I am trying to trace a J Donoval Stonemason who has his name engraved on Penistone Church which is a Grade 1 listed building so we presume he was the stonemason who helped to add onto the building of an area of the church. All we have is his name J. Donovan and date 0n the stone 1861. I have checked on Ancestry but unable to find him and with only J for his first name does not help at all. So I thought I would give you a try.
From the Friends of Penistone Church Facebook page:
"Also inscribed on the wall of the central nave, left of the original roof incline is a marked stone with the name J Donovan and dated 1861. So far I have not not had much luck finding this mason."
It includes an image of the inscription.
Looks more robust than a piece of quick etching.
Looking at the image of the inscription it looks to me as though it was originally J.D 1861 and someone has added , more crudely and with poor spacing, ONOVAN. It is possible that the 1861 is also later than the J.D..
Could it be that a J Donovan has done some work on the building and opportunistically added his name to the already existing initials of the stonemason?
Looking at Donovan’s around in 1861 they are dominated by Irish and dominated by labourers.
There is however in 1861 in Bilston, Staffs a carpenter John Donovan age 50 with a 22 yr old Anthony Donovan, both boarders.. It looks like this John died in 1868 but Anthony emigrated to USA in 1866 and became a building contractor in Connecticut.
A bit of a long shot!!
Dave
IF the J.D and 1861 are contemporaneous then I wonder if the Stonemason was John Drabble of Mosbrough (b 1834). In these circumstances the ONOVAN could have been added at any time after 1861 and up to the first discovery of the inscription.
Dave