Beresford, William Carr, Viscount Beresford (1768 -1854)

William Carr Beresford was the illegitimate son of George de la Poer Beresford, Earl of Tyrone, afterwards Marquess of Waterford. Educated at Catterick Bridge, York, and the Military School at Strasburg, he entered the army as an Ensign in the 6th Foot, and served in Nova Scotia, returning in 1790 as a Lieutenant in the 16th Foot. A Captain in 1791, after varied service with Marines in the Mediterranean, in Egypt, Ireland, the Cape of Good Hope, Buenos Aires and Madeira, where he was Governor and Commander in Chief, and was made a Major General 25 April 1808. He was sent to Portugal, where he commanded troops under Wellington in the Peninsular War, became a General and was made a Knight of the Bath in 1810. The arms and crest were granted in 1811. In 1813 he was created a Baron, and in 1823, Viscount Beresford. In 1832 he married Louisa Beresford, widow of Thomas Hope, but they had no children. He left his English estates, Bedgebury Park, Kent and Beresford Hall, Staffordshire to his stepson Alexander James Beresford Hope. His Irish estates to his nephew, Denis William Pack afterwards D. W. Pack Beresford. The library of the Rt Hon. Alexander James Beresford Hope was sold by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in three sales 23 March 1882, 8 June 1888, and 27 July 1892.