Elrington Ball[1] states that he was a cousin of William Bereford, the English Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1309-1326, although this relationship has been questioned.
[3] He was one of five senior Crown officials who were given a royal commission to treat with the Irish magnates for service in the war with Scotland.
His conduct as Treasurer came in for serious criticism: shortly after his departure from Ireland Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer, complained in the Justiciar's Court that Richard had unlawfully seized money and goods to the value of four hundred pounds which should have come to Ralph on the death of his wife Joan of Acre, daughter of King Edward I, in 1307.
[4] The Justiciar ordered repayment to Ralph of the full amount claimed, which suggests that Beresford's conduct was questionable at least.
In 1305 Geoffrey de Morton, lately Lord Mayor of Dublin, brought a series of lawsuits against Beresford.