274 IRISH SPORT AND SPORTSMEN, 



Poer (by writ), 1375; Baron Beresford and Viscount 

 of Tyrone, 1726; Earl of Tyrone, 1740; Marquis, 

 1789; Baronet, 1605; Baron of Tyrone in Great 

 Britain, 1786. The surname of Beresford, or, as it 

 was formerly written, Bereford, was assumed from 

 Bereford, in the parish of Alstonfield, county Stafford, 

 of which manor, John De Bereford was seised in 1087 

 (first William Rufus), and was succeeded therein by 

 his son, Hugh De Bereford, from whom lineally de- 

 scended the deceased nobleman. 



Amongst the ancestors of the late Marquis, we find 

 Thomas Bereford, Esq., who resided at Newtongrange, 

 in Derbyshire, during the time of Henry VI. and 

 Edward IV. With the former of these monarchs he 

 served in his French wars, and, according to tra- 

 dition, mustered a troop of horse in Chesterfield, con- 

 sisting alone of his sons, his own and their attendants. 

 He had sixteen sons and five daughters by his wife, 

 Agnes Hassel of Arcluyd, Cheshire. Sir Tristram 

 Beresford of Coleraine, Knight of the Shire for Lon- 

 donderry, in the Parliament of 166 1, was created an 

 Irish Baronet, his father having, in the reign of 

 James I., settled in Ireland, as manager of the new 

 Plantation in Ulster, for a Corporation of London- 

 derry. Another Sir Tristram commanded a troop of 

 foot against James II., and was attainted by the 

 Parliament of that monarch. Sir Marcus, who mar- 

 ried, in 1 7 17, Catherine Poer, Baroness De la Poer, 

 daughter and heiress of the third Earl of Tyrone, in 

 consequence of that alliance was advanced to a peer- 

 age in Ireland. The most ancient writs to be found 

 in the Rolls Office of Ireland are that by which 

 Nicholas Le Poer was summoned to Parliament as 



