Sir William à Court, 1st Baronet


Sir William Pierce Ashe à Court, 1st Baronet was a British soldier and Member of Parliament.
À Court was the son of General William Ashe-à Court and Anne Vernon. He represented Heytesbury in the House of Commons from 1781 to 1790 and again from 1806 to 1807. In 1795 he was created a Baronet, of Heytesbury in the County of Wiltshire. He was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Wiltshire Militia in 1797 and High Sheriff of Wiltshire for 1812.
À Court married, firstly, Catherine Bradford, daughter of John Bradford, in 1769. In 1777 Catherine A'Court died in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; her memorial plaque in Cheltenham's parish church suggests this was due to her having been poisoned with arsenic by a servant. The following year à Court married Laetitia Wyndham, daughter of Henry Wyndham and sister of Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, and together they had six children:
He died in July 1817 and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son William, who became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Heytesbury in 1828. Lady à Court died in 1821.
His granddaughter, Elizabeth married in 1846 the Rt. Hon. Sidney Herbert and had seven children, including the 13th and 14th Earls of Pembroke & Montgomery.