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of the entire, which shewed that the upper part of the shaft 
had been broken off, and with it the first line of the inserip- 
tion. Of what remains the first line is illegible, but the rest is 
tolerably distinct. It is in the black-letter character of the six- 
teenth century, the letters being beautifully formed; and (fill- 
ing up the contractions) it runs thus: 
 dbgsaorte Armigeri, et (Margarete Werter uxoris efus ac 
Heredum corum qui hance crucem fececunt anno Womini 1588 
quorum animabus propicietur Deus, Amen.” 
This inscription leaves little doubt that this memorial was 
one of the Wayside Crosses so generally erected by the piety 
of individuals about the sixteenth and the preceding centuries, 
but which the ill-directed zeal of a subsequent period so 
unsparingly mutilated, and often wholly destroyed. Upon 
inquiry it proved that a road, leading from Navan to Rath- 
aldron Castle, long the residence of one of the principal 
branches of the ancient family of the Cusacks, once passed 
close in front of this cross. 
The name of the husband of * Margaret Dexter” Mr. 
Smith soon after learned from a manuscript in the possession 
of Mr. Henry T. Cusack. This MS. is written in French, and 
entitled ‘* An Historical Memoir and Genealogy of the ancient 
and illustrious House of Cusack, of the Kingdom of Ireland.” 
It appears to have been compiled by the Chevalier O’ Gorman 
in the year 1767. It states that ** Michael de Cusack, lord 
of Portrane and Rathaldron, married Margaret Dexter, who 
brought him, as a marriage portion, the castle, town, and 
lands of Rathaldron. He was ‘ Greffier’ [a term which Boyer 
translates ‘ Registrar,’ or Keeper of the Rolls] of Westmeath 
and of Louth in 1553, one of the Barons of the Exchequer in 
1580, and died in 1589.” From this it may be safely con- 
cluded that the initials “‘ M.C.,” upon the cross, are those of 
** Michael Cusack,” and that his was the name sculptured on 
the upper part of the cross, now lost. 
