My wife's ancestors - FitzEustace - Contents

1st (and only) Baron Portlester

• Sources yet to be consulted:
  • FitzEustace, Roland in [DIB]

Rowland FitzEustace, 1st (and only) Baron Portlester (see here and here), born c.1430,
lord of Kilcullen, Co.Kildare,
seat at Harristown Castle, 2 ½ miles NE of Kilcullen, Co.Kildare,
mar 1stly to Elizabeth Brune [dau of John Brune],
cannot have "fought in France under John, Duke of Bedford" (died 1435),
Lord High Treasurer of Ireland 1454,
in 1455 he built the SE Chapel of St.Audoen's church, High St, Dublin (founded 1190), it is named the "Portlester Chapel" after him,
knighted in 1459,
cr Baron 1462,
Lord Deputy of Ireland 1463,
mar 2ndly, c.1463, to Joanna Bellew,
mar 3rdly, c.1467, to Margaret Dartas and had issue:

1. Alison FitzEustace,
   step-sister of Eleanor Dowdall,
   mar Garret Mor Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare and had issue.

in 1486 he and Margaret founded convent of Minors Friars (or the Franciscan "New Abbey" of Grey Friars) at Castlemartin, 1 mile S of Kilcullen, Co.Kildare,
Margaret died pre-1496, bur St.Audoen's, Dublin,
he died 14th Dec 1496, age c.66 yrs, bur New Abbey, Co.Kildare, with his dau Alison, title extinct.
There are three separate memorials:

1. Effigies of him and Margaret were placed in the chapel at New Abbey, Co.Kildare. These effigies have since been removed to St. John's Church of Ireland, Ballymore Eustace, Co.Kildare.
2. A second (and similar) set of effigies of him and Margaret were placed at her grave in the Portlester Chapel at St.Audoen's, Dublin. These effigies have since been removed to the porch (at the base of the tower).
3. There is also a memorial cross to him (and possibly his first two wives) in the graveyard of the chapel of St. James, Ballycultane or Ballycotelan (now Cotlandstown or Coghlanstown), Co.Kildare, beside Harristown Castle.

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Portlester tomb, St.Audoen's, Dublin

Portlester tomb (on RHS, effigies of the 1st Baron Portlester and his wife Margaret Dartas), St.Audoen's, Dublin.
From [Ireland in Pictures, The Hon. John F. Finerty, Chicago, 1898].
Tomb on LHS is of a bishop.
See larger and full size.

Portlester tomb, St.Audoen's.
Photo 2009. See larger and full size.
From here. Used with permission.

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• St.Audoen's (and here)

• St.Audoen's survives, along with the Portlester Chapel (it is the SE part with no roof, near High St). It is the only medieval church surviving intact in Dublin.

• St.Audoen's on archiseek.com
  • Video of Portlester Chapel

• St.Audoen's is the Protestant church, not to be confused with a 19th century Catholic St.Audoen's nearby on High St.