I expected,’ she cries; ‘he is dead.’
The letter was from Lord Tyrone’s steward to
inform them that his master had died in Dublin, on
Tuesday, 14th October, at 4 p.m. Sir Tristram
endeavoured to console her, and begged her to restrain
her grief, when she assured him that she felt relieved
and easier now that she knew the actual fact.
She added, ’I can now give you a most satisfactory
piece of intelligence,
viz., that I am with child,
and that it will be a boy’. A son was born
in the following July. Sir Tristram survived
its birth little more than six years. After
his death Lady Beresford continued to reside with her
young family at his place in the county of Derry, and
seldom went from home. She hardly mingled with
any neighbours or friends, excepting with Mr. and
Mrs. Jackson, of Coleraine. He was the principal
personage in that town, and was, by his mother, a near
relative of Sir Tristram. His wife was the daughter
of Robert Gorges, LL.D. (a gentleman of good old English
family, and possessed of a considerable estate in
the county Meath), by Jane Loftus, daughter of Sir
Adam Loftus, of Rathfarnham, and sister of Lord Lisburn.
They had an only son, Richard Gorges, who was in
the army, and became a general officer very early
in life. With the Jacksons Lady Beresford maintained
a constant communication and lived on the most intimate
terms, while she seemed determined to eschew all other
society and to remain in her chosen retirement.
“At the conclusion of three years thus passed,
one luckless day “Young Gorges” most vehemently
professed his passion for her, and solicited her hand,
urging his suit in a most passionate appeal, which
was evidently not displeasing to the fair widow, and
which, unfortunately for her, was successful.
They were married in 1704. One son and two
daughters were born to them, when his abandoned and
dissolute conduct forced her to seek and to obtain
a separation. After this had continued for four
years, General Gorges pretended extreme penitence
for his past misdeeds, and with the most solemn promises
of amendment induced his wife to live with him again,
and she became the mother of a second son. The
day month after her confinement happened to be her
birthday, and having recovered and feeling herself
equal to some exertion, she sent for her son, Sir
Marcus Beresford, then twenty years old, and her married
daughter, Lady Riverston. She also invited Dr.
King, the Archbishop of Dublin (who was an intimate
friend), and an old clergyman who had christened her,
and who had always kept up a most kindly intercourse
with her during her whole life, to make up a small
party to celebrate the day.