The Peers Family
This family name is also seen spelled Pierse and Piers
Mary (Peers) Waring
Rev. Peers
John
Waring
A
History of the Town of Belfast p249 (George Benn, 1877)
John Waring,
son of a landed proprietor at a place called Cherry Tree House, near
Chorley, in Lancashire, emigrated to Ireland early in 1600 (in company
with a brother, who settled in Co. Kilkenny). He settled at Toome, in
Antrim, where he got landed property and also established a tannery. He
had by Miss Peers several sons — William, Thomas, and Paul. The first
succeeded to his property and a considerable sum of ready money, and an
opportunity offering of purchasing land in Down from Cromwell's
soldiers, he sold the Antrim property in 1656 and purchased the
Waringstown and many other estates in Down. The second, Thomas, removed
the tanneries to Belfast, and was Sovereign of that town, I believe, in
1660. From him the Belfast family descend. Paul was a Doctor of
Divinity, and died unmarried.
An
Ulster Parish: Being a History of Donaghcloney (Waringstown) p153
(Edward Dupré Atkinson, 1898)
The Warings were a Lancashire family, and
the founder of the Irish branch was John Waring, who in the reign of
King James I, came over and settled in Derriaghy, near Lisburn. Here he
married the daughter of the Rector of the parish, Miss Mary Peers, by
which marriage he had three sons, William, Thomas, and Paul.
A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed
Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland vol 2 p1611 (Bernard
Burke, 1868)
This branch of
the ancient family of Waring of Lancashire whose patriarch MILES
DE GUERIN, came to England with WILLIAM
THE CONQUEROR, was established in Ireland temp. JAMES I when JOHN
WARING settled in the co. Antrim, and m.
Mary, dau. of the Rev. Mr. Peers, of Derriaghy, in that co., by whom he
had three sons, William; John; Paul; and several daus.
Waring Estate
John had left
his home in Lancashire and settled in the Barony of Toome; he chose a
property close to Glenavy on the shores of Lough Neagh. John married
Mary Peers the daughter of the Rector of Derriaghy
Rev. Peers
Details of Mary's father get a bit foggy, although some clues exist. A
number of older secondary sources (e.g. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed
Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland vol 2 p1611 (Bernard
Burke, 1868), An
Ulster Parish: Being a History of Donaghcloney (Waringstown) p153
(Edward Dupré Atkinson, 1898)) concur that
Mary Peers was the daughter of the rector (or vicar) of Derriaghy, a parish
in county Antrim.
Christ
Church Derriaghy - A Short History of the Parish (W.N.C. Barr,
1974)
The first name
on Leslie's list of vicars is that of Thomas Pierse (Peers, Peirs or
Piers), who is recorded to have served the cure at Aghagallon,
Ballinderry, Magheragall and Magheramesk as well as Derriaghy being
appointed here on 27th November 1634. It could however be inferred from
an entry in the Royal Visitation of 1633 that he had been inducted to
Derriaghy as early as 1617; perhaps he held the appointment twice. A
daughter, Mary, married John Waring of Waringstown.
The Thomas Pierse appointed vicar of Derriaghy on 27 November 1634 was
awarded both a B.A. and M.A. from Trinity College Dublin in 1627.
Alumni Dublinenses p669 (ed. G. D.
Burtchaeli and T. U. Sadlier, 1935)
*PIERSE (THOMAS). B.A. 1627. M.A. 1627.
[Vicar of Derryaghy, etc. (Down), Nov. 27, 1634.]
So was the Thomas Pierse, vicar of Derriaghy in 1634 the father of Mary
Peers who married John Waring? The timing seems a bit off - Mary was likely
married around 1615-18, based on the birth of her eldest son, William, in
1619, so probably born around the 1590's, and Thomas Pierse only graduated
T.C.D. in 1627. However, W.N.C. Barr claims that it can be "inferred from an
entry in the Royal Visitation of 1633 that he had been inducted to Derriaghy
as early as 1617" and the fact that he obtained B.A. and M.A. from T.C.D. in
the same year indicates that the degrees may have been converted from
another university or awarded based on life experience.
Another titbit comes from information about Meredith Gwillim who was vicar
of Glenavy. Meredith married a daughter of Rev. Thomas Peers (Glenavy
Parish Church Clergy List).
The
Clergy of Magheragall Parish (Rev. W. H. Dundas)
Meredith
Gwilliams (or Gwyilyms), M.A. 1623.
He, too, was vicar of Glenavy at the same time, and also of Ballinderry,
a fairly large union of parishes! to which he was presented by Sir
Ffulke Conway. He was, like many of his successors, a Scholar of T.C.D.,
was ordained by the Archbishop of Armagh in 1617, and had been rector of
Baronstown and prebendary of Keene, in Co. Louth, before coming to
Magheragall. In 1625 he was appointed by Edward Lord Chichester as his
domestic chaplain. He and other clergy in Killultagh seem to have had
difficulties in getting their tithes. In 1634 Jenkin Conway writes that
he is "in difficulties with the resident clergy about tithes. They are
complaining to the Bishop." He hopes Lord Conway will support him by
speaking to the Bishop. In 1635 one Hartwell writes to Rawdon, "The
parson Gwilliams has got a process against those who keep the tithes
from him"; and in 1636, "Parson Gwilliams has left Dublin with an order
from the Deputy to receive the tithes in kind." In another letter of
1636 one Robert Ward says "he entertained old fat Parson Piers on the
way up from Drogheda, and by talking to him and giving him wine found
out that he and his son Gwilliams were going to try and recover a glebe
held by Lord Conway." Gwilliams evidently made a fine fight for the
interests of the Thomas Piers, whom Ward speaks of so contemptuously,
was instituted vicar of Derriaghy and Annagallanogh (Aghagallon) in
1635.
This tells us when Thomas became vicar of Derriaghy he was "old" (not to
mention "fat"!). So it is plausible that Thomas Peers (Piers, Pierse),
probably born in the 1570s or thereabouts, was the father of at least two
daughters - Mary who married John Waring around 1616 and another daughter
who married Meredith Gwillims. He may have been vicar of Derriaghy around
1617, perhaps in somewhat informal appointment, but later, after having
received formal qualifications from TCD in 1627, was appointed formally as
vicar of Derriaghy on 27 November 1634. Plausible but certainly not
definitive.
A final item of confusion is a footnote in An
Ulster Parish which states that Mary's father was John Peers!
An
Ulster Parish: Being a History of Donaghcloney (Waringstown) p40
(Edward Dupré Atkinson, 1898)
1 William Waring's mother was a
daughter of the Rev John Peers Rector of Derriaghy near Lisburn
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