Author: Beresford, Richard
Biography:
BERESFORD, Richard (1755-98: WBIS)
He was born in 1755 near Charleston SC, the eldest of five children of Sarah and Richard Beresford (d 1783). Educated in Charleston and England, he studied law at the Middle Temple in London, was admitted to the bar in 1773, and returned to practise law in Charleston. He became a planter. An officer in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, he was captured at the fall of Charleston in 1780 but was exchanged a year later. After the death of his father, his mother, who had moved to England in 1773 to escape the hostilities, made a claim on the British government for compensation for houses requisitioned by the army; she also declared that Richard (the younger) had returned "against his inclinations" to the US and had declined any share in the compensation payment (Coldham). Beresford held various political offices and was a member of the Continental Congress of 1783-4. He wrote about politics and literature, and established a magazine, the Vigil, in the last year of his life. (Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1961 [Washington DC 1961]; ancestry.com 25 Nov. 2017; Coldham) HJ