Beresford-Hope, Alexander James Beresford (1820 -1887)

Alexander James Beresford Beresford Hope, of Bedgebury Park, and of Beresford Hall in Staffordshire, was the third and youngest son of Thomas Hope, of Deepdene, and Louisa, daughter of William Beresford, Lord Decies, Archbishop of Tuam. After the death of Alexander’s father his mother married her first cousin, Field Marshal William Viscount Beresford. Alexander was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and took his M.A, 1844, an LL.D. propter merita of Cambridge, Honorary D.C.L. of Oxford and Honorary LL.D. of Trinity College, Dublin. He married, 7 July 1842, Mildred Arabella Charlotte, Henrietta, Gascoyne Cecil, eldest daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, with whom he had ten children. He was Member of Parliament for Maidstone 1841 1852, and 1857 1859, he unsuccessfully contested Stoke in 1862, but was successful 1865 1868. and sat for the University of Cambridge 1868 1887. In 1854 he inherited the property of his step father and assumed the additional name of Beresford. An ardent Anglican, he purchased St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, in 1844, and financed the building of several churches. He was wrote on archaeological, architectural, ecclesiastical and artistic subjects, and was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1865 to 1867 and a trustee of the British Museum. He co-founded the "Saturday Review" in 1855. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1880. The Beresford Hope library was sold at auction in London by Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge 23 March 1882, 8 June 1888, and 27 July 1892.