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William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon

English peer

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 23, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon, styled Viscount Courtenay of Powderham from 1788 to 1831, was an English peer. The only son of William Courtenay, 2nd Viscount Courtenay and his wife Frances Clack, he became involved in a scandal after engaging in an affair with art collector William Thomas Beckford from boyhood until when it was discovered and publicised by his uncle.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon” as english peer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1788, 1831—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where William, Courtenay and Earl can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as english peer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1788 and 1831.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
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  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon primary sources, William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.