John Beresford

John Beresford (born March 14, 1738, Dublin, Ire.—died Nov. 5, 1805, near Londonderry [now in Northern Ireland]) was a political leader in the struggle to preserve the political monopoly of the Protestant landowning aristocracy in Ireland. He was once called “king of Ireland” because of his great wealth and control of a vast political patronage. Beresford served as a member of the privy councils of Ireland (from 1768) and Great Britain (from 1786). As a...