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Piers (Tristernagh)
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William Piers settled in Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth I and was granted the lands of the Abbey of Tristernagh, parish of Kilbixy, county Westmeath. In 1660 his great grandson Henry Piers of Tristernagh was created a baronet. Two later baronets, the fifth and sixth, are remembered for the destruction of the abbey church of Tristernagh and for the seduction of Lady Cloncurry. By the mid-19th century the Piers estate amounted to about 423 acres at Tristernagh with some rent charges in lieu of tithes on various parishes in counties Westmeath and Longford. The rent charges were advertised for sale in 1850 and both the lands and rent charges in 1851 in the Encumbered Estates Court. In June 1852 the lands were eventually sold. Marcus and Jonathan Goodbody were the immediate lessors of much of this estate at the time of Griffith’s Valuation (publ. 1854) having purchased it in the Court. Woods writes that the ‘late J Eivers Esq, J.P., lived for years in the cottage built by the late Sir John Piers’ while the mansion built by Sir Pigot William Piers in 1783 was ‘a crumbling ruin’.
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