The West Family and the Parkinsons

There is an excellent summary of Captain Richard West and some of his descendants on the website The West Family of Ballydugan & Descendants.

Here it is noted that West graves can be located at Killough Parish Church, as well as at Saul Church, from the Quoile and Clogher branches of the family. 

Saul Church from Wikipedia

These graves include a Masonic headstone from 1786 for a John West ‘of ye quol’. I was curious however to see that the author of the blog quotes in full the following poem:

“Within the precincts of this holy place

The ashes of my dead forefathers lie.

Of Irish stock, but came from English race

They rest in peace beneath an Irish sky.

Within these walls, upon this sacred sod

They often raised their voice in praise of God.

A stout and sturdy race of yeomen bold

With reverent hand and heart they tilled the soil

Within the vanished centuries of old

They lived and died beneath the spreading Quoile

Within the western wind that fans my brow

I seem to feel their spirits moving now.”

John ‘Yehya-en-Nasr’ Parkinson, 1908

Given that Edward Parkinson at around the same time was compiling his own history of the West family in Ballydugan, partly in collaboration with a Captain E. E. West, the Parkinson family seemed to merit some further investigation. So too, in fact, did the reference to a 'Masonic' headstone.