Sir Tristram Beresford, 3rd Baronet

Sir Tristram Beresford, 3rd Baronet (1669 – 16 June 1701)^[1] was an Irish politician and baronet.

Background[]

He was the second, but oldest surviving son of Sir Randal Beresford, 2nd Baronet and his wife Catherine Annesley, daughter of Francis Annesley, 1st Viscount Valentia and his second wife Jane Stanhope.^[2] In 1681, he succeeded his father as baronet.^[3]

Career[]

Commanding a Protestant regiment, Beresford was attained by King James II of England in May 1689. However he was acquitted after the Glorious Revolution.^[2] He entered the Irish House of Commons in 1692, sitting for Londonderry County until 1699.^[4]

Family and death[]

In February 1687, he married Nichola Sophia Hamilton, youngest daughter of Hugh Hamilton, 1st Viscount of Glenawly, who spent most of his career in the Swedish army, and his second wife Susanna Balfour, and had by her four daughters and a son.^[5] His wife grew up with and according to a family legend they both agreed in their childhood, that whoever should die at first, should try to return and report to the other about the afterlife.^[6] In October 1693, Nichola wore one morning a black ribbon and after a request by her husband, declared that her friend had died.^[6] Shortly thereafter a letter from the earl's steward arrived, confirming her assertion.^[6] She also predicted Beresford the birth of his son and when in 1713, a clergyman presented her documents, which changed her age to forty-seven, she announced her oncoming death. Nichola told a female friend, that in the night after the earl's death, his ghost had manifested and had given her information about her future life.^[6] As a proof, that it had been no dream, a black mark then appeared at her wrist, which she later covered with a ribbon.^[6] Following this explanation Nichola expired in the presence of her friend.^[6]

Beresford himself died in 1701 and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son Marcus, later raised to the Peerage of Ireland by the title Earl of Tyrone.^[3] Nichola remarried General Richard Gorges of Kilbrew, County Meath, and had a further six children. Despite the romantic family legend, her death in 1713 was probably in childbirth with her youngest daughter Lucy, who married firstly William St Lawrence, 14th Baron Howth, by whom she had several children, and secondly Nicholas Weldon. Her half-sister Jane Beresford married the prominent County Meath politician Gorges Lowther: their descendants still hold the title Baron Crofton. General Gorges remarried Dorothy Stopford ("Countess Doll"), daughter of James Stopford and Mary Forth, and widow of the fourth Earl of Meath.

References[]