Walsh family genealogy

Of the Walsh Mountains, County Kilkenny

Arms: Ar. a chev. gu. betw. three broad arrow heads, points upwards sa. Crest: A swan pierced through the back and breast with a dart all ppr.

This family, says Burke, came to Ireland, A.D. 1170, with Strongbow, and settled in the county Kilkenny, where they acquired large possessions, now known as the “Walsh Mountains,” in the barony of Iverk, in said county. These possessions were confiscated during the Cromwellian period and in the reign of William III.; after which members of the elder branch migrated to France, and Austria, and took military service in those countries. In France, the title of “Count Serrant,” still extant, was conferred on the representative of the elder branch.

The first of the family who came to Ireland with Robert FitzStephen, at Strongbow’s invasion, was Philip Walsh, who was called by the Irish, Brannagh (or the “Welshman”), who, in 1174, distinguished himself in a naval engagement against the Danes, at Cork, by boarding the ship of their commander and slaying his son.

The son of that Philip (by Eleanor, his wife, daughter of Sir Maurice De Burgh,) was Hayle Walsh, who built the castle in the Walsh Mountains, above mentioned, called after him “Castle Hayle,” or “Castlehoel.” His wife was Catherine, daughter of Raymond Le Gros, one of Strongbow’s companions, and the ancestor of Grace. (See the “Grace” pedigree, ante.)

From that stock descended the following branches, namely, Walsh, of Castlehoel, in the county Kilkenny; Walsh, of Ballynecully, in Kilkenny, and of St. Malo, in France; Sir Edmond Walsh, knighted at Christ’s Church, Dublin, by Sir Arthur Chichester, Lord Deputy of Ireland, on the 1st June, 1606; Sir Nicholas[1] Walsh, Knt., Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, in Ireland, who died in 1615; Walter Walsh, Dean of Kildare (in 1610), who died 6th April, 1621; Nicholas Walsh, of the Island of Teneriffe (living in 1732), descended from Henry Walsh, of Waterford, brother of Nicholas Walsh, Judge of the Queen’s Bench, temp. Queen Elizabeth; Walsh, of Fanningstown, county Kilkenny; Richard Walsh, of Carrickmines, county Dublin, temp. James I., son of Theobald Walsh, grandson of Richard Walsh, and great-grandson of William Walsh—all of Carrickmines; Pierce Walsh, of Kilgobbin, county Dublin, temp. James I., son of John Walsh, and grandson of Pierce Walsh, of same place; John Walsh, of Shanganagh, county Dublin; John Walsh (died 1615), of Ballynurly, county Dublin; Theobald Walsh (d. 1616), of Killencarrig, county Wicklow; Walsh, of Three Castles, county Wicklow; Oliver Walsh (d. 1621), of Newtown, Dorenore, county Kildare; Nicholas Walsh, of Mooretown, county Kildare; Rev, John Walsh, of Castledermot, Chancellor of the Diocese of Kildare, in 1624; Walsh of Belcarrow, county Dublin, and of Flanders; Peter Augustus Walsh, of Castle Walsh, county Kerry, living in 1769; Walsh, of Ballykilcavan, Queen’s County; Walsh, of Bellevue and Clonmoyle, county Westmeath, etc.

Notes

[1] Sir Nicholas Walsh, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland, who died in 1615, mar. Mary (d.s.p.), dau. of Sir Arthur Colclough, of Tintern Abbey, county Wexford, Knt., and had: 2. Thomas, who was “son of Nicholas, but not by Mary Colclough.” This Thomas mar. Ellen Power.