The Woulfes of Counties Kilkenny, Louth, Down, Tipperary and Waterford.

By Paul MacCotter

The Woulfes of County Kilkenny

  The most prominent member of this family was the John Lupus alias le Lou who was dean of St. Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, between 1293-1312. Hamond son of William Wolf was a juror in the county in 1303 and must be the Hamond Lupus who, with his daughter, sold 18 acres in Kells to another in 1310. The final reference is to William Wolf of Kilmaynan of 1346, which must be Kilmanahin in Fiddown Parish. One of the Wexford branches of Woulfe also held lands in Kilkenny.

The Woulfes of County Louth

   Deeds of the period before 1271 show one Mathew Lupus seized of Balisconan, a place which cannot be identified but which lay in Co. Louth. In 1307 mention occurs of the land in Dundalk belonging to Adam Wlf while, in 1370, one John Wolf was a collector for the barony of Coly [Cooley] and Dundalk. In 1418 William Wolf was a juror at Ardee in Co. Louth. The Sir Walter Wolf who was pardoned at Dunboyne, Co. Meath, in 1320 may have been of the Louth family.

The Woulfes of County Down

  Around 1224 Ralph Pel de Lu witnessed a deed concerning lands here, and in 1245 was granted the lands of Invur and Dumnal by Hugh de Lacy. This is another nickname type surname, from Pel de Lu, the French for Wolfskin. He may have been ancestor to the later Wolfs who occur in a court case of 1336, when Richard Wolf of Newton of Blathwyk was claiming the inheritance of his late aunt. The litigation gives Richard's pedigree as son of Hugh, son of John, son of David Wolf. Newton of Blathwyk was the old name for Newtownards, Co. Down. Much later, in 1578, one Thomas Wolfe occurs as sheriff of Co. Down. As the records are very poor for this area it is not possible to reach any certainty in the matter of whether he was a descendant of the earlier family.

The Woulfes of County Tipperary

  The few early references to the surname in this county are vague and amount to little. In 1313 one Traharyn Wolf was acquitted of the charge of burglary in the county; this appears to be a Welsh christian name. Four years later Walter Lupus was a canon of the diocese of Cashel while, in 1334, Maurice le Woulffe was a cleric of Emly diocese, which lay in South Tipperary and parts of East Limerick. Finally, note the Alice Wolf of the latter diocese who obtained a plenary indulgence from the Vatican in 1398.

The Woulfes of County Waterford

  The sole reference to the surname here occurs in a court-case of 1363, in which Nicholas and Gilbert Wolf, sons of Laurence Wolf, contested their father's will. The reference to the lands in question has not survived.