Roxborough is the name of townlands in counties Wexford, Mayo, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, and Galway. It appears likely that the surname Rock is the origin of many of these placenames. Mac Lysaght's The Surnames of Ireland says this is a partial translation of Mac Concharraige (carrig, rock), used in west Leinster and Galway. Elsewhere, it is usually of English origin.
However, we are not given any other information about the history or location(s) of the English surname in Ireland. The original name of Roxborough in the Co Limerick parish of Cahervalley is Baile an Roisteach, the town of An Roisteach, from the surname de Roiste, Roche; that in Co Louth is An Chlochbhuaile, "the stone milking-place."
Roxborough in the Co Galway parish of Killinan postdates 1641 as it does not appear in the Co Galway Book of Survey and Distribution. In this parish Dean Dudley Persse of Tuam (1662-1699) had land in Lahardan and Gortatrim, and Henry Pierce had acres in the townlands of Eskerlabane and Glanahetty. In 1677 Dean Dudley Persse received grants of land in Co Roscommon and in the Co Galway baronies of Killian, Clonmaowen, Dunmore, Longford, Leitrim, Loughrea, Dunkellin and Kiltartan. "This does not include certain other grants made in the Galway Liberties, and certain portions of Roscommon county . . . they include the mansion house of Cregrosta which Dean Persse used as his residence (Rosboro)." This was spelt Cregrosty and Crogosty in the Survey and Distribution book but we failed to find this in The Index of Townlands (1851).
Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) lists Mrs Fanny Persse, Ardross, Aughrim, with 207 acres; Burton Persse, Moyode Castle, with 6,468 acres there and 573 in Co Westmeath, while Dudley Persse, Roxboro, Loughrea, had 12,394 acres there and 800 in Co Westmeath.
Thomas Pierce, Tullamore, had 1,694 acres, and there was a Pierce holding of 294 acres in Co Meath. The Directory of 1814 shows Persses at Perryville, Fethard, Co Tipperary, in Co Galway at Persse Lodge, and Castleboy, Loughrea, Co Galway, and Tally-ho Lodge, Athenry. Taylor & Skinner's 1778 Maps of the Roads of Ireland shows Pearse Esq at Sallsboro, west of Nenagh, Co Tipperary, and near Loughrea. Piers Esq was at Tristernagh, Co Westmeath.
Around 1250, Henry and John Pers were among the witnesses of a grant of land in Rathcoole, Co Dublin. The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns (1521-1603) shows William Piers of Tristernagh, Co Westmeath, as constable of Carrickfergus in 1556; Thomas Og Piers of Ardartha (Ard Fhearta, Ardfert, Co Kerry) as pardoned in 1566; William Piers was seanaschal of Clannaboy in 1570 and in 1573, among others, he was appointed to be commissioner and keeper of the peace in the province of Ulster.
In 1590 Henry Piers of Tristernagh was seanaschal of Dalton's country. In a letter of 1837 John O'Donovan wrote that the house of Tristernagh was then in a deplorable state. The monastery of Tristernagh "was torn down about forty years ago by Sir Pigot Piers to obtain materials for enlarging the house of Tristernagh, and the peasantry of the neighbourhood state that the family have had no luck since".
It was at Roxborough that Agusta Persse was born in 1852, the youngest daughter of Dudley Persse who, at one time, owned an estate of nearly four thousand acres, according to Lennox Robinson who edited Lady Gregory's Journals in 1946. Augusta, the dramatist and folklorist, married Sir William Gregory in 1880, becoming Lady Gregory.
The first name Peter "stone, rock" is the Greek version of the Aramaic name Cephas, and the old French form of this is Piers. From this derived the surname variously spelt Piers/Pearce/Pierse.
Irish patriot Patrick Pearse, who was executed for his part in the 1916 Rising, used Mac Piarais as the Irish form of his surname, although his father was an English Pearse. The name Mac Piarais was noted by Annala Rioghachta Eireann/Annals of the Four Masters as early as 1476.
The current telephone directory north of the Border lists Pierce 32 times, and Pearce 26, Pearse 47 to its south, with a handful of the other spellings, and not a single Piers.