Walter Ponsonby, 7th Earl of Bessborough
Walter William Brabazon Ponsonby, 7th Earl of Bessborough (13 August 1821 – 24 February 1906), was a British peer and member of the House of Lords. He was the fifth son of John Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough, and his wife Lady Maria Fane. He inherited the earldom on 11 March 1895 when his elder brother Frederick Ponsonby, 6th Earl of Bessborough, died unmarried and without a male heir. Education and career. He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Between 1846 and 1894 he acted as Rector for the parishes of Canford  Magna, Wiltshire; Beer Ferris, Devon; Marston Bigot, Somerset; and Stutton, Suffolk. Family. On 15 January 1850 he married Lady Louisa Susan Cornwallis Eliot, daughter of Edward Granville Eliot, 3rd Earl of St Germans, and his wife Lady Jemima Cornwallis. Together they had eight children: