Co. Down, 2004. (See his Donaghadee Parish Headstones web page.) shows the grave of Christine Barclay who died aged 27 in 1674 and probably of her husband James Crie. It is in the Church of Ireland graveyard at Donaghadee, County Down, Ireland. It reads:

HERE LIETH THE BODIE OF OF CRESTEN BARKLAI WIFE TO IAMES CRIE OF BELIEBVTL WHO DECEASED THE 18 DAY OF IANVARIE.

Translating to modern spelling it says, "Here lies the body of Christine Barclay, wife of James Crie of Ballybuttle who deceased the 18th of January..."

It looks as though the next line might start ANO. DOM. (meaning Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord). The remainder of the inscription has been deduced from church records by the authors of the Ulster Historical Foundation's Graveyard Inscriptions booklet (Volume 16). It reads "Anno. Dom. 1674 and of her age the 27 year. Also hear is ..."

Tantalisingly the inscription as we have it ends here. We might assume that it reads, "Also here is the bodie of James Crie." However what the gravestone tells us as Cree researchers is that a James Crie, of likely age about 30, was living in the Donaghadee area, probably at Ballybuttle, in 1674. If we assume that he was the same age as, or older than, his wife, then he would have been born no later than 1647.

See also the County Down page in the History Section of this web site.