Teermore

Teermore is in the Electoral Division of Emlygrennan, in Civil Parish of Kilbreedy Major, in the Barony of Coshlea, in the County of Limerick

The Irish name for Teermore townland is: Tír Mhór
Teermore is on Logainm.ie: Teermore. Tiermore is the usual local spelling.

Memorial at Kilfinane to Tiermore's celebrated Patrick 'Staker' Wallace. ©limerick.ie

At the time of writing, 222 years after his execution, the name of Staker Wallis has acquired something of a mythical status around the Kilfinane/Coshlea district. And indeed, in recounting his story, elements of fiction seem to intermingle freely with fact. The first of which concerns his very identity; witness the spelling of his surname in the above memorial, which is at variance with the version published in contemporary accounts. Mannix Joyce elaborates:

"I have used the spelling 'Wallis' rather than the more common 'Wallace' in this book, the reason being that the former is the spelling still favoured in the Kilfinane area where we find a number of Wallis families. And there is another reason. Because of events that took place in the opening years of the 1800s, events that were a sequel to the death of Wallis, several relations of Wallis were arrested. In each case, in the contemporary reports of the events in the Limerick Chronicle, the surnames are spelt Wallis. According to that great authority on Irish surnames, Edward MacLysaght, the name Wallace belongs to a Scottish clan. The form Wallis derives from le Waleis (the Welshman) and was the Norman-French equivalent of the Irish form Breathnach, which is anglicised Welsh. In fact, in some cases the name le Waleis was anglicised Walsh rather than Wallis or Wallace." [Staker Wallis by Mannix Joyce, 1994].

In the 1909 'Genealogy Notes of the Staker Wallace Family' by Eunice Graham Brandt, a great-great-grandaughter, [http://userpages.chorus.net/rfbindl/staker/sta00006.htm], further information is supplied: "Although I have a good record of his ancestors, it is not complete. Some generations can be traced quite easily, while others are more obscure, so the record I have is not continuous. They are, no doubt, of Norman extraction, and are descendants of one Hamo De Valois, who was given a large grant of land in the eastern part of County Limerick, in the year 1170. In the Norman French language De Valois was pronounced as if spelled Day Walaws, the V having the sound of our W. After intermarriage with the native Irish we find the descendants of De Valois spelling the name Waleys, having dropped the De and spelling the name as pronounced. This changing of the spelling of a surname is not unusual, as nearly all Irish and Norman Irish names have been changed from the original one, so De Valois became Waleys, then later Wallace."

The Wallises who emigrated from south-east Limerick to the US in the first half of the last century would appear to have almost universally adopted the Wallace version.

However the interpretative differences regarding his surname are minor when contrasted with the confusion surrounding the rebel's first name. Three different versions have appeared in print and stone. Back to Mannix Joyce: "With the understanding that the 'Staker' part of his name, although widely used since the time of his death, was only a nickname, his Christian name was almost certainly Patrick, despite some statements to the contrary. One of which appears in the account of Eunice Graham Brandt, his grandson's grand-daughter, published in Chicago in 1909, where he is called William. And another in an unsigned article in An Síol (1946), which refers to him as Éamon de Bhailís (Edmond Wallis). This, too, is the name appearing on the monument erected to him near Martinstown church in June 1955. When I asked John Kearney, of Teermore, one of the most active members of the committee that had erected the monument, why they had put the name Edmond on the monument, he said there had been long discussions about the matter, and that eventually they "had bowed to the majority local opinion" and had put Edmond on the memorial, but with the description 'Staker' added, to ensure the identity of the man being commemorated. The balance of probability however, favours the belief that Patrick was his first name.

Maurice Lenihan, in his History of Limerick (1866), mentions a Patrick Wallis who, "having been found guilty of collecting funds to procure the assassination of Charles S Oliver, was sentenced in 1798 to be hanged at Kilfinane". And a contemporary account, included below, corroborates this statement -

Furthermore, we know that it was a well-established custom in Ireland that first-born sons were invariably called after their paternal grandfathers. Staker Wallis had two sons, William (b 1760), and Patrick (b 1768), and their first-born sons were both called Patrick. The weight of evidence would therefore appear to incline very much towards Patrick as the Christian name of the Staker.

With regards to the famous appellation 'Staker', there are at least three different accounts to explain its origin. Two have to do with the enclosing of the common lands by the landlords in the second half of the 18th century. Having fenced in the commonages, which were used by the poorer people to graze their few cattle on, the landlords let them at high rents. The people greatly resented the termination of their traditional grazing rights, and their resentment was one of the causes that led to the eruption of the Whiteboy movement, which had its origins in Kilmallock in 1760.

According to one traditional account, Wallis was one of those who drove wooden stakes into the ground in the newly-enclosed commonages so that they could not be mown by men with scythes. Hence the name 'Staker'. Another account says that it was his involvement in pulling down the stakes used to fence in the commonages that resulted in the moniker. A third, and less likely, explanation says that Wallis was called Staker because his head was set on a stake after his execution." [Staker Wallis by Mannix Joyce, 1994].

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Xg44m358j63tmfKC8

Pro Libertate

Erected in honour of
Edmond Wallace
who was tortured and executed
by the British at Kilfinane
in 1798,
for the cause of Irish Freedom
STAKER WALLACE
R.I.P.

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Unveiling of Staker Wallis Monument, 19th June 1955

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The Oliver Dynasty

1] Captain Robert Oliver was born in 1593. He married, firstly, Bridget Ormsby. He married, secondly, Valentina Hamilton, daughter of Hon. Sir Claud Hamilton and Alicia Colley. He died between 5 February 1679 and 24 May 1679. His will was proven (by probate) on 13 May 1679. Captain Robert Oliver also went by the nick-name of Robin Rhu. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Limerick in 1661. In 1666 he was granted land under the Act of Settlement. He lived at Clonodfoy, County Limerick, Ireland. His last will was dated 5 February 1679.

2] Charles Oliver was born in 1646. He was the son of Captain Robert Oliver and Bridget Ormsby. He married Elizabeth Smyth, daughter of Sir Percy Smyth. He died in 1704/5. He held the office of High Sheriff of County Limerick in 1692 and held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Midleton, County Cork between 1695 and 1699. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for County Limerick in 1703. He lived at Clonodfoy, County Limerick, Ireland. He also had four daughters.

3] Robert Oliver was born in 1671. He was the son of Charles Oliver and Elizabeth Smyth. He married, firstly, Katherine Southwell, daughter of Hon. Sir Robert Southwell, in 1702. He married, secondly, Susanna Knight, daughter of James Knight, in 1705. He died in 1738. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Kilmallock in 1703 and held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for County Limerick in 1715. He gained the rank of Colonel in the County Limerick Militia. He lived at Clonodfoy, County Limerick, Ireland.

4 ] Robert Oliver was the son of Robert Oliver and Susanna Knight. He married Jane Katherine Silver, daughter of John Silver, in 1734. He died in 1745. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Kilmallock in 1727. He lived at Clonodfoy, County Limerick, Ireland.

5] Rt. Hon. Silver Oliver was born in 1736. He was the son of Robert Oliver and Jane Katherine Silver. He married Isabella Sarah Newman, daughter of Richard Newman, on 4 February 1759. He died on 21 November 1798. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Kilmallock in 1757 and held the office of High Sheriff of County Limerick in 1764. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Limerick in 1768 and was appointed Privy Councillor (P.C.) in 1769. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Limerick in 1776. He lived at Castle Oliver, Kilfinane, County Limerick, Ireland.

6] Charles Silver Oliver was born in 1763. He was the son of Rt. Hon. Silver Oliver and Isabella Sarah Newman. He married Maria Elizabeth Morris, daughter of Abraham Morris, on 2 January 1805 at Glanmire, County Cork, Ireland. He died on 10 Oct 1817 at Chelsea, London, England^?. He held the office of High Sheriff of Cork in 1791 and held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Kilmallock in 1797. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for County Limerick in 1801. ©thepeerage.com, Darryl Lundy.

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Kilfinane in 1798 - Storm Centre of Rebellion

Amazingly, a credible eye-witness account to the above events may have been passed down to modern times. Mannix Joyce relates the following, dated May 1976 -

On the 27th February 1886, the death is indeed recorded of a John Reidy, Bosnetstown at the claimed age of 103. Even if the age is exaggerated by some few years, it is possible that this John Reidy was a spectator to the grim scene unfolding at the Market House in Kilfinane on Thursday July the 5th 1798 -

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Bicentenary commemoration, Friday 28th August 1998

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The lineage of Staker Wallis would appear to be surprisingly well known relative to the norm for an 18th century tenant farmer, suggesting his family may have occupied a more elevated status than is generally supposed. That he was reportedly selected as commanding officer of the Moorestown division of the United Irishmen, similarly implies a claim to leadership within local society. Through the 19th century his kinsmen continued to occupy professional positions, and as late as the mid-20th century the Abbey-Wallis connection was still being highlighted, viz. the funeral of Dr John Wallis, below -

February 1935
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