Marcus de la Poer Beresford - Marshal William Carr Beresford

MARSHAL WILLIAM

CARR BERESFORD

MARSHAL WILLIAM

CARR BERESFORD

The ablest man I have yet seen with the army

MARCUS DE LA POER BERESFORD

First published in 2019 by

Irish Academic Press

10 Georges Street

Newbridge

Co. Kildare

Ireland

www.iap.ie

Marcus de la Poer Beresford, 2019

9781788550321 (Cloth)

9781788550338 (Kindle)

9781788550345 (Epub)

9781788550352 (PDF)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

An entry can be found on request

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

An entry can be found on request

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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Jacket front: Marshal Beresford by Thomas Lawrence. By kind permission of Historic England.

Jacket back: Marshal Beresford unhorsing a Polish lancer at the Battle of Albuera, 16 May 1811, by Franz Joseph Manskirch, engraved by M. Dubourg. Authors own collection.

C ONTENTS

D E LA P OER B ERESFORD F AMILY T REE

A BBREVIATIONS

I NTRODUCTION

Marshal William Carr Beresford

The ablest man I have yet seen with the army

Wellingtons strong right arm

I reland in the mid-eighteenth century was an island of many different components. The governing body represented some, but not all, of those who had fought in Ireland on the victorious side in the war of the two kings, a war which had pitted not just Catholic James II against Protestant William and Mary in the British Isles (sometimes with cavalier disregard for Marys position as a daughter of James), but which was part of a wider conflict which had brought together other powers wishing to resist the domination of Louis XIVs France on the European continent (the War of the League of Augsburg).

The defeat of James II and his supporters at the battles of the Boyne (1690) and Aughrim (1691) followed by the Treaty of Limerick led to the establishment of the Ascendancy in Ireland, made up of those who belonged to the Church of Ireland or its sister Church, the Church of England. Not only did this exclude the majority Roman Catholic population but also Presbyterians, Quakers and other non-conformists. While the process had commenced earlier, the victory of William and Mary over James completed the means whereby the Ascendancy secured political, economic and social control of the island of Ireland through a transfer of landownership and the introduction of restrictions on their opponents brought about primarily by the penal laws. Outwardly, Ireland remained at peace in the hundred years prior to the French revolution, with no substantial unrest taking place in support of the Jacobite risings in Scotland of 1708, 1715 or 1745, but underneath the surface those displaced not unnaturally resented the situation. This manifested itself in agrarian discontent and ultimately the explosion that was the rebellion of 1798.

One family that benefitted substantially from the conclusion of the war of the two kings was that of the Beresfords. Tristram Beresford had arrived in Ireland at the time of James I. His great grandson, Sir Tristram Beresford (16691701), supported William and Mary and as such was attainted in May 1689 by the Jacobite parliament in Dublin and forfeited his lands. Recovering these on the Williamite victory, he did not live long to enjoy them, dying in 1701 at the age of just thirty-two. His son, Sir Marcus, was just seven years old but it was this man

Following this marriage, Sir Marcus and his successors held substantial lands in Counties Derry and Waterford (where they settled and subsequently extended the family home of Curraghmore) and soon acquired further lands in the city of Dublin, and counties Dublin and Wicklow.

While he would not inherit titles or wealth, William Carr was more fortunate than many. A lack of certainty exists as to the identity of his mother, but notwithstanding Thomas Creeveys suggestion late in Williams life (1827) that it was rumoured to be Elizabeth Monck prior to her marriage to Williams father, there is a strong family tradition that it was a local lady by the name of Carr; a tradition which is supported by both the fact that there was no family background to the name Carr, William being addressed as such by family members, and the existence then and today of families with the name Carr in the area adjacent to Curraghmore. Creeveys suggestion was that it was rumoured both John Poo and William Carr were the children of Elizabeth. He referred to the affection in which they were held by her, and there certainly was a considerable bond, with John Poo and William Carr continuing to visit Elizabeth who lived much of her life in England after her husbands death in 1800.