Earl of Bessborough

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Earl of Bessborough is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1739 for Brabazon Ponsonby, 2nd Viscount Duncannon, who had previously represented Newtonards and County Kildare in the Irish House of Commons. In 1749 he was given the additional title of Baron Ponsonby of Sysonby, in the County of Leicester, in the Peerage of Great Britain, which entitled him to a seat in the British House of Lords. The titles Viscount Duncannon, of the fort of Duncannon in the County of Wexford, and Baron Bessborough, of Bessborough in the County of Kilkenny, had been created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1723 and 1721 respectively for Lord Bessborough's father William Ponsonby, who had earlier represented County Kilkenny in the Irish House of Commons. The fourth Earl had already been created Baron Duncannon, of Bessborough in the County of Kilkenny, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1834 before he succeeded his father in the Earldom in 1844. Additionally, the ninth Earl was created Earl of Bessborough in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937. However, this title became extinct on the death of his son, the tenth Earl, in 1993. The other titles were inherited by the late Earl's cousin Arthur Mountifort Longfield Ponsonby, the son of the second son of the eighth Earl, who became the eleventh Earl. On his death in 2002 the titles passed to his son, the twelfth and present holder of the Earldom of Bessborough.

The Earl of Bessborough is head of the prominent Ponsonby family. Other members of this family include the Baron de Mauley, the Baron Sysonby, the Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede and, previously, the Barons and Viscounts Ponsonby. A noted female member was Lady Caroline Ponsonby, the only daughter of the third Earl of Bessborough.

The family seat is Stansted Park in Rowlands Castle in Hampshire.