William Beauclerk, 9th Duke of St Albans

William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 9th Duke of St Albans (24 March 1801 – 27 May 1849), styled the Hon. William Beauclerk before 1815 then Earl of Burford until 1825, was a 19th-century English cricketer and member of the House of Lords.

Background and education Beauclerk was born in Hampshire, the eldest son of William Beauclerk, 8th Duke of St Albans, and his second wife, Maria Janetta née Nelthorpe. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ's College, Cambridge.

His paternal grandparents were Lady Catharine Ponsonby and Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans, a Whig Member of Parliament. His mother was the only daughter and heiress of John Nelthorpe, sixth of the Nelthorpe baronets, and Mary Cracroft.

Family On 16 June 1827 at the Mayfair Chapel, Beauclerk married Harriet Coutts née Mellon (1777–1837), who was 23 years his senior. She had been an actress before marrying her first husband, the banker Thomas Coutts.

Beauclerk married secondly Elizabeth Catherine Gubbins on 29 May 1839 at Harby, Leicestershire. Gubbins was youngest daughter of Joseph Gubbins (1776–1832), a major-general of Kilfrush in County Limerick, by his first wife Charlotte Bathoe. The duke and duchess had three children:

William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans Lady Diana de Vere Beauclerk (1842–1905), who married John Walter Huddleston Lady Charlotte Beauclerk (1849–1892). Lady Katherine Beauclerk (wife William Lambton), Lady Alexandra Beauclerk and Lord William Beauclerk.

Beauclerk carried the Sceptre with the Cross at the coronation of William IV in 1830.

The duke and duchess divided their time between Holly Lodge in Highgate, and Saint Albans House on Regency Square, Brighton, as well as their London townhouse and ancestral seats in Redbourne (Lincolnshire) and Bestwood Park (Nottinghamshire).