PEIRCE, Sir Henry (c.1628-91), of Tristernagh Abbey, co. Westmeath.

The Peirce family originated in Yorkshire, where they were seated at Piers-Hall, near Ingleton. Captain William Peirce was the first of the family to settle in Ireland, serving as governor of Carrickfergus under Elizabeth I, and acquiring an estate at Tristernagh in co. Westmeath.15NLI, MS 2563, unfol. His son, Henry Peirce senior, became firmly established in settler society when he married the daughter of Dr Thomas Jones, archbishop of Dublin, whose son was created 1st Viscount Ranelagh in 1628. Henry’s children made important matches with New English landowners: his daughters married into the Ussher, Lowther, Loftus and Ware families; and his eldest son, Sir William Peirce, married the sister of the celebrated antiquary, Sir James Ware. Sir William’s own daughters further extended the family circle through matches with Colonel Thomas Scot III* of co. Wexford, Dr Henry Jones, bishop of Clogher and (latterly) Meath, and Major Henry Owen* of Queen’s County. By the early 1650s, the Peirce family had kinship ties with a wide range of Irish landowners which extended far beyond their own sphere of influence in northern Leinster.

Henry Peirce, Sir William’s son and heir, was born in around 1628, and was staying with his relatives in co. Longford in the winter of 1641-2, when he witnessed the murder of Sir John Ware of Castletown; his widowed mother was forced to flee from Tristernagh, and the house was burned by the rebels.161641 Depositions website; TCD MS 816, f. 288; 817, f. 26. Henry Peirce was captain in Colonel Castle’s regiment, which was one of those sent to reinforce Dublin in the spring of 1647. He was serving with the regiment by September 1647, mustered with it in Dublin in 1648, and may have fought at the siege of Drogheda, where Castle was killed. Peirce remained with the regiment, under successive colonels, at least until the autumn of 1653.17Wanklyn, New Model Army, ii. 188, 211; TCD MS 844, f. 45. In that year he married the daughter of the bishop of Clogher and scoutmaster- general, Dr Henry Jones. As Jones had already married, as his second wife, Peirce’s sister, Peirce became the bishop’s son-in-law as well as his brother-in-law.18Lodge, Peerage, ii. 116n; Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 191. The Jones connection may have cemented Peirce’s attachment to the Cromwellian government in Ireland. He was appointed to the assessment commission for co. Westmeath in October 1654 and as sheriff of Westmeath and Longford in 1657, and on 30 November 1658, shortly before the elections for Richard Cromwell’s* Parliament, he was knighted by the lord lieutenant, Henry Cromwell*.19An Assessment for Ire.; CB. Peirce’s election for Westmeath, Longford and King’s Counties seems to have been due to his extended family’s political interest in the region: his brothers-in-law, Thomas Scott III and Henry Owen had sat for the counties in 1654 and 1656, alongside Sir Theophilus Jones, the brother of Dr Henry Jones. Peirce’s fellow MP in 1659, Francis Aungier, was also an ally of Henry Cromwell, and Peirce may also have received support from the Dublin government in the election. Despite this strong backing, there is no record of Peirce’s involvement in proceedings at Westminster, and the only evidence that he attended is provided by a letter from William Petty* to Henry Cromwell of 5 May, which mentions Peirce was among the MPs waiting to embark at Neston near Chester on their journey back to Ireland.20Henry Cromwell Corresp. 511.

After the fall of the protectorate Peirce was content to retire to co. Westmeath, where his low profile meant that he was unaffected by the political crisis which marked the next 12 months. He served as captain of horse in the local militia in 1659-60, and was elected as the representative for his county in the general Convention that met in Dublin in March 1660.21HMC Ormonde, o.s. ii. 247; Clarke, Prelude to Restoration, 191. In 1661 he was rewarded with a baronetcy and elected as MP for St Johnstown in co. Longford for the Irish Parliament.22CB; CJI i. 592. Thereafter, Peirce was mostly concerned with local affairs, being was appointed sheriff of Westmeath in 1662 and subsidy commissioner for the county in 1663.23HMC Ormonde, o.s. i. 95-6. In the last 20 years of his life, Peirce was involved in two projects. The first was the marriage of his children into important Irish families. After 1673 his second son, Henry, married Elizabeth Sandys, the widow of Lowther Parsons, who was herself related to the Ranelaghs; in about 1677 his eldest son, William, married Honora, daughter of the 20th Lord of Kerry; and his daughters were married to leading families in cos. Kildare, Longford, Cavan, Galway and Westmeath.24Lodge, Peerage, ii. 116n-117n; NLI, MS 2563, unfol. By deeds of 1677 and 1684 Peirce had agreed with Lord Kerry to reserve £2,000 to provide portions for his remaining children, with the bulk of the estate passing to his son and heir.25NLI, D.27163. Peirce’s second task in this period was antiquarian research, which resulted in his Chorographical Description of County Westmeath, finished in 1682, and dedicated to Dr Henry Jones, by then bishop of Meath, who died in the same year.26Add. 28796, ff. 1-3. This was more than a work of geography: drawing on the experiments of Robert Boyle and Francis Bacon, Peirce discussed the nature of water and air, related details of archaeological finds and magical stories, and concluded with an examination of the native Irish of the area, whom he considered ‘in our days are become more polite and civil than in former ages, and seem very forward to accommodate themselves to the English’.27Add. 28796, ff. 9-13v, 15v, 20v, 40v-47. Peirce died in 1691 at the age of 63. He was succeeded by his son and heir, Sir William, whose son, also Sir Henry, became 3rd baronet on his father’s death in 1693.28NLI, MS 2563, unfol. The family continued to reside at Tristernagh until the twentieth century.29CB.