Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heytesbury, William A'Court

1388792Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 26 — Heytesbury, William A'Court1891William Arthur Jobson Archbold ‎

HEYTESBURY, Baron, WILLIAM A'COURT (1779–1860), eldest son of Sir William Pierce Ashe A'Court, M.P. for Aylesbury, by his second wife, Letitia, daughter of Henry Wyndham of Salisbury, was born 11 July 1779, and educated at Eton. He entered the diplomatic service, and in 1801 he was appointed secretary of legation at Naples by Lord Hawkesbury (afterwards Lord Liverpool). In 1807 he became secretary to the special mission at Vienna. In 1812 he was made first commissioner for affairs at Malta, and on 5 Jan. 1813 was gazetted envoy extraordinary to the Barbary States. In 1814 he held the same appointment at Naples, and his conduct during the revolution was highly commended by Lord Castlereagh (Colchester, Diary, iii. 160). In 1822 he became envoy extraordinary to Spain, and in 1824 ambassador to Portugal. In 1828, during the Russo-Turkish war of that date, he was transferred as ambassador to Russia, where he remained till August 1832. His position was difficult; he had to journey to the seat of hostilities, and was reprimanded for an imprudent conversation with the czar, whom at that time he greatly admired. Lord Ellenborough records (Political Diary, i. 247) that he took the censure well. He succeeded his father as second baronet in 1817, and in the same year he was created a privy councillor, and in 1819 he became G.C.B. In 1828 A'Court was created Baron Heytesbury of Heytesbury, Wiltshire. In 1835 he was nominated by Sir Robert Peel's ministry governor-general of India, but the ministry resigned very soon afterwards, and Heytesbury did not assume office. From 26 July 1844 to 1846 he was viceroy of Ireland in Sir Robert Peel's administration, and was energetic in raising subscriptions in behalf of sufferers from the famine. He was governor of the Isle of Wight till 1857. Heytesbury died at Heytesbury on 31 May 1860. He married, in 1808, Maria Rebecca, second daughter of the Hon. William Henry Bouverie, son of the Earl of Radnor, and left by her a son, W. H. Ashe A'Court, who succeeded to the barony, and a daughter, Cecilia Maria, who married the Hon. Robert Daly.

[Authorities cited; Times, 1 June 1860; Burke's Peerage; Foster's Peerage; Haydn's Book of Dignities; Gent. Mag. 1860, ii. 90.]

W. A. J. A.