http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=WM®no=15403801Church of Ireland burial site in Newtownlow, not sure of the township but next to Cornaher. It was the place of residence of William Low, my ancestor. This graveyard is next to a ruined church, ca 1700, and the Low residence, in ruins, is nearby.
Now, the church and yard are supposed to have been Anglican, there is evidence of use by Catholics, William Low and his infamous son Barry were strict, deep end Anabaptists who fell out with the Cromwells over who had the right to be called "Lord Protector" (only God), and they also literally ate Catholics for dinner. Well, almost literally. I doubt they used this churchyard - but some of the family may have, and this one gravestone may hold a piece of information everyone has sought on in a church graveyard near Dublin, where, it now comes to mind, we actually know that most of the early Lows were buried.
There is a crypt in the graveyard. Relatively recent; God know who could be buried there, but it is very interesting.
"The crypt also bears a decorative coat of arms with scrolls, leaf and animal motifs, requiring a high level of craftsmanship. This coat of arms could well be that of the Low Family, who resided in a highly unusual circular tower house (WM038-015---) (originally in the possession of the Madden Family), now in ruins, a short distance to the northeast of this site"
What I'd like is to see the coat of arms. Most Lowes used some version of a wolf's head or three wolf's heads. Noone has seen the actual crest the Lowes used. Allegedly it was on the family tomb near Dublin. Several people have recently searched that churchyard, and while large family tombs are there, and the markings can't be read, none that are recognizably the Low tomb can be found. The Low tomb once had a genealogy of the 1st generations of the Westmeath family, and a coat of arms.
These Lows were Cromwellian gentry, and priest hunters, and atleast by the third generation most of them were silversmiths and jewelers in Dublin. They appear to have been of a modestly prosperous, merchant and craftsman class, family in a town adjacent to Kidderminster, Worcestershire. This seems to have been an old and large family group, though the name is Saxon for hill. "Atta Lawe", "De la Lawe", and Hill was a common name in hte area as well. In time an aristocratic family of that name arose in that vicinity, and they used the standard wolf's head motif. My own 3x great grandfather, or his half crazy wife, got ahold of tin stamps and such in a bucket shop, bearing the Lowe family crest of a family in eastern England, and handed it down through their childrens' lines. My great grandfather was the last in my line to have it; it was lost to a bigamous marriage that my grandfather hadn't known about. But a cousin provided it to me. LOL, I have my rendition of it in that Lowe blarney gene page. But my mother, who was convinced it was for real, longed to have it "redrawn", and much of the family still wonder what the ACTUAL coat of arms that this family had on their original tomb, looked like. How they might have been entitled to it, I cannot say; I just want to see it.
The founder, John Low, the first to be buried in the family tomb, is a mystery. There were two large aristocratic houses in this community, and ten peasant huts, and a communal bake oven. Later the place was a playground for members of Parliament. I wonder if John was a silversmith and jeweler. His sons fought under Cromwell, two of them as officers, and were given huge pieces of land in southern County Westmeath.
Dora
