Saint John the Evangelist

This Church stood outside the walls on the corner of John Street and John’s Gate Street in the present Cemetery, but its ruins have long since disappeared.

Originally it was the Church and Hospital of St. John founded in the early part of the Thirteenth Century by William Marshall, the builder of Tintern Abbey, and was given to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem by the builder’s son.

St. John’s was the only church in Wexford with a steeple. After the Suppression it was demolished and its stones and materials converted to profane use.

A presentment of a Jury of Wexford town and Corporation made in October, 1537, found that ” On ye 2oth day of March 1532, ye Suffreign and Comyns of ye Town of Wexford kept fyre to the doore of ye steeple of St. John’s for to let out a thyef that made escape of ye towne gaole.”

In St. John’s Cemetery are the graves of the Redmond and Talbot families. The pattern of St. John’s is on the eve of the Feast in the month of June, when the Cemetery is open to the public.