Wallis family genealogy

Of Killeny, Queen’s County

Arms: Per bend az. and ar. in chief a lion pass. of the last, armed and langued gu. in base a tower triple-towered sa. Crest: An arm couped below and erect vested sa. cuffed ar. holding in the hand ppr. a cinquefoil erm. Motto: Victoria mihi Christus.

Ralph Wallis, of Killeny, Queen’s County, Esq. (d. 1677), Clerk of the Rolls, in Ireland, and M.P., who acted as Deputy for Sir William Temple, received in 1644 from the Ulster King of Arms, a Grant or Confirmation of Arms, which stated that the said Ralph Wallis was of an ancient family; set forth the Arms which had been borne by some of his ancestors; and confirmed to him and his posterity, “for ever,” a Crest, Arms, and Motto, as above mentioned.

He was twice married: first, to Miss Talbot of the House of Malahide, by whom he had:

1. George,[1] of Portrane, in the county of Dublin, Esq., Ulster King of Arms, who m. Anne, dau. of Sir Richard Carney, Knt., Ulster King of Arms, and had:
   1. Ralph.
   2. Elizabeth.
   3. Jane.

Mr. Ralph Wallis was, secondly, m. to Jane, dau. and heiress of the Very Rev. Robert Wilson, Dean of Ferns and Leighlin (by the dau. of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Ferns), whose Arms descended to Mrs. Wallis-Healy; and had:

2. Robert, of Killeny, in the Queen’s County, Esq., who d.s.p.
3. Charles, of whom presently.

2. Charles Wallis: described as the only son and heir of Ralph, of Dublin; consequently the other heirs of his father were in his lifetime extinct. Charles m. Elizabeth, sole child and heiress of Ferdinando Davie, of Lisgold, in the county Fermanagh, and of Castle Derrick, in the county Tyrone, Esq. (grand-nephew of the distinguished Poet, Statesman, and Lawyer, Sir John Davis, Lord Chief Justice of England), by his cousin Dorothy, dau. of Morgan Cave, of Bagley, in Dorsetshire, England. (The Davis Arms also descended to Mrs. Wallis-Healy.) By the heiress of Davis, Charles Wallis had several children, only one of whom, Ralph, left issue.

3. Ralph, of Springmount, Queen’s County; son of Charles; married Frances, only daughter of William Peisley Vaughan, of Golden Grove, in the King’s County (High Sheriff of that county in 1738), by Anne, daughter of Thomas Sadleir,[2] of Sopwell Hall, in the county Tipperary, Esq., (Maternal ancestor of the late Richard Chenevix Trench, Lord Archbishop of Dublin, and of the first Lords Ashtown, Dunally, and Charleville), descended from the illustrious Warrior and Statesman, temp. Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, namely the Right Hon. Sir Ralph Sadleir, last Knight Banneret of England; Principal Secretary of State, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, who obtained the favour and friendship of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, during his Governorship of Tilbury Castle, in which she was confined. Ralph Wallis, of Springmount, had by his wife (and among their descendants are now the heirs of the ancient families of Peisley and Vaughan):

1. Robert, of Springmount and Knapton, in the Queen’s County, who d.s.p., having m. Editha, daughter of Sir John Osborne, sixth Baronet of Newtown, county Tipperary.
2. Ralph, of whom presently.
3. Hector, who married Miss Drope, of Dublin, by whom he had:
   1. William, who was ancestor of the present Lieut. Hector Wallis, of Russell Place, Dublin; and
   1. Margaret, who was wife of Luke, first Viscount Mountjoy (killed at the Battle of Ross, in the Rebellion of 1798), by whom she had:
      1. Margaret, who m. the Right Hon. John Hely, third Earl of Donoughmore.

4. Ralph Wallis, of Springmount and Upperwoods, in the Queen’s County: son and heir of Ralph; mar. Mary, dau. of Doherty, Esq., of Dunkerrin, in the King’s County, and had:

5. William Wallis, of Upperwoods, Esq., heir of Springmount, who m. Margaret, dau. of James Malone, of Ballyadams, in the Queen’s County, Esq., and with other children had:

1. Mary, who m. John, son of Luke Healy, of the county of Meath. Esq., and had issue.— See No. 3 on the “Wallis-Healy” pedigree.

Notes

[1] George: The Armorial Bearings confirmed in 1677 to this George Wallis, Esq., of Portrane, county Dublin, by St. George, Ulster King of Arms, were:

Arms: Az. two bars gemel, or, on a canton ar. a demi lion ramp. gu. Crest: A talbot’s head erased ar. gorged with a collar az. studded and ringed ar.

[2] By the daughter of Charles Oliver, of Kilmallock, Esq., whose wife Elizabeth, was grandaughter of Sir William Ussher, Clerk of the Council, grandson of Christopher Ussher, twice Mayor of Dublin, by Alison, daughter of Thomas Fitzwilliam, Esq., ancestor of Lord Fitzwilliam of Thorncastle, and Viscount Fitzwilliam, of Merrion. The first progenitor of that nobleman and of the present Earl Fitzwilliam, of whom we have record, was cousin to King Edward the Confessor, accompanied William the Conqueror to England, “in quality of Marshall of his army, and so signalised himself in the decisive battle of Hastings, that the Conqueror, to show the satisfaction he took in his services, gave him the scarf from his own arm, which he wore in that battle, and which remains to this day in the family.” The Fitzwilliam family were much given to hospitality, and caused a cross to be set up in Sprotborough, with this invitation to all travellers and strangers:

Whoso is hungry and list, will eat,

Let him come to Sprotborough to his meat;

And, for a night and for a day,

His horse shall have both corn and hay,

And no man shall ask him when he goeth away.

The wife of Thomas Fitzwilliam, Esq., above mentioned, was grand-daughter of Sir John Dowdall, by Margaret, dau. of Sir Jenico D’Artois by the Hon. Maud Plunkett (a maid, a wife, and a widow on one day, the subject of Gerald Griffin’s sprightly poem, The Bridal of Malahide), widow of Sir Richard Talbot, Lord of Malahide, and dau, of Christopher, Lord Killeen, who was son of Edward, and grandson of Christopher, Barons Killeen.