Landed families of Britain and Ireland

This site, which was short-listed for the Society of Architectural Historians (GB) Colvin Prize in 2019, presents my research into the landowning families of the British Isles and the country houses which they owned. Comments, especially in the form of corrections, additional information or new illustrations, are very welcome. Please use the Contact Form in the right hand side bar to contact me privately or the comments facility at the bottom of the page to make a public comment.

Saturday, 30 March 2024

(571) Beresford of Abbeville, Termon House and Woodhouse

Beresford of Abbeville and Woodhouse

The family considered here are a cadet branch of the Beresfords of Curraghmore, Earls of Tyrone and Marquesses of Waterford, who will be the subject of a future post. This branch descends from the Hon. and Rt. Hon. John de la Poer Beresford (1738-1805), with whom the genealogy below begins. He was the second surviving son of the 1st Earl of Tyrone. John was called to the Irish bar in 1761 and entered the Irish Parliament in the same year, serving as MP for Co. Waterford, where the interest of his father and later his elder brother, guaranteed his election. Although his brother (from 1789, Marquess of Waterford) was the head of the family, it was John who exercised the greater political power through his management of the rapidly expanding Beresford patronage network, and through his position as First Commissioner for the Revenue of Ireland. Such was his influence that he was spoken of as 'the king' of Ireland, and he demonstrated the effectiveness of his connections in 1795 when he secured the rapid dismissal of Lord Fitzwilliam as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland after the latter had presumed to dismiss him from the Custom House. After the Union of Britain and Ireland, he played a major part in defining the new financial relationship between the two nations. Nor was his influence confined to the political and economic spheres: his invitation to James Gandon to design a new Custom House in Dublin in the 1780s changed the landscape of Dublin and established neo-classical design as the style of its time in Ireland to an extent that it never quite achieved in the other nations of these islands. Gandon provided him with a sumptuous private apartment in the Custom House, and also remodelled Abbey Well House, the small country house at Kinsealy north of Dublin which Beresford bought and renamed Abbeville after his first wife's birthplace.

By his two wives, John Beresford produced a total of nineteen children between 1761 and 1793: four sons and four daughters by his French first wife, and four sons and seven daughters by his second wife, several of whom died young or in early adulthood. His eldest son, Marcus Beresford (1764-97) was brought up to succeed his father, becoming a barrister and MP, and making a good marriage with the daughter of Joseph Leeson, Earl of Milltown, whose home at Russborough House was one of the grandest in Ireland. Sadly, Marcus predeceased his father, and in 1802 John gave Abbeville to one of his younger sons, John Claudius Beresford (1766-1846), who also succeeded him as MP for Co. Waterford, although his politics were not always aligned with those of his father. J.C. Beresford had made an unsavoury name for himself during the Irish rebellion of the 1790s, when the militia unit for which he was responsible administered extra-judicial beatings to suspected rebels. He held a series of profitable positions within the Customs House during his father's long tenure there, but after his father's death he ran into financial difficulties and from 1811 largely withdrew from public life. He was Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1814-15, but sold Abbeville at that time.

The Bishop's Palace, Kilmore

The second surviving son of John Beresford was the Rt. Rev. George de la Poer Beresford (1765-1841), for whom family influence secured the bishopric of Kilmore in 1802. He held this position until his death (the diocese being united with Ardagh from 1839), and in 1835-37 built a new bishop's palace there to the designs of William Farrell. He and his wife Frances - a niece of Henry Grattan - had six children. Their eldest son, John Beresford (1796-1856) was secretary of the colony of St Vincent from about 1825 until his death, but the second, Marcus Gervais Beresford (1801-85) followed in his father's footsteps and entered the church. He was Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh, 1854-62, during which time he rebuilt the cathedral at Kilmore, and was then appointed Archbishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland. Whatever the role his family connections played in securing his steady advancement to the episcopate, he was an able ecclesiastical administrator, who guided the Church of Ireland through the process of disestablishment and set up sound structures for its future governance. He had two sons and two daughters by his first wife, all of whom eventually left Ireland.

The youngest son of John Beresford and his first wife, Charles Cobbe Beresford (1770-1850), also entered the church, and quickly secured appointment as both a prebendary of St Patrick's Cathedral and Chancellor of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. After his father's death, however, he gave up these posts in favour of benefices in Ulster, and from 1809 he was the resident clergyman at Termonmaguirke (Co. Tyrone), where he became an active church and school builder. He also built himself the generously proportioned Termon House in 1815, the scale of which was perhaps necessitated by the size of his family, since he married the daughter of a Scottish baronet and produced four sons and five daughters.

Macbie Hill House, Peeblesshire: a 16th century house
remodelled by William Burn c.1835 and demolished in the 1950s.

His daughters married unusually well, with husbands including the 3rd Earl Erne and the Rev. Lord John Thynne. When he died, Termon House passed to his daughter, Charlotte and her husband the Rev. Samuel Alexander. His eldest son, the Rev. John Isaac Beresford (1796-1847) died before his father, leaving one son and two daughters. The son, George Robert Beresford (1830-71) eventually inherited his great-grandfather's seat, Macbie Hill, Peebles, but died unmarried, and it passed on his death to his sister Emily Sarah Massy-Beresford (c.1827-93) [for whom see my forthcoming post on that family].

The second son of the Rev. Charles Cobbe Beresford was George John Beresford (1807-64), who pursued a career in the Royal Artillery, retiring in 1854 with the rank of Colonel. He married twice, and in 1853 his second wife, Frances Constantia Uniacke (1822-67) inherited her family home, Woodhouse, at Stradbally on the south coast of Co. Waterford. This attractive 18th and early 19th century house remained the home of members of the Beresford family until 1971, although its descent was far from straightforward. It passed first to George's eldest surviving son, Robert Henry Beresford (1845-1903), who after a brief military career was employed as a temporary resident magistrate, a peripatetic role which probably left him little time to enjoy the estate. When he died, ownership passed to his younger brother, John George Beresford (1847-1925), who had, however, emigrated to the USA in 1869 and become an American citizen in 1883. In the circumstances of early 20th century Ireland, there was little incentive for him to return to take up the personal management of his property, and he seems to have been a classic absentee landlord, operating through agents. J.G. Beresford married twice but had no children, and on his death the estate passed briefly to his youngest brother, the Rev. Richard Uniacke Beresford (1858-1925), a canon and precentor of St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny. He too died before the year was out and the estate devolved on his sister, Emily Frances Louisa (1861-1933), the widow of Sir Robert Adair Hodson (1853-1921), 4th bt. Lady Hodson, like her brothers, was childless, and when she died in 1933 she was the last descendant of the Uniacke family. Lacking close relatives, she bequeathed the Woodhouse estate to her distant kinsman, Lord Hugh Tristram de la Poer Beresford (1908-41), the third son of the 6th Marquess of Waterford, who was an officer in the Royal Navy. He was killed in action in 1941 and the estate passed to his elder brother, Lord William Mostyn de la Poer Beresford (1905-73), who sold it in 1971 and moved to a smaller house called Dangan Cottage at Thomastown (Co. Kilkenny). A further account of Lord Hugh and Lord William will be given in my forthcoming post on the Beresfords of Curraghmore.

Abbeville, Kinsealy, Co. Dublin

In origin, Abbeville is a south-facing late 17th or early 18th century house (originally called Abbey Well) which became the wing of a north-facing five-bay villa as the result of additions of c.1720-40, in the style of leading Irish architect, Richard Castle (c.1690-1751).

Abbeville House: the early 18th century entrance front and Gandon porch in 1976. Image: South Dublin Libraries.

Abbeville House: phased plan

Nothing is known of the ownership of the house until 1760, when a Kildare landowner, Edward Beaver, sold it to the John Beresford, who bought it as a base near Dublin from which to pursue his parliamentary and administrative career. In 1781, Beresford brought to Ireland a young English architect called James Gandon, who came to design the neo-classical Custom House on the north bank of the Liffey and stayed to become Ireland's greatest neo-classical architect. Not surprisingly, Beresford employed Gandon to alter and enlarge his own house, probably in the late 1780s, but Gandon had limited experience in the design of domestic buildings and the result lacks the grandeur of his public architecture.

Abbeville House: the garden front created by James Gandon to unify the existing buildings.

Gandon added the porch to the entrance side and created a new 13 bay garden front uniting and concealing the previous buildings. This has two storeys over a basement and consists of a seven bay centre, flanked by two wide curved bows prolonged by single-storey one-bay units. He also added a stable and farmyard complex to the rear. In 1837 it was noted that the gardens contained a greenhouse more than 400 feet long, of which no trace remains. Inside the house, Gandon created a series of elegant neo-classical rooms, although the complex history of the house resulted in these being disposed on an unorthodox plan.

Abbeville House: the dining room in use as a drawing room in 1912.

In c.1950 the house was restored and modernised by Michael John Scott for Percy Reynolds, but after 1963 the house slipped into decay while in the possession of an absentee German owner. It was rescued in 1969, when it was bought by Charles Haughey, a Government minister who was Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 1979-81, 1982 and 1987-92. He lived here until his death in 2006, restored the house well, and filled it with on the whole appropriate contents. Haughey was eventually forced out of politics by a phone-tapping scandal, and after his retirement further revelations of corruption, embezzlement, tax evasion and a 27-year extra-marital affair tarnished his reputation. In 2003, he was obliged to sell Abbeville to meet his outstanding tax liabilities. It was bought by a development company, although a clause in the agreement allowed Haughey to remain in occupation until his death, and his widow did not finally move out until 2008. Planning permission was given for conversion of the house into a hotel and golf club, with housing in the grounds, but work did not start and eventually the developers went bust when the Irish property market collapsed after 2008. Abbeville was sold on in 2013 to the Japanese hotel chain, Toyoko Ltd., one of whose executives currently occupies the house, pending the realisation of similar development plans.

Descent: Edward Beaver; sold 1760 to the Hon. John Beresford (1738-1805); gave house 1802 to his son John Claudius Beresford (1766-1846); sold 1814 to Austin Cooper (d. 1830), antiquarian; sold 1830 to Sir James William Cusack, surgeon, for his son, Henry Thomas Cusack; to son, Athanasius Francis William Geoffrey de Geneville Cusack (1855-87); to brother, Major James William Henry Claud Cusack; to son, Major Ralph Smith Oliver Cusack who sold 1948 to (Albert) Percy Reynolds; sold 1963 to Franz Zielkowski, a German industrialist; sold 1969 to Charles Haughey (1925-2006); sold 2003 to Manor Park Homes; sold 2013 to Toyoko Ltd.

Termon House, Carrickmore, Co. Tyrone

An account of this house has been given in a previous post.

Woodhouse, Stradbally, Co. Waterford

A house is said to have been built on this estate close to the coast in the early 17th century by James Wallis, who rented the property from Richard Beacon, one of the undertakers of the Munster plantation, who had been granted the forfeited lands of the FitzGeralds in Limerick and Waterford. Wallis was dispossessed by the Fitzgeralds during the 1641 rebellion, and despite obtaining a legal judgement in his favour in 1653, he never recovered the estate. Civil War damage may have meant that the house was not occupied in the later 17th century. In 1724, debts forced the sale of the 2,500 acre estate, and the house was probably rebuilt soon afterwards. Landscaping evidently followed, for Maurice Uniacke was awarded a premium for planting over 150,000 trees on the estate in 1742, and it remains well-wooded today.

Woodhouse, Stradbally: watercolour of the house by Louisa Uniacke, 1840 [National Library of Ireland, PD 4554 TX 5]

The Georgian house is a modest T-shaped two-storey building with an entrance front of six bays facing east. The detailing of the entrance front, with lowered sills to the ground-floor windows and an elliptical-headed doorway with a spoked fanlight, seems now to date from the early 19th century, when the house was probably further remodelled. The outbuildings were extended in the mid 19th century after the estate passed by marriage to the Beresfords. After a period of decline and neglect in the late 20th century, the house was restored and modernised at a cost of some €4m by the present owners after 2012.

Woodhouse, Stradbally: the house in 2012. (Image: The Woodhouse estate)

Descent: built for James Wallis (fl. 1641); seized by Thomas Fitzgerald... Maj. Richard MacThomas Fitzgerald, who sold 1724 to Thomas Uniacke; to son, Maurice Uniacke (d. 1743); to son, Bor Uniacke (1710-77); to son, Col. Robert Uniacke (1756-1802); to son, Robert John Uniacke (1795-1851); to son, Col. Robert Bor Uniacke (1823-53); to sister, Frances Constantia (1822-67), wife of Col. George John Beresford (1807-64); to son, Robert Henry Beresford (1845-1903); to brother, John George Beresford (1847-1925); to brother, Rev. Richard Uniacke Beresford (1858-1925); to sister, Emily Frances Louisa (1861-1933), widow of Sir Robert Adair Hodson (1853-1921), 4th bt.; to kinsman, Lord Hugh Tristram de la Poer Beresford (1908-41); to brother, Lord William Mostyn de la Poer Beresford (1905-73), who sold 1971 to John McCoubray, who sold 1972 to John Rohan; sold 1982 to Pinmere Ltd; sold 2006 to Defigo Ltd.; sold 2012 to Jim & Sally Thompson.

Beresford of Abbeville, Termon House and Woodhouse

Hon. John Beresford (1738-1805)
Beresford, Hon. and Rt. Hon. John de la Poer (1738-1805). Fifth, but second surviving, son of Sir Marcus Beresford (1694-1763), 4th bt. and 1st Earl of Tyrone, and his wife Lady Katherine (d. 1769), from 1767 Baroness La Poer in her own right, daughter and heiress of James Power (d. 1704), 3rd Earl of Tyrone, born 14 March 1737/8. Educated at Kilkenny College, Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1755; BA 1758), Lincolns Inn (admitted 1756), Middle Temple (admitted 1760) and Kings Inns, Dublin (called to Irish bar, 1761). Barrister-at-law. MP for Co. Waterford in the Irish Parliament, 1761-1801 and in the UK Parliament, 1801-05. He was appointed to the Privy Council of Ireland, 1768 and that of Great Britain, 1786, and was made a Commissioner for the Revenue of Ireland, 1770 (First Commissioner, 1780-95, 1795-1802); he was also joint Taster of Wines (with his eldest son) at the Port of Dublin, from 1773. His position as First Commissioner and his extensive personal patronage through his kinship networks gave him such immense power in Ireland that he was spoken of as 'the king of Ireland', and when Lord Fitzwilliam was appointed as Lord Lieutenant in 1795 and dismissed him for corruption, he was able to secure Fitzwilliam's dismissal and his own reinstatement. He also challenged Fitzwilliam to a duel but the combatants were interrupted and Fitzwilliam afterwards apologised for his allegations of malversation. As First Commissioner he introduced some useful reforms in the collection of taxation, but his policy was generally conservative and repressive; he was opposed to Catholic emancipation and although initially cool about the proposed union of Britain and Ireland eventually strongly supported the policy. After the Union had taken place, he played a major part in settling the financial relationship between the two countries. A by-product of Beresford's role as Commissioner was his role in the development of neo-classical architecture in Ireland, since he brought James Gandon to Ireland to design a new Custom House. He was a Governor of St Patrick's Hospital, Dublin, 1763-88 and Deputy Governor of Co. Waterford, 1763. He married 1st, 12/15 November 1760, Annette Constantia* (d. 1770), daughter of Gen. the Count de Ligondes, of Ligondes, Auvergne (France), and 2nd, 4 June 1774, Barbara (d. 1795), second daughter of Sir William Montgomery, 1st bt., a celebrated beauty who was one of the three Montgomery sisters depicted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in his painting 'The Three Graces' (1773), and had issue:

(1.1) Catherine Beresford (1761-1836), born 28 September 1761; married, 7 August 1778, as his second wife, Lt-Col. the Rt. Hon. Henry Theophilus Clements (1734-95) of Ashfield Lodge (Co. Cavan) and Woodville (Co. Leix), MP for Cavan Borough, 1769-76, 1783-90, and for Co. Leitrim, 1776-83 and 1790-95, son of Rt. Hon. Nathaniel Clements (1705-77), and had issue five sons and three daughters; died 7 January and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery (Middx), 14 January 1836; her brief will was proved 23 January 1836;

(1.2) Elizabeth Beresford (1762-83), born 24 November 1762; died unmarried, 15 August 1783;
(1.3) Marcus Beresford (1764-97), born 14 February 1764; educated at Westminster, Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1779), Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1781; BA 1784), and Kings Inns, Dublin (called to Irish Bar, 1786); barrister-at-law (KC); MP for Dungannon in the Irish Parliament, 1783-97; joint taster of wines (with his father) in the Port of Dublin, 1773-97; married, 25 February 1791, Lady Frances Arabella (1771-1840), daughter of Rt. Hon. Joseph Leeson (1711-83), 1st Earl of Milltown, of Russborough House (Co. Wicklow), and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 16 November 1797; will proved in Dublin, 1798;
(1.4) Rt. Rev. George de la Poer Beresford (1765-1841) (q.v.);
(1.5) John Claudius Beresford (1766-1846), born 23 October 1766; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1783; BA 1787; MA 1832); banker, in partnership with Mr Wood-Mason; an officer in the County of Dublin Cavalry (Capt., 1796), who was particularly unpopular during the 1798 rebellion for the extra-judicial floggings administered by his corps; alderman of Dublin, 1808-15 (Lord Mayor 1814-15); MP for Swords, 1790-97 and Dublin City, 1797-1800 in the Irish parliament, and for Dublin city, 1801-04 and Co. Waterford, 1806-11 in the UK parliament; unlike his father he opposed the Union of Britain and Ireland, although he accepted it when it happened; registrar general of tobacco, 1784-99; inspector-general of exports and imports for the Port of Dublin 1796-99, and also storekeeper, 1783-1802 and taster of wines, 1798-1802; General Agent of the Irish Society, 1789-1837; inherited Abbeville from his father, but from 1811 was in financial difficulties and sold it in 1814, thereafter withdrawing from public life; married, 3 March 1795, Elizabeth McKenzie, only child of Archibald Menzies of Culdares (Perths), and had issue one son and four daughters; died 3 July 1846;
(1.6) Anne Constantia Beresford (1768-1836), born 16 April 1768; married 1st, 1790, Robert Uniacke (d. 1802), of Woodhouse (Co. Waterford) and had issue at least one son and one daughter; married 2nd, 2 July 1805 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Robert Doyne of Wells (Co. Wexford), and had further issue one son; died at Tullow, 8 August 1836;
(1.7) Jane Beresford (1769-1836), born 13 June 1769; married, 10 September 1788, Rt. Hon. Sir George Fitzgerald Hill (1763-1839), 2nd bt., of Brook Hall (Co. Derry), Governor of St Vincent, 1830-33 and Trinidad, 1833-39, but had no issue; died 2 November 1836 and was buried in the Governor's Cemetery, Port of Spain (Trinidad); she is commemorated by a monument in the cathedral at Port of Spain;
(1.8) Rev. Charles Cobbe Beresford (1770-1850) (q.v.);
(2.1) Hannah Beresford (b. 1775), born 16 May 1775; probably died in infancy;
(2.2) Barbara Beresford (1776-86), born 8 July 1776; died young, 8 May 1786;
(2.3) Frances Honoria Beresford (1777-1860), born 3 September 1777; married, 9 July 1805 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, James Whyte (1774-1852) of Pilton House (Devon), banker, and had issue at least two sons; died 6 February 1860;
(2.4) Anna Marie Beresford (1778-79), born 30 October 1778; died in infancy, 11 October 1779.
(2.5) William Barré Beresford (1780-82), born 12 May 1780; died in infancy, 29 May 1782;
(2.6) James Hamilton Beresford (1782-1806), born 18 February 1782; a midshipman in the Royal Navy, who accidentally drowned while serving in HMS Phoenix; died unmarried, 7 December 1806;
(2.7) Henry Barré Beresford (1784-1837) [for whom see my forthcoming post on the Beresfords of Learmount];
(2.8) Elizabeth Beresford (1786-1860), born 27 January 1786; died unmarried, 17 January 1860;
(2.9) Anna Beresford (1787-1862), married 1st, c.1812, Maj. Charles Gardiner (c.1780-1818) of 90th Foot, only son of Gen. the Hon. William Gardiner; married 2nd, 9 October 1822 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, Charles Manning Allen (1802-80) (also known as Charles Stuart Hay Allen and Charles Edward Stuart, Count d'Albanie, who claimed, with his elder brother, legitimate descent from the Jacobite royal family), and had issue one son and three daughters; died at Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia), 13 November 1862;
(2.10) William Hamilton Beresford (1788-1865), born 11 October 1788; died 16 September 1865 and was buried at Carlingford (Co. Louth), where he is commemorated by a monument;
(2.11) Clara Barbara Beresford (c.1792-1862); married, 10 September 1813 at Derry Cathedral, Rev. James Spencer Knox (1789-1862), rector of Maghera (Co. Derry), and had issue four sons and five daughters; died 4 April and was buried at Bristol General Cemetery, 10 April 1862.

He bought the Abbey Well estate at Kinsealy (Co. Dublin) in 1760 and had James Gandon remodel it while working on the Custom House in the 1780s. He renamed it Abbeville after the town from which his first wife came. He also owned an estate at Walworth (Co. Londonderry), and a sumptuous private apartment in the Custom House.

He died 5 November 1805. His first wife died 26 October 1770. His second wife died 29 May 1795.

* She was born a Roman Catholic, but converted to Protestantism in 1764.

George de la Poer Beresford (1765-1841)
Beresford, Rt. Rev. George de la Poer (1765-1841). Second son of Hon. and Rt. Hon. John de la Poer Beresford (1738-1805) and his first wife, Annette Constantia, daughter of Gen. the Count de Ligondes, of Ligondes, Auvergne (France), born 19 July 1765. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1782; BA 1786; DD 1802). A prebendary of Waterford Cathedral, 1789-1801; vicar of Donoughmore, 1790-97 and Treasurer of the diocese of Ossory, 1792-97; Precentor of Waterford, 1793-1801; Dean of Kilmore and vicar of Kilmore and Ballintemple, 1796-1801; Bishop of Clonfert, 1801-02; Bishop of Kilmore, 1802-39 and of Kilmore & Ardagh, 1839-41. He married, 1794 (licence 26 March), Frances (c.1775-1843), daughter of Gervais Parker Bushe of Kilfane, MP for Kilkenny, and niece of Henry Grattan, and had issue:

(1) Charlotte Mary Beresford (1795-1851), born 12 June 1795; married 1st, 2 May 1812, Frederick Lumley (later Lumley-Savile) (1788-1837) of Tickhill Castle (Yorks), and had issue one son and three daughters; married 2nd, 20 July 1839 at Kilmore (Co. Cavan), Robert Henry Southwell (1789-1863); died at Wiesbaden (Germany), 2 November 1851; will proved in the PCC, 18 December 1851 and again 5 July 1859;
(2) John Beresford (1796-1856), born April 1796; educated at St John's College, Cambridge (matriculated 1815); Colonial Secretary of the island of St. Vincent, c.1825-56; married, 6 May 1822, Harriet Eliza (c.1798-1857), eldest daughter of Hon. William Wylly, Chief Justice of St. Vincent, and had issue four sons and one daughter; died at Shirley (Hants), 16 September 1856;
(3) Anastasia Beresford (c.1798-1803); died young 'of a convulsive fit', April 1803;
(4) Most Rev. Marcus Gervais Beresford (1801-85) (q.v.);
(5) George de la Poer Beresford (c.1802-26), born about 1802; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1821; BA 1825); died unmarried, 6 June 1826;
(6) Frances Beresford (c.1804-33), born about 1804; married, 19 June 1824 at Belmore, the Hon. & Rev. Francis Howard (1797-1857), vicar of Swords (Co. Dublin), 1826-57 (who m2, 20 June 1836, Sarah, eldest daughter of Charles Hamilton, of Hamwood (Co. Meath), and had further issue two sons), son of William Howard, 3rd Earl of Wicklow, and had issue one son; died 17 November 1833.

He lived at the old bishop's palace in Kilmore until it was replaced by a new See House built in c.1835-37 to the design of William Farrell.

He died 16 October 1841. His widow died at Ballyhaise rectory, 19 May 1843.

Archbishop Beresford (1801-85)
Beresford, Most Rev. & Rt. Hon. Marcus Gervais (1801-85). Second son of Rt. Rev. George de la Poer Beresford (1765-1841) and his wife Frances, daughter of Gervais Parker Bushe MP of Kilfane, born at the Custom House, Dublin, 14 February 1801. Educated at Richmond (Yorks) and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1819; BA 1824; MA 1828; DD 1840). Ordained deacon, 1824 and priest, 1825. Rector of Kildallon (Co. Cavan), 1825-28; vicar of Drung and Lara, and vicar-general of Kilmore, 1828-54; Archdeacon of Armagh, 1839-54; Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh, 1854-62, during which time he built a new cathedral at Kilmore to the designs of William Slater; Archbishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland, 1862-85; Prelate of the Order of St Patrick and Lord Almoner to Queen Victoria. An ecclesiastical statesman, who guided the Church of Ireland through the process of disestablishment and set up sound structures for its future governance; he was appointed to the Privy Council of Ireland, 1862. He was awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University (DCL, 1864). He married 1st, 25 October 1824, Mary (d. 1845), daughter of Col. Henry Peisley L'Estrange of Moystown (Co. Offaly) and widow of Richard E. Digby of Geashill (Co. Offaly), and 2nd, 5 June 1850 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), Elizabeth (d. 1870), only daughter of James Trail Kennedy of Annadale (Co. Down) and widow of Robert George Bomford of Rahenstown (Co. Meath), and had issue:

(1.1) Charlotte Henrietta Beresford (1828-84), born 17 May 1828; married, 16 August 1853 at Drung (Co. Cavan), Henry Beilby William Milner (1823-76) of West Retford House (Notts) and Kirkstall Grange (Yorks WR), son of Sir William Milner, 4th bt., and had issue three sons and three daughters; died in Armagh, 15 September and was buried at Acaster Selby (Yorks WR), 20 September 1884; will proved 1 November 1884 (effects £3,387);
(1.2) Mary Emily Beresford (c.1829-58), born about 1829; married, 16 August 1853 at Drung (Co. Cavan), Col. Thomas Heywood (1826-1915) (who m2, 10 April 1862 at St Mark, Torquay (Devon), Sophie Grace (c.1840-1918), only daughter of Stepney St George (1791-1847) of Headford (Co. Galway)), of Oak Hall alias Hatley St. George (Worcs), son of Thomas Heywood of Hope End (Herefs), antiquary, and had issue one son and two daughters; died at Doveleys (Derbys), 12 August 1858;
(1.3) George de la Poer Beresford (1831-1906) of Auburn (Co. Cavan), born 22 April 1831; educated at University College, Oxford (matriculated 1849); JP and DL for Co. Cavan; High Sheriff of Co. Cavan, 1865-66 and Co. Armagh, 1887-88; Conservative MP for Armagh City, 1875-85; lived latterly at Ovendon House, Sundridge (Kent); married, 24 April 1860 at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster (Middx), Mary Annabella (1835-1917), daughter of Rev. William Vernon Harcourt (1789-1871) of Nuneham Courtenay (Oxon), scientist and clergyman, and had issue two sons and two daughters; died at Danbury Park (Essex), 3 August 1906; will proved 18 October 1906 (estate £31,109);
(1.4) Henry Marcus Beresford (1835-95), born 2 March 1835; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1853; Lt., 1854; Capt., 1858; Maj., 1873); lived at Drumlease (Co. Leitrim) and later at Villa Catterina, San Remo (Italy); married, 10 April 1861 at St Peter, Dublin, Julia Ellen (c.1841-1923), daughter of Rev. Francis Richard Maunsell, rector of Castleisland (Co. Kerry), and had issue four sons and one daughter; died at San Remo, 5 February 1895; will proved 28 March 1895 (effects £900).

He lived latterly at the Archbishop's Palace in Armagh.

He died at the Bishop's Palace in Armagh, 26 December 1885, and was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral there, 31 December 1885; his will was proved 10 February 1886 (effects £91,022). His first wife died 31 December 1845. His second wife died 1 July 1870 and was buried in Armagh Cathedral, where she is commemorated by a monument.

Rev. Charles Cobbe Beresford (1770-1850)
Beresford, Rev. Charles Cobbe (1770-1850). Fourth son of Hon. and Rt. Hon. John de la Poer Beresford (1738-1805) and his first wife, Annette Constantia, daughter of Gen. the Count de Ligondes, of Ligondes, Auvergne (France), born 2 October 1770. Educated privately and at Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1787; BA 1790; MA 1807). Prebendary of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, 1798-1805; Chancellor of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, 1802-09; rector of Carrigallen (Co. Leitrim), 1804-09, Killesher (Co. Fermanagh), 1805-50, and Termonmaguirke (Co. Tyrone), 1809-50, where he resided and was responsible for building two churches and nine schools. JP for Co. Tyrone. He married, 22 November 1795, Amelia (c.1770-1839), daughter of Sir William Montgomery (1717-88), 1st bt., of Macbie Hill (Peebles), and had issue:

(1) Rev. John Isaac Beresford (1796-1847) [for whom see my forthcoming post on the Massy-Beresfords of Macbiehill and St Hubert's];
(2) Harriet Louisa Beresford (c.1801-71), born about 1801; married, 15 February 1825 at Termonmaguirke, Rev. John James Fox (1792-1870), rector of Kinawley (Co. Fermanagh & Co. Cavan), 1822-70, fourth son of Richard Fox of Fox Hall (Co. Longford), and had issue six sons and three daughters; died at Farm Hill (Co. Sligo), 24 September 1871;
(3) Selina Griselda Beresford (1804-84), born December 1804; married, 6 July 1837, John Crichton (1802-85), 3rd Earl Erne, of Crom Castle (Co. Fermanagh), Lord Lieutenant of Co. Fermanagh and a representative Irish peer, and had issue three sons and one daughter; died 4 September 1884;
(4) Emilia Catherine Beresford (c.1805-69), born about 1805; married, 16 December 1831 at Termonmaguirke, Arthur Willoughby Cole-Hamilton (1806-91) of Beltrim Castle (Co. Tyrone), and had issue five sons and three daughters; died 19 November, and was buried at Lower Badony (Co. Tyrone), 22 November 1869;
(5) Anne Constantia Beresford (c.1806-66), born about 1806; a pioneering marine biologist who constructed the first marine aquarium in Britain; married, 2 March 1824 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), Rev. Lord John Thynne (1798-1881) of Ashburnham House, Westminster and Haynes Park (Beds), deputy Dean of Westminster, third son of Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath, and had issue eight sons and two daughters; died 22 April 1866;
(6) George John Beresford (1807-64) (q.v.);
(7) Rev. Charles Claudius Beresford (1810-48), born 14 December 1810; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (matriculated 1828; BA 1832); ordained deacon, 1834 and priest, 1835; vicar of Drumlane (Co. Cavan), 1835-37; rector of Bailieborough and Moybologue (Co. Cavan), 1837-48; married, 8 August 1838 at Shercock (Co. Cavan), Anna Maria (c.1820-97), only daughter of Rev. Frederick Fitzpatrick (1790-1870) of Loch Scillan Glebe (Co. Cavan) and had issue two sons and two daughters; died of a fever caught from one of his parishioners, 29 August 1848 and was buried at Bailieborough;
(8) Henry Robert Beresford (c.1811-42), born about 1811; an officer in the army (2nd Lt., 1835; Lt., 1841); a freemason from 1840; died in Jamaica, 16 November 1842;
(9) Charlotte Frances Beresford (c.1812-90), born about 1812; married, 4 November 1839 at Termonmaguirke, Rev. Samuel Alexander (1808-89), rector of Termonmaguirke, 1851-80, eldest son of John Alexander of Caw, and had issue three sons and three daughters; died 27 January 1890.

He lived at Termon House, which he built in 1815 at a cost of £3,293.

He died 13 December 1850 and was buried at Termonmaguirke; his will was proved in 1851. His wife died 14 March 1839 and was buried at Termonmaguirke.

Col. George John Beresford (1807-64)
Beresford, George John (1807-64). Second son of Rev. Charles Cobbe Beresford (1770-1850) and his wife Amelia, daughter of Sir William Montgomery, 1st bt., born 21 July 1807. An officer in the Royal Artillery (2nd Lt., 1826; Lt., 1828; Capt. 1841; Lt-Col., 1854; retired as Col., 1854). JP for County Waterford (by 1857). He married 1st, 12 December 1839 at Rathronan (Co. Tipperary), Jane Charlotte (c.1819-42), youngest daughter of Charles Riall of Heywood (Co. Tipperary), and 2nd, 15 November 1844 at Stradbally (Co. Waterford), Frances Constantia (1822-67), eldest daughter of Robert Uniacke of Woodhouse (Co. Waterford), and had issue:

(1.1) Charles John Beresford (1841-42), born about January 1841; died in infancy, 1 July 1842 and was buried on Ireland island, Sandys (Bermuda);
(1.2) Jane Selina Beresford (1842-1930), born 26 March and baptised on Ireland island, Sandys (Bermuda), 7 April 1842; married, 18 February 1868 at Stradbally, Rev. William Power Cobbe (1827-89), rector of Clonegan (Co. Waterford), 1867-75 and chaplain of St Aubyn (Jersey), 1875-89, son of Capt. William Power RN, and had issue one son; lived latterly with her son at Dover (Kent); died 10 November 1930; will proved 24 January 1931 (estate £23,631);
(2.1) twin, Mildred Anne Beresford (1845-1922), born 8 September 1845; married, 18 October 1866 at Stradbally, Rev. William Carleton* (c.1828-91), rector of Callan, 1870-91 and canon of Ossory, 1882-91, but had no issue; died at Blackrock (Co. Dublin), 17 November 1921, and was buried with her husband at Kilkenny;
(2.2) twin, Robert Henry Beresford (1845-1903), born 8 September 1845; JP and DL for Co. Waterford; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1866; Lt., 1870; retired 1879); employed as a temporary resident magistrate in several counties of Ireland, 1882-1903, and for the last ten years of his life in Co. Louth; married, 24 May 1880 at Cappoquin (Co. Waterford), Laura Ellen Flora (d. 1920), youngest daughter of Sir John Henry Keane (1816-81), 3rd bt., of Cappoquin House, and widow of Capt. Bernard Henry Entwistle (d. 1877), but had no issue; died from injuries sustained in a carriage accident, 30 January 1903; will proved 28 April 1903 (estate £9,809);
(2.3) John George Beresford (1847-1925) (q.v.);
(2.4) Charles Richard Gordon Beresford (1849-69), born 22 February and was baptised at Hougham (Kent), 22 March 1849; an officer in the merchant navy (third officer of the Lady Melville); died of dropsy in a Calcutta hospital, 24 September 1869;
(2.5) George Alexander Beresford (1850-75), born 21 November 1850 and baptised at St Thomas, Woolwich (Kent), 12 January 1851; an officer in the army (Lt., 1871); died unmarried, 8 June 1875 and was buried at Deesa, Bombay (India); administration of goods granted 6 March 1876 (estate under £2,000);
(2.6) Henry Robert Uniacke Beresford (1853-54), baptised at St Thomas, Woolwich, 27 December 1853; died in infancy and was buried at Charlton (Kent), 29 August 1854;
(2.7) Rev. Richard Uniacke Beresford (1858-1925), born 4 September and baptised at Stradbally, 31 October 1858; educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1882; MA 1900); ordained deacon, 1883 and priest, 1884; curate of Pulborough (Sussex), 1883-92; rector of Inistioge (Co. Kilkenny), 1892-1925, canon of Ossory, 1893-1925 and of Leighlin, 1923-25; precentor of Ossory, 1900-25; died unmarried, 30 January and was buried at Stradbally, 3 February 1925;
(2.8) Emily Frances Louisa Beresford (1861-1933) (q.v.).

He lived at Woodhouse (Co. Waterford) in right of his second wife in 1853.

He died 11 February 1864 and was buried at Stradbally (Co. Waterford); will proved 26 May 1864 (effects under £5,000). His first wife died 6 April 1842 and was buried in the Royal Naval Cemetery, Ireland Island, Sandys (Bermuda), where she and her son are commemorated by a monument. His widow died 29 October 1867; her will was proved 26 February 1868 (effects under £3,000).

* He died suddenly while preaching in the pulpit of St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, 16 August 1891, and was buried in the churchyard there.

Beresford, John George (1847-1925). Second son of Col. George John Beresford (1807-64) and his second wife, Frances Constantia, eldest daughter of Robert Uniacke of Woodhouse (Co. Waterford), born 10 June and baptised at Hougham (Kent), 14 July 1847. He emigrated to the USA, 1869, and was naturalised as an American citizen in Wyoming, 1883. He married 1st, 21 February 1898 at Manhattan, New York (USA), Emilie Eleanora (1860-1916), daughter of Adrian Iselin of New York (USA), and 2nd, 14 February 1922 at Washington DC (USA), Helen (1876-1945), daughter of Alphonso Mason (1844-1921) of Philadelphia (USA), but had no issue.

He inherited Woodhouse from his brother Robert in 1903, but did not return to Ireland. At his death it passed briefly to his brother Richard and then to his sister Emily.

He died at Washington DC, 8 May 1925, and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York. His first wife died 24 May 1916 and was buried at New Rochelle, Westchester, New York. His widow married 2nd, 19 July 1927, John Rutherfoord (1861-1942), son of John Coles Rutherfoord; she died 2 March and was buried at Philadelphia, 5 March 1945.

Beresford, Emily Frances Louisa (1861-1933). Second daughter of Col. George John Beresford (1807-64) and his second wife, Frances Constantia, eldest daughter of Robert Uniacke of Woodhouse (Co. Waterford), born 15 February 1861. She married, 20 April 1913, Col. Sir Robert Adair Hodson (1853-1921), 4th bt., but had no issue.

She inherited Woodhouse from her brother Richard in 1925. At her death she bequeathed it to her kinsman, Lord Hugh Tristram de la Poer Beresford (1908-41), third son of the 6th Marquess of Waterford (for whom see my forthcoming post on the Beresfords of Curraghmore).

She died 14 February 1933. Her husband died 3 January 1921.

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 1061-63, 4084-92; E. McParland, James Gandon: Vitruvius Hibernicus, 1985, pp. 63-66, 123-27; M. Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 2nd ed., 1988, pp. 1, 286; M.R. Doorly, Abbeville, 1996; E.M. Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish Parliament, 1692-1800, 2002, vol. 3, pp. 156-71;

https://woodhouseestate.com/history/the-house/;

https://woodhouseestate.com/history/the-people-2/

Location of archives

Beresford, Most Rev. Marcus Gervais (1801-85), Archbishop of Armagh: correspondence and papers, c.1856-82 [Cambridge University Library, Add. 9407]

Coat of arms

Quarterly, 1st and 4th, argent semée of cross crosslets fitchée three fleurs-de-lis within a bordure engrailed all sable (for Beresford); 2nd and 3rd, argent a chief indented sable (for de la Poer).

Can you help?

Can anyone provide photographs or portraits of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 30 March 2024 and was updated 10 May 2024.

Friday, 23 February 2024

(570) Berens of Kevington Hall

Berens of Kevington

The Berens or Behrens family name is said to originate in Schleswig-Holstein on the borders of Germany and Denmark, but the branch of the family that came to England in the 18th century were previously established as merchants in Amsterdam (Netherlands). The use of a black bear on their coat of arms suggests the family's mercantile interests may have begun in the Russian and/or Baltic trade, but during the 18th century they became general shipping merchants, trading with the Dutch East Indies, British India and North America, and the countries of western and southern Europe. Herman Berens (c.1702-91), with whom the genealogy below begins, was evidently living and working in England by 1732, when he took British nationality. By the 1740s he was in partnership in London with his brother John Berens (d. 1787), who was naturalised in 1762, although the two brothers later traded separately. In March 1761 John suffered a daring robbery of plate at his house in Copthall Court, London, and this experience may have prompted his decision to buy a property at Southgate (Middx), where he built a handsome villa to the designs of Sir Robert Taylor in 1762-63, which he called Beaver Hall. This house, which was sold by John's executors in 1790 and greatly extended soon afterwards, is recorded in its original form in a sketch plan and pencil elevation by William Newton, who visited in 1765.

Beaver Hall, Southgate: sketch plan and pencil elevation of the
house as first built, drawn by William Newton, 1765. Image: RIBA

Beaver Hall, Southgate: the house c.1870, showing it as enlarged c.1790.
Image: Enfield Local Studies Collection

John's brother, Herman Berens, would undoubtedly have been familiar with Beaver Hall, and probably also knew Taylor personally as they were both active in the city of London. It is no surprise, therefore, that when Herman followed his brother's lead and bought a villa outside London, in his case Kevington Hall at St Mary Cray (Kent), it was to Taylor that he turned to modernise and enlarge it.

Herman's purchase of a country villa began the family's transition from city merchants to landed gentry, which was continued by his only surviving son Joseph Berens (1745-1825), whose marriage connected them to the greater gentry. Like his father, Joseph was a director of the Hudson's Bay Company, but he seems to have retired from business in 1795 and devoted himself to the traditional roles of the landed gentry, as a justice of the peace and an officer in the local volunteers. His four sons were all sent to Oxford, and the two eldest went on Lincoln's Inn and became barristers, while the others went into the church and academia. The eldest son, Joseph Berens junior (1773-1853), succeeded in combining a significant position in the city (being Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1812-22) with his role as a landowner. He married a daughter of Richard Benyon of Gidea Hall (Essex) and Englefield House (Berks), and had five sons and one daughter. His eldest son, William Joseph Berens (1800-54), had pursued a career in the army, but he was terminally ill and in the throes of a messy divorce when his father died, and Kevington passed to his younger brother, Richard Beauvoir Berens (1801-59). Like his father, Richard was a barrister and pursued a career in the city, being Governor of the New River Co. - responsible for much of London's water supply - from 1847 until his death.

Richard was in turn succeeded at Kevington by his elder son, Richard Benyon Berens (1834-1916), who was the first of the family not to combine a career in the city with his responsibilities as a landowner. In 1883, he inherited the Culford Hall estate in Suffolk from his kinsman, the Rev. Edward Richard Benyon, but he sold it about five years later. He married the daughter of a leading lawyer and had nine children, several of whom predeceased him. His heir apparent, Richard Berens (1864-1909), was a barrister who was married but left no children, and his next son, the Rev. George Berens (later Berens-Dowdeswell) (1866-1945), was expected to inherit the Pull Court estate in Worcestershire from a cousin. When Richard died in 1916, therefore, he left Kevington to his widow, Fanny Georgina (c.1840-1924), with remainder to his fifth son, Cecil Berens (1869-1933), who had studied at the Royal Agricultural College and become a land agent. He had two sons and two daughters, but his younger son, a pilot in the RAF, died in an unexplained flying accident over Southampton Water in 1932. When he died in 1933, Cecil left a surprisingly large estate, in excess of £140,000, and it is not clear what the source of this wealth - six times what his father had left in 1916 - was. His elder son, Herbert Cecil Benyon Berens (1908-91), who became an accountant and merchant banker and amassed a considerable fortune, inherited Kevington, but the house was requisitioned for military use in the Second World War. By the time it was returned to the family the tentacles of London suburbia were creeping towards St Mary Cray and rather than repair and reoccupy the house he chose to sell it to Kent County Council for use as a primary school and to buy the more rural Bentworth Hall near Alton in Hampshire as a replacement seat. Bentworth was a less impressive house than Kevington, and probably rather smaller, but Herbert enlarged it with the addition of a single-storey wing (which ironically looks rather like a primary school classroom block). He lived at Bentworth until his death, after which it was sold, marking the close of the family's period as landed gentry.

Kevington Hall, St Mary Cray, Kent

The estate belonged from later medieval times until the mid 18th century to the Manning family, whose house here was known as Manning's Hall. It was taxed on 12 hearths in 1664, but nothing is known about its character or appearance. After it was sold to Herman Behrens (d. 1791), it was remodelled and enlarged by Sir Robert Taylor in 1767-69, at a cost of £6,192. Behrens' notebook, of which there is a copy in the RIBA Library, records the purchase of the land, the alterations to the house, the building of the offices and garden wall, together with costs of materials and labour. Berens perhaps knew Taylor through their respective connections in the city of London, but Richard Garnier has shown that the work at Kevington followed on Taylor's building of Beaver Hall, Southgate (Middx) in c.1762-63 for Herman Berens' brother, John Berens (d. 1787), and this probably led to the commission.

Kevington Hall: the entrance front in 1938. Image: Historic England BB71/9324

Kevington Hall: the south front in 1938, showing the bow window added by Joseph Berens. Image: Historic England BB71/9619

The house at Kevington is unusually plain by Taylor's standards, with few of his characteristic design features, such as shaped rooms, octagonal glazing, and elaborate Rococo plasterwork. Once the works were completed, the house showed no outward sign of its earlier origins, and became a square two and a half storey villa. Perhaps surprisingly, there seem to be no published engravings of the house showing it at this time, and as it was altered after Herman's death for his son, Joseph Berens (1745-1825), we cannot be quite certain what it looked like originally. Joseph added the broad curved bow - which stylistically could be an original feature but which is not bonded in to the rest of the elevation - to the centre of the south front, and no doubt also the tripartite windows on the upper floors of the west front, largely giving the house its present external appearance. Later additions include the single-storey stuccoed bays built out either side of the curved bow, containing panelled tripartite windows flanked by pilasters, and probably also the large pedimented porch on the west front, which has twin Doric engaged columns with narrow windows between them and further windows on the sides.

Kevington Hall: the dining room in 1938. Image: Historic England BB71/9341

Kevington Hall: the drawing room in 1938. Image: Historic England BB71/9339

Inside, the house was a good deal more altered in the 19th century and later, and little of the original simple but elegant neo-classical decoration survives now. The best that remains is in the former dining room, which has a delicate swagged circular panel on one wall, formerly set above a fireplace, and further decorative plaster panels around the rest of the room. Photographs taken in 1938 show the house as it was during the ownership of the Berens family, with good ceiling cornices in the main rooms and a fine chimneypiece in the bow-ended drawing room. Probably around 1900, the entrance hall and the staircase behind were thrown into a single long room divided by an elliptical archway, and the original staircase was replaced with the present open well stair with rather widely spaced and spindly turned balusters.

Kevington Hall: the house today, after extensive recent restoration.

Kevington Hall: the hall and staircase today.

In the Second World War the house was requisitioned and used as the headquarters of the Canadian army in Europe. At the end of the war it was returned to the Berens family but quickly sold to Kent County Council, which used it to house a primary (later infants') school. During forty years of school use, the historic interiors were considerably abraded, and additional accommodation was built on the site. The additions were all removed after the building returned to private ownership in 1987, and there have been several phases of restoration work since then. The house is now used as a conference centre and wedding venue, but the hall and staircase and the former library remain decorated and furnished in country house style.

Descent: John Manning (d. 1435); to son, Hugh Manning (c.1431-1503); to younger son, Richard Manning; to son, John Manning; to son, Edward Manning; to son, Edward Manning (d. 1640); to son, Edward Manning; to son, Edward Manning (c.1654-1703); to son, Richard Manning (d. 1753); to nephew, Denzil Onslow (c.1698-1765); to son, Middleton Onslow (1732-1801), who sold to Herman Behrens (c.1702-91); to son, Joseph Berens (1773-1853); to son, Richard Beauvoir Berens (1801-59); to son, Richard Benyon Berens (1834-1916); to son, Cecil Berens (1869-1933); to son, Herbert Cecil Berens (1908-81); requisitioned during WW2 and sold 1947 to Kent County Council; transferred 1965 to Bromley London Borough Council; sold 1987; sold 1993... Mrs Janet Jackson (fl. 2006); to son, Jonathan Barlow Jackson (b. 1980).

Bentworth Hall, Hampshire

The house was built for Roger Staples Horman-Fisher after he bought the estate in 1832, as a replacement for the late medieval Hall Place, (which became a farmhouse). The new house was sited on a gentle ridge of open downland dotted with abandoned chalk pits, to the south of its predecessor. Alongside the construction of the house, Horman-Fisher laid out a small park, with a gate-lodge at the edge of Bentworth village and extensive woodland planting to provide shelter belts and an attractive setting for the house.

Bentworth Hall: the newly-built in c.1835-40, from an amateur watercolour. Image: Public Domain.

The house itself was a Tudor villa with mullioned windows, of two storeys, with a front of three bays that gave a misleadingly modest impression, for further ranges to the rear made it much bigger than it looked at first, and in 1848 it had six principal bedrooms. The most remarkable feature of the house was that it was built of beautifully squared and coursed knapped flint ('carefully and minutely cut and smoothed at an incalculable cost' according to the sale particulars of 1848) with stone dressings. Inside, the hall and staircase were surrounded by four reception rooms (library, drawing room, dining room and breakfast room).

Bentworth Hall: the house in 1905.

Bentworth Hall: the house in 1983, showing the single-storey Modernist addition of the 1950s.

After Maj. Berens bought the estate in 1947, he built a single-storey flat-roofed extension to the south side of the house, with large floor-length plate glass windows like a contemporary primary school, and also added two further lodges in neo-Georgian style, designed by Hugh Vaux. After his death, attempts to sell the house as a single unit were unsuccessful, and the property was divided into three dwellings, with two more being created later in the former stable block.

Descent: built c.1832 for Roger Staples Horman-Fisher (1792-1866); sold c.1845 to Charles Bushe; sold 1848 to Jeremiah Robert Ives (d. 1865); to widow, Emma Ives (d. 1897); to son, Col. Gordon Maynard Gordon-Ives (d. 1907) of Gaston Grange; to son, Cecil Maynard Gordon-Ives (d. 1923); sold 1924 to Arthur d'Anyers Willis; sold 1932 to Maj. John Arthur Pryor, but requisitioned for military use in Second World War; sold 1947 to Maj. Herbert Cecil Berens (1908-81); sold after his death and divided into flats. The house was leased from c.1900-23 to William Graham Nicholson MP (1862-1942) of Basing Park.

Berens family of Kevington Hall

Berens, Hermanus alias Herman (c.1702-91). Son of Hermanus Behrens of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and his wife Regina, born about 1702. In partnership with his brother John (and possibly also another brother, Joseph) he established a mercantile house in London, engaged in general shipping business. The partnership was later broken and Herman became a director of the East India Company and of the Hudson's Bay Company. He was naturalized as an Englishman, 1732. Alderman of the City of London by 1780. He married, 17 July 1742, Magdalen (1721-90), daughter of Etienne alias Stephen Riou (1676-1740), and had issue:

(1) John Stephen Berens (1743-67), baptised at St Bartholomew Exchange, London, 25 August 1743; probably died unmarried and was buried at Enfield, 19 February 1767;

(2) Joseph Berens (1745-1825) (q.v.);
(3) Magdalen Berens (1746-1800), baptised at St Bartholomew Exchange, London, 13 March 1745/6; died unmarried and was buried at Orpington, 5 June 1800; will proved in the PCC, 14 June 1800;
(4) Catherine Berens (1749-1826), baptised at Enfield (Middx), 20 August 1749; died unmarried and was buried at Orpington, 18 November 1826; will proved in the PCC, 1 December 1826.

He purchased Kevington Hall in about 1766, and enlarged it to the designs of Sir Robert Taylor, 1767-69.

He died 31 December 1791 and was buried at Orpington (Kent); his will was proved in the PCC, 13 January 1795. His wife died 11 July 1790 and was also buried at Orpington.

Berens, Joseph (1745-1825). Only surviving son of Herman Behrens (c.1702-91) and his wife Magdalen, daughter of Etienne alias Stephen Riou, born in London, 21 February and baptised at St Bartholomew Exchange, London, 28 February 1744/5. A director of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1776-95. DL for Kent (from 1797). An officer in the Kevington Volunteer Infantry (Capt., 1798). He married, 17 August 1772 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Elizabeth (d. 1827), second daughter* of Sir Edward Hulse of Breamore (Hants), and had issue:

(1) Joseph Berens (1773-1853) (q.v.);
(2) Elizabeth Magdalene Berens (1774-86), baptised at St Botolph, Bishopsgate, London, 26 October 1774; died young, 28 May, and was buried at Wilmington (Kent), 1 June 1786;
(3) Henry Berens (1776-1852), born 19 February and baptised at Farningham (Kent), 24 March 1776; educated at Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1795; called 1804); barrister-at-law; one of three commissioners appointed to inquire into the collection of excise duty, 1833; died unmarried, 12 May, and was buried at Sidcup (Kent), 22 May 1852; will proved 7 June 1852;
(4) Ven. Edward Berens (1777-1859), baptised at Sutton-at-Hone (Kent), 4 August 1777; educated at Christ Church and Oriel College, Oxford (matriculated 1795; BA 1798; MA 1801); ordained deacon, 1801 and priest, 1802; domestic chaplain to Bishop of Exeter, 1803-17; vicar of Shrivenham (Berks), 1804-55 and rector of Englefield (Berks), 1817-55; rural dean and a prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral, 1829-32; Archdeacon of Berkshire, 1832-55; a liberal in politics and a supporter of religious orthodoxy with high church leanings, he wrote for the Quarterly Review and also published works including Church Reform (1828), Advice to a Young Man on first going to Oxford (1832) and Steadfast Adherence to the Church of England, Recommended and Enforced (1852); he resided at Shrivenham, where he built a new vicarage to the designs of Richard Pace of Lechlade in 1805; he married, 30 December 1805, Catherine (1781-1865), daughter of Rt. Rev. Henry Reginald Courtenay, bishop of Exeter, but had no issue; died 7 April 1859; will proved 24 June 1859 (effects under £45,000);
(5) Maria Anne Berens (1778-1849), baptised at Sutton-at-Hone, 12 October 1778; married, 24 April 1804, at Farnborough (Kent), Rev. John Pratt (c.1773-1861), rector of Sedlescombe (Sussex), 1803-61, son of Henry Pratt of Orpington (Kent), and had issue four sons and three daughters; buried at Sedlescombe, 26 April 1849;
(6) Sophia Caroline Berens (1780-1851), baptised at Sutton-at-Hone, 4 June 1780; married, 21 June 1804 at Sedlescombe (Sussex), Benjamin Harenc (1780-1825) of Foots Cray Place (Kent), and had issue five sons and four daughters; died 4 July 1851; will proved 18 February 1851;
(7) Richard Berens (1781-1849), born 1 October and baptised at Sutton-at-Hone (Kent), 28 October 1781; educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1800; BA 1804) and All Souls College (BCL 1807; DCL 1813); Fellow and Bursar of All Souls College; died unmarried at his house in London, 13 June 1849, and was buried at All Souls College, where he is commemorated by a monument; will proved in the PCC, 12 July 1849.

He lived first at Hextable House (Kent) and after his father's death at Kevington.

He died 19 December 1825 and was buried at Orpington (Kent); his will was proved in the PCC, 31 December 1825. His widow died 27 April 1827 and was buried with her husband the following day.

* Her elder sister, Hannah, married Richard Benyon (1746-96), establishing a close connection between the two families.

Berens, Joseph (1773-1853). Eldest son of Joseph Behrens (1745-1825) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Hulse of Breamore (Hants), baptised at St Botolph, Bishopsgate, London, 25 May 1773. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1791; BA 1796; MA 1798) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1795; called 1800). Barrister-at-law; Recorder of Romney Marsh by 1815. A member of the Hudson's Bay Company (Committee Member, 1801-33; Deputy Governor, 1807-12; Governor 1812-22). An officer in the Kevington Volunteer Infantry (Lt., 1798; Capt., 1798) and the London & Westminster Light Horse Volunteers (Cornet, 1809; Lt. 1812; Capt., 1815). He married, 11 June 1799 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Charlotte (1774-1854), third daughter of Richard Benyon (1746-96) of Gidea Park (Essex) and Englefield House (Berks), and had issue:

(1) William Joseph Berens (1800-54), of Orpington Hall (Kent), baptised at St Giles in the Fields, Holborn (Middx), 12 June 1800; educated at Westminster; an officer in the army (Ensign, 1822; Lt., 1825; Capt., 1827; retired 1837) and later the West Kent Yeomanry Cavalry (Capt. 1848); JP for Kent; married, 20 July 1837 (div. 1854*) at Greasley (Notts), Louisa Maria (1813-57), daughter of Lancelot Rollston, but had no issue; died at Ryde (IoW), 11 June 1854; will proved in the PCC, 8 September 1854;
(2) Richard Beauvoir Berens (1801-1859) (q.v.);
(3) Henry Hulse Berens (1804-83), of Sidcup (Kent), born 21/24 November and baptised at St Giles in the Fields, Holborn (Middx), 23 December 1804; JP for Kent and a Commissioner of Lieutenancy for London; a director of the Bank of England, 1849-80; Governor of Hudson's Bay Co., 1858-63 (Committee Member 1833-63 and Deputy Governor, 1856-58), and auditor of the New River Company; a freemason from 1851; married, 30 October 1841 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, Ellinor (1815-46), daughter of George Stone of Coopers, Chislehurst (Kent), and had issue one daughter (who with her husband took the name Berens in 1885); died 23 August 1883 and was buried at Sidcup (Kent); will proved 19 November 1883 (effects £71,282);
(4) Rev. Edward Riou Berens (1807-66), born 12 January and baptised at St Giles in the Fields, Holborn (Middx), 13 February 1807; educated at Westminster, Christ Church and St Mary's Hall, Oxford (matriculated 1825; BA 1831; MA 1832); ordained deacon, 1831 and priest, 1832; vicar of Broxted and rector of Wickford (Essex), 1833-39 and Downham (Essex), 1839-66; married, 21 August 1849 at Woodmansterne (Surrey), Sophia Frances (1807-1900), daughter of Thomas Walpole of Stagbury, Woodmansterne, and had issue one daughter (who died young); died 31 July 1866; will proved 22 September 1866 (effects under £35,000);
(5) Charlotte Elizabeth Berens (1813-81), baptised at St Paul's Cray, 29 August 1813; after the death of her father, she lived with her brother Henry; died unmarried, 12 September, and was buried at Sidcup, 17 September 1881; administration of goods granted to her brother, 19 October 1881 (effects £40,265);
(6) George Samuel Berens (1819-43), baptised at St Pauls Cray (Kent), 31 January 1819; joined the Royal Navy and was mate of HMS Harlequin during an action in China for which the crew received medals, 1842; died 11 September 1843 and was buried at sea off the island of Borneo; administration of goods granted to his father, 1844.

He inherited Kevington Hall from his father in 1794.

He died at Downham (Essex) but was buried at Orpington, 11 January 1853; his will was proved in the PCC, 18 February 1853. His widow died 1 July 1854.

* This was a sensational divorce case. After a very short acquaintance, Louisa eloped in 1853 with John Coventry (1793-1871) of Burgate House, Fordingbridge (Hants), son of the Hon. John Coventry (whom she married 2nd, 13 January 1857 at St Marylebone (Middx)). Efforts to trace the couple, who evidently stayed in hotels in Liverpool and Manchester as husband and wife, were unsuccessful. Berens initiated divorce proceedings in the House of Lords, but the bill only passed its final stages in the House of Commons a day or two after he had died.

Berens, Richard Beauvoir (1801-59). Second son of Joseph Berens (c.1773-1853) and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Richard Benyon of Englefield House (Berks), born 14/16 December 1801 and baptised at St Giles-in-the-Fields (Middx), 27 January 1802. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1820; BA 1823; MA 1827) and Lincoln's Inn (admitted 1823; called 1828). Barrister-at-law. An officer in the West Kent Yeomanry Cavalry (Cornet, 1830). Governor of the New River Company, c.1847-59. He married, 10 January 1833 at St James, Piccadilly, Westminster (Middx), Catharine (1801-78), daughter of John Edmund Dowdeswell MP (1772-1851) of Pull Court (Worcs), and had issue:

(1) Richard Benyon Berens (1834-1916) (q.v.);
(2) Catharine Frances Carolina Berens (1837-92), born 10 November and baptised at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), 13 December 1837; married, 12 August 1880 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster, Lt-Col. Wilmot Grant (1839-1909) (who m2, 31 October 1893 at Thurlbere (Som.), Frances Mary (c.1863-1920), daughter of George Edwin Lance, judge in Indian civil service), son of Col. Edward Fitzherbert Grant; died without issue, 4 October 1892; will proved 10 January 1893 (effects £48,281);
(3) Edward Osmond Berens (1839-72), born 27 July 1839; educated at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1857; BA 1861; MA 1864); an officer in the Kent Rifle Volunteers (Lt., 1860); died without issue, 31 January, and was buried at Orpington, 6 February 1872, where he is commemorated by a monument in the churchyard; will proved 22 February 1872 (effects under £14,000).

He inherited Kevington Hall from his father in 1853.

He died of a stroke while riding, 25 February 1859, and was buried at Orpington where he is commemorated by a monument; his will was proved 11 May 1859. His widow died 5 August 1878 and was buried at Orpington, 10 August 1878, where she is commemorated on her husband's monument.

Richard Benyon Berens (1834-1916)
Image: National Portrait Gallery
Berens, Richard Benyon (1834-1916). Elder son of Richard Beauvoir Berens (d. 1859) and his wife Catharine, daughter of John Edmund Dowdeswell MP, born 15 March 1834. Educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1852; BA 1857; MA 1865). An officer in the West Kent Yeomanry Cavalry (Cornet, 1859; Lt., 1863; retired 1870). JP (from 1861) and DL (from 1892) for Kent; High Sheriff of Kent, 1893-94. He married, 13 June 1860 at St George, Hanover Sq., Westminster (Middx), Fanny Georgina (c.1840-1924), daughter of Alexander Atherton Park, Master of the Court of Common Pleas, and had issue, with a daughter who was stillborn in 1861:

(1) Richard Berens (b. & d. 1863), born 22 January and baptised at St Mary Cray, 12 February 1863; died in infancy and was buried at Orpington (Kent), 14 March 1863;
(2) Richard Berens (1864-1909), born 28 January and baptised at St Mary Cray, 20 March 1864; educated at Westminster, Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1882; BA 1887; MA 1890) and Inner Temple (admitted 1887; called 1892); barrister-at-law; married, 3 December 1900 at St George, Bloomsbury (Middx), Elizabeth Evelyn (c.1877-1946) (who m2, 17 April 1915, Maj. Edgar Oswald Anderson (1876-1945)), daughter of John Fitzgibbons of Belton, Doncaster (Yorks); died in the lifetime of his father, at Felixstowe (Suffk), 14 July 1909; will proved 11 December 1909 (estate £9,249);
(3) Rev. George Berens (later Berens-Dowdeswell) (1866-1945), born 11 January 1866; educated at Westminster, Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1884; BA 1888; MA 1891) and Leeds Clerical School (admitted 1888); ordained deacon, 1889 and priest, 1891; curate, 1889-1904 and vicar, 1904-07 of St Andrew, Bethnal Green (Middx); curate of Harworth (Notts), 1908-11; rector of Foots Cray (Kent), 1911-21; assumed the additional name Dowdeswell by royal licence, 1916, on inheriting the Pull Court estate from his cousin, but was driven to sell it by the pressure of taxation, 1932, and retired to The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay (Berks); married, 23 September 1918 at Foots Cray, Eveleen Mary MA, Fellow of British College of Nurses (1875-1967), eldest daughter of Dr William Hunter MD of Rothesay (Bute); died 28 November 1945 and was buried at Bushley (Worcs);
(4) Herbert Berens (1867-97), born 2 October and baptised at St Mary Cray, 17 November 1867; educated at Westminster; captain of the St Mary Cray fire brigade, 1895-97; died unmarried of pneumonia, 2 December 1897, and was buried at St Mary Cray;
(5) Cecil Berens (1869-1933) (q.v.);
(6) Maud Catherine Berens (1871-1960), born 28 September and baptised at St Mary Cray, 19 November 1871; married 1st, 25 November 1920 at St Mary Cray, Henry Pitt Tozer (1864-1928) of Bere Regis (Dorset); married 2nd, 3 June 1931 at Bere Regis (Dorset), William Bedford (1858-1936); died without issue, 9 July 1960; will proved 12 September 1960 (estate £25,045);
(7) Edward Berens (1873-1938), born 24 October and baptised at St Mary Cray, 21 December 1873; educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1892; BA 1897); member of Bromley Board of Guardians, 1917-30 and Bromley Rural District Council, 1922-35; a keen cricketer; died unmarried, 2 October 1938; administration of goods (with will annexed) granted 25 November 1938 (estate £10,610);
(8) Atherton Berens (1877-1940), born 21 May 1877; educated at Westminster and Pembroke College, Oxford; farmer; served in First World War with Army Service Corps, 1916-18; married, 3 November 1906 at St John, Paddington (Middx), Wenefrede Dorothy (1875-1956), daughter of Joseph Watson Overbury of London, and had issue three daughters; died 11 February 1940; will proved 13 April 1940 (estate £126);
(9) Violet Frances Berens (1880-1949), born 10 November 1880; married, 31 July 1906 at St Mary Cray, Edward Loxley Waring (1863-1933) of Halstead Hall, Sevenoaks (Kent), son of William Waring of Woodlands, Chelsfield (Kent), and had issue; died 26 July 1949; will proved 10 October 1949 (estate £14,737).

He inherited Kevington Hall from his father in 1859. At his death he bequeathed it to his widow for life, with remainder to his fifth son, Cecil. He also inherited Culford Hall (Suffk) on the death of his kinsman, the Rev. Edward Richard Benyon, in 1883, but sold it about five years later to the Earl Cadogan.

He died 28 October 1916; will proved 21 February 1917 (estate £23,075). His widow died 4 April 1924; her will was proved 14 July 1924 (estate £3,463).

Berens, Cecil (1869-1933). Fifth son of Richard Benyon Berens (1834-1916) and his wife Fanny Georgina, daughter of Alexander Atherton Park, Master of the Court of Common Pleas, born 12 May and baptised at St Mary Cray, 20 June 1869. Educated at Sherborne and Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. Estate agent. Master of West Kent Harriers, 1886-1905. During the First World War he was an Inspector of the Special Constabulary. JP for Kent (from 1922) and a member of Bromley Rural District Council and Bromley Board of Guardians. He married, 27 July 1905 at St Mary Abbots, Kensington (Middx), Mildred Turnour (1886-1984), only daughter of James Blackwood of Foots Cray (Kent), and had issue:

(1) Violet Cecil Turnour Berens (1907-70), born 26 June 1907; married, 25 July 1931 at St Mary Cray, Geoffrey Arthur John Smallwood (1900-73) of Milford (Staffs), barrister-at-law, deputy chairman of Leicestershire Quarter Sessions, 1947-71 and a stipendiary magistrate in Stoke-on-Trent, 1960-73, son of Arthur I. Smallwood of Leamington Spa (Warks); died 24 June 1970; administration of goods granted 1 October 1970 (estate £8,051);
(2) Herbert Cecil Benyon Berens (1908-81) (q.v.);
(3) Richard James Berens (1911-32), born 25 July 1911; an officer in the Royal Air Force (Pilot Officer); died as the result of a flying accident over Southampton Water, 4 December 1932;
(4) Rita Sylvia Berens (1913-2002), born 4 September 1913; married, 5 August 1940 in India, as his second wife, Lt-Cdr. Patrick Spencer Boyle RN (1906-78) of Ashe Park (Hants), only son of Capt. the Hon. Edward Spencer Henry Boyle RN, and had issue one son; died 7 November 2002; will proved 9 June 2003 (estate £128,796).

He inherited Kevington Hall on the death of his mother in 1924.

He died 30 December 1933 and was buried at St Mary Cray Cemetery; his will was proved 26 February and 19 March 1934 (estate £141,323). His widow married 2nd, 10 November 1945, Sir Oliver Hamilton Augustus Hart-Dyke (1885-1969), 8th bt., and died aged 98 at Balgowen, Natal (South Africa), 9 June 1984; her will was proved 8 November 1984 (estate in England & Wales, £20,136).

Berens, Herbert Cecil Benyon (1908-81). Elder son of Cecil Berens (1869-1933) and his wife Mildred Turnour, only daughter of James Blackwood of Foots Cray (Kent), born 16 October 1908. Educated at Wellington College and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1927). Merchant banker who began his career as an accountant with Hambro's Bank, 1931-39. An officer in the City of London Yeomanry (2nd Lt., 1939; Capt. by 1942; Hon. Maj.), who served in the Second World War with the Royal Armoured Corps and was a Prisoner of War, 1941-43; awarded the MC, 1942. After the war he was managing director of Anglo-Foreign Securities, 1944-51, and the Bentworth Trust from 1951, and was later a director of the Allied Irish Bank, 1966; and of Hambro's Bank, 1968 and Chairman of International Distillers, 1962-72 and Evans of Leeds, 1972. As a young man he played cricket for the Kent Second XI. He married, 10 October 1931 at St Margaret, Westminster (Middx), Moyra Nancy (1907-94), daughter of Louis Oliver Mellard (1873-1954), and had issue:

(1) Richard Wilfrid Beauvoir Berens (1933-98), born 18 February 1933; educated at Eton; colourful journalist who edited the 'William Hickey' column in the Daily Express and was notoriously a gambler and alcoholic; married 1st, 10 April 1958 (div. 1962), Hon. Nicole (k/a Minty) (1936-2011) (who m2, Michael Russell (1933-2020), literary agent and publisher, son of Edward Dennis Russell of Bournemouth (Hants), solicitor), only daughter of Richard Francis Roger Yarde-Buller (1910-91), 4th Baron Churston, and had issue one son and one daughter; married 2nd, 6 January 1965 (div.), Virginia Rose (1940-2023) (who m2, 1971, Mark Charles Grenville Fortescue (1947-82), son of Brig. Arthur Henry Grenville Fortescue MC (1913-2005), and had further issue two daughters), youngest daughter of Anthony William Fabio Caccia-Birch MC (1898-1986) of Guernsey Lodge, Marton (New Zealand), and had issue one daughter; married 3rd, Oct-Dec 1971, Barbara, only daughter of Charles A. Neil, and had further issue two daughters; died 8 July 1998; will proved 16 September 1998;
(2) Penelope Anne Georgina Berens (b. 1934), born 9 August 1934; married, 29 May 1954, Geoffrey Jackson Ackroyd (1930-82) of Candover Park, Brown Candover (Hants), second son of Geoffrey Ackroyd of Hayley Green Farm, Warfield (Berks), and had issue two sons and two daughters;
(3) Jonathan Christopher Dowdeswell Berens (1936-76), born 11 December 1936; educated at Eton; partner in a firm of stockbrokers; married, 14 July 1960, Phoebe Helen (b. 1939) (who m2, 1986, Duncan A. Cavenagh), younger daughter of Leslie William Parkhouse of St Mary Abbots House, London W14, and had issue three daughters; committed suicide, 22 October 1976; will proved 19 January 1977 (estate £158,666);
(4) David John Cecil (k/a Henry) Berens (1939-2025), born 7 October 1939; educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford (MA 1961); managing director of London Trust plc, investment managers; married, 3 October 1963, Janet Roxburgh (1943-2019), youngest daughter of Archibald Roxburgh Balfour MC (1883-1958) of Lima (Peru), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 29 September 2025.

He inherited Kevington Hall from his father in 1933, but sold it in 1947 and purchased Bentworth Hall (Hants), which was sold after his death.

He died 27 October 1981; his will was proved 8 March 1982 (estate £1,105,564). His widow died 12 February 1994; her will was proved 12 May 1994 (estate £31,370).