Sir William Pierce à Court, 1st Baronet (c. 1747 – 22 July 1817) was a British soldier and Member of Parliament.

à Court was the son of General William Ashe-à Court and Anne Vernon. He achieved the rank of Colonel in the British Army and also 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.

à Court married, firstly, Catherine Bradford, daughter of John Bradford, in 1769. After her death in 1776 he married, secondly, Laetitia Wyndham, daughter of Henry Wyndham and brother of Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, in 1777. He died in July 1817 and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son from his second marriage, 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 Ash à Court-Repington (d. 1911), the only daughter of Lt.-Gen. Charles Ash à Court-Repington and niece of William à Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury, married in 1846 the Rt. Hon. Sidney Herbert and had seven children, including the 13th and 14th Earls of Pembroke & Montgomery.

[edit] References

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
• Leigh Rayment's Baronetage Page
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• www.thepeerage.com