Ireland’s Beresford Ghost

In the Public Record Office in Belfast, Ireland there is a manuscript that was kept for generations by the Blacker family. In the 17^th century, Lady Betty Cobb told the Blacker family a most extraordinary story she had been told by her father, Lord Tyrone, and aunt, Lady Riverton. 

This story is still told with relish in Ireland today-- it is the story of the Beresford Ghost.

Lord Tyrone (John le Poer) and Lady Beresford (Nicola Sophia Hamilton) was born in Ireland to titled families. Both were orphaned at an early age. John and Sophia were given into the care of the same guardian who took these two under his wing and taught them his belief in Deism. 

When this guardian past away the two teenagers were then placed under the guardianship of a man who believed in the “revealed religion.”

So these two were raised with two very different religious beliefs, which must have been perplexing. Because of this John and Sophia made a solemn promise to each other, they agreed that whoever should die first should appear to the other in order to let them know which religious belief was favored by God.

Several years later Sophia married Lord Tristram and became Lady Beresford in 1687. Soon after, Lord Tyrone (John) married as well. The two families remained close often visiting each other. 

One morning while visiting Lady Beresford’s sister at Gill Hall Lord Beresford having left his wife asleep and gone for a walk noticed his wife appeared at breakfast pale and tired, inquiring about his wife’s health he was informed that she was quite well, she then entreated him not to ask any more questions.

Taken aback he didn’t question her further but then he noticed she wore a black bandage around her wrist so he questioned her again, she again pleaded with him not ask her any more questions. Beresford dropped the matter and followed her wishes. 

Shortly after breakfast he noticed his wife was overly anxious for the post to arrive. He gently inquired if she was all right. To his amazement, she informed him that she was waiting for a letter that would inform her that Lord Tyrone her brother had died the previous week on Tuesday.

Later that day a letter did arrive sealed with black wax. This letter informed them that Lord Tyrone had died the previous week on Tuesday at 4:00 o'clock. His wife accepted the news and told him that now she felt comfortable telling him that she was with child and it was going to be a boy. 

Curious but respecting his wife’s wishes Lord Tristram did not ask her any more questions. Within the year his wife presented him with a son and six years after this Lord Tyrone died.

Lady Beresford after her husbands’ death went into seclusion never intending to marry again. But as fate would have it a much younger man than herself, Richard Gorges, a clergyman’s son and an army officer, persuaded her to change her mind. 

She gave birth to another son and two daughters but their marriage was not a happy one and at one point the pair separated. Later reconciled, Lady Beresford bore him another son. Shortly after she came out of her confinement she sent for her eldest son Marcus Beresford and her married daughter Lady Riverton to join her for a birthday celebration.

She also invited Dr. King the Archbishop of Dublin, the clergyman who had christened her and that she had kept in close contact with. They all found Lady Beresford in the best of spirits. In a conversation with Dr. King, she confided to him that she was forty-eight that day. 

He confidently told her that she was mistaken that years before he had argued with her mother over the date of her birth and that he had then checked the registry and that it was her forty-seventh birthday, not her forty-eighth. At this announcement Lady Beresford turned pale as she turned to leave the room she informed him:

“You have signed my death warrant today, I have not long to live, I must, therefore, entreat you to leave me immediately as I have some things of importance to settle before I die.”

Lady Beresford called her daughter, Lady Riverton and her eldest son Sir Marcus, the son of Lord Beresford to her bedchamber. She told them the truth of her meeting with the ghost of Lord Tyrone. 

She described how she had woken up early one morning while visiting her sister to find her brother's ghost sitting on the edge of her bed. He reminded her of the solemn promise they had made years before and that he had returned to inform her that God preferred the revealed religion.

His ghost also informed her that she would shortly bear Lord Tristram a son but six years later her husband would die. He then told her that this son would grow up to marry his own sweet daughter. He told her that she would remarry after Lord Tristram’s death and that she would die herself at the age of forty-seven as a result of a difficult birth.

Trembling with nerves Lady Beresford admitted to her daughter and son that she had begged the apparition of Lord Tyrone for some proof so she would know in future that it wasn’t just a dream or a trick of her imagination. 

He made the hangings on her bed drawback in an unusual way and he wrote his signature in her pocketbook. But she continued to plead with him to give her some substantial proof. Lord Tyrone then touched her wrist, which caused the sinew to shrink and her nerves to wither, the apparition then admonished her to "not let any human eye see your wrist while you are alive." 

Eyewitness accounts state Lady Beresford always wore a black band around her wrist.

Having finally told her story she requested they both leave her so she could rest. Hours later when they returned they found Lady Beresford dead. Her daughter removed the black band from her wrist and discovered that indeed her wrist was exactly like her mother had described.

After his mother’s death Sir Marcus did marry Lord Tyrone’s daughter, which the ghost had revealed to Lady Beresford even before her son Marcus was born. 

Lady Betty Cobb hearing this story from her father and aunt, Lady Beresford’s two oldest children, told the facts to the Blacker Family who preserved it in their family papers.