The Peers Family

This family name is also seen spelled Pierse and Piers

Mary (Peers) Waring

Father: Rev. Peers

Married: John Waring

Children: Notes:
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

Sources:

Rev. Peers

Children: Notes:
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

Sources:
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