William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies (16 April 1743 – 6 September 1819) was an Anglo-Irish clergyman.
Contents
Early life
Decies was the third son, out of seven sons and eight daughters, of Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone (himself the only son of Sir Tristram Beresford, 3rd Baronet), and Catherine Poer, 1st Baroness de la Poer, the only daughter and heiress of James Power, 3rd Earl of Tyrone and 3rd Viscount Decies. Among his siblings were George Beresford, 1st Marquess of Waterford, John Beresford, MP for Waterford, Catherine Beresford (wife of Thomas Christmas MP and Theophilus Jones MP), Frances Beresford (wife of Henry Flood), and Eliza Beresford (wife of Col. Thomas Cobbe MP, son of Charles Cobbe, Archbishop of Dublin).
Beresford was educated at Trinity College Dublin.
Career
He served as Bishop of Dromore from 1780 to 1782, Bishop of Ossory from 1782 to 1794, and as Archbishop of Tuam from 1794 until his death in 1819. He was admitted to the Irish Privy Council in 1794 and in 1812 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Decies, of Decies in the County of Waterford.




