New Settlers in Tipperary and Waterford

Or Ormond and Desies

A.D. 1177, Henry the Second gave a grant of Desies, or the entire county of Waterford, together with the city, to Robert Le Poer, who was his marshal. The Le Poers were at various periods from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, created barons of Donisle, and of Curraghmore, viscounts of Desies, and earls of Tyrone; and many of them changed the name to "Power." The Fitzgeralds, earls of Desmond, had extensive possessions and numerous castles in the county Waterford, in the baronies of Coshmore and Coshbride; and had also the title of barons of Desies. In the reign of Henry the Sixth, A.D. 1447, Sir John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, got grants in Waterford, together with the castle and land of Dungarvan, and the title of Earl of Waterford, and Viscount of Dungarvan. The family of Villiers, earls of Jersey in England, got, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, large possessions in Waterford, by intermarriage with the Fitzgeralds of Dromana, a branch of the earls of Desmond; and were created earls of Grandison.

The chief families who settled in Waterford were the following:—Aylward, Anthony, Allan, Alcock, Butler, Brown, Barker, Bolton, Bird, Barron, Burke, Bagg, Boat, Boyd, Creagh, Carr, Corr, Comerford, Croker, Cook, Christmas, D'Alton, Dobbyn, Disney, Drew, Ducket, Everard, Fitzgerald Green, Gamble, Gough, Grant, Hale, Jackson, King, Key, Lombard, Lea or Lee, Leonard, Mandeville, Morgan, Morris, Madan or Madden, and Mulgan or Mulligan, Newport, Nugent, Osborne, Odell, Power, Prendergast, Rochfort, Roche, Rice, Sherlock, Strong, Tobin, Usher, Wall, Walsh, Wadding, Wyse, Woodlock, White, etc. The early English families principally possessed the territoy called from them Gal-tir ("gal:" Irish, a foreigner; "tir," a country), now the barony of "Gaultiere,"and signifying " the country of the foreigners." The Walshes (called, by the Irish, Brannaghs or Breathnachs, signifying Britons or Welshmen, as they originally came from Wales) are still very numerous in Ireland; and there are many respectable families of them in the counties of Waterford and Kilkenny.

Otho de Grandison, an Anglo-Norman lord, got a grant of Ormond; but the family of Butler became the chief possessors of Tipperary. The ancestors of the Butlers came from Normandy to England with William the Conqueror. Their original name was Fitz-Walter, from Walter one of their ancestors; and Theobald Fitz-Walter came to Ireland with Henry the Second, and had the office of Chief Butler of Ireland conferred on him: the duty attached to which was, to attend at the coronation of the kings of England, and present them with the first cup of wine. From the office of Butlership of Ireland, they took the name of "Butler." In the reign of Edward the Third, Tipperary was formed into the "County Palatinate of Ormond,"[1] under the Butlers; who thus became so powerful, that different branches of them furnished many of the most distinguished families in Ireland.

Notes

[1] County Palatinate of Ormond: A "palatinate" was the province of a palatine; and a "palatine" was one possessed of such royal privileges, as to rule in his palatinate almost as a king.