David Sheehan, Sculptor
(d. 1756)
Sculptor
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
A Dublin stone-cutter, working in Marlborough Street in the middle of the eighteenth century. He appears to have been principally employed in monuments for churches. In the church at Tallow, Co. Carlow, is a white marble monument erected by Sir Richard Wolseley, Bart., to the memory of Lieut.-General Clement Nevil, who died in 1744, inscribed David Sheehan fecit, 1745. In the church at Castle Lyons, Co. Cork, is a monument by Sheehan to James, Earl of Barrymore, who died in 1747. It is eighteen feet high, with a bust of Lord Barrymore standing in a niche between two Corinthian pillars; on the entablature are two angels carved by Houghton (q.v.) (see "Faulkner's Journal," 1753, No. 2742). The monument bears the signature, David Sheehan. He had also the collaboration of Houghton in a monument put up in Christ Church, Cork, to a daughter of Dr. Joseph Rogers; and he was employed in the stone-carving on the front of Trinity College about 1751.
Sheehan died in 1756 and was buried in the church-yard at Drumcondra. In his will, dated 16th January, 1749, and proved 13th February, 1756, he mentions his "stock of stones in Dublin, Cork, Kilkenny and elsewhere." His eldest son, CORNELIUS SHEEHAN, carried on the business and was probably the "Mr. Sheehan, an eminent stone-cutter," whose death in Marlborough Street, on 16th June, 1761, is recorded in "Sleator's Gazetteer." Another member of the family, MORDECAI SHEEHAN, was also working as a stone-cutter in Marlborough Street, and was bankrupt in 1774 when his stock, including "some capital chimney-pieces," were sold. He was working down to about 1789.