THE SEYMOURS.—(YOUNGER BRANCH.)
THE patent had been created by the first Duke Seymour with remainder to his issue male by Ann, his then wife, be- gotten or to be begotten; remainder to Edward Seymour, Esq., and his issue male, being son of the said Duke, by Katharine his first wife; remainder to the issue male of the said Duke to be hereafter begotten by any other wife. This singular dispensation by which the children by the second marriage were preferred to, those by the first is explained by a domestic calamity which had befallen Seymour. He had been twice married, first to Katharine, daughter and coheiress of Sir William Fillot, of Eliot Hall, Essex, and Woodlands, Dorset. Her he repudiated on account of her alleged. incestuous intercourse, after marriage, with her own father. He afterwards married Ann, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope, of Sud- bury, Suffolk, and Rampton, Notts, who was heiress to her mother Elizabeth,,sister to John Bouchier, Earl of Bath, and great-grand- daughter of William Bouchier, Earl of Ewe, in Normandy, and Anne his wife, daughter and sole heir of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III. This second wife of Seymour was an ambitious, extravagant woman, very proud of her ancestry, and very imperious in her manners. From the seco id marriage descended the first line of Earls and Marquises e Hertford and Dukes of Somerset ; from the first are descended the present Duke of Somerset and the present Marquis of Hertford. He left by his first wife two sons, the elder of whom, John (who seems to have been virtually stigmatized as illegitimate by his father's patents of creation), died about a year after his father, leaving his property to his brother, Sir Edward, the ancestor of the present Duke of Somerset and Marquis of Hertford. But it is necessary to pursue first the fortunes of the family by the second marriage, which had been preferred by the Duke to his elder children. They consisted of three sons and six daughters, their mother—the haughty Duchess—remarrying Francis Newdigate, Esq. The eldest and the only son who left issue was another Edward, who bore until his father's attainder the title of Earl of Hertford, and was deprived by Act of Parliament of the 5th and 6th Edward VI. of all his dignities and titles, which, with lands of 5,0001. yearly value, were annexed to the Crown. He was then thirteen years of age, and remained thus deprived until on the 13th January, 1559, Queen Elizabeth created him Baron Beauchamp, of Hache and Earl of Hertford. But his ambition led him to take a step which brought on him the jealous displeasure of the Queen. He secretly married the Lady Catherine Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey, and daughter and heiress of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, by Lady Frances Brandon, daughter and heiress of the Princess Mary, younger sister of Henry VIII. Lady Catherine had been married to Henry, Lord Herbert, eldest son of the Earl of Pembroke, but the marriage had been set aside. It threw, however, a certain legal doubt on the validity of the subsequent marriage with Lord Hertford, which was increased by its secrecy. In 1563 Lady Catherine was found to be with child, and avowed her marriage with Hertford, on which she was committed to the Tower. Her husband on his return from France and avowal of the marriage was committed to the same place, and the birth of a son was fol- lowed subsequently by those of two others, owing to the connivance of their keeper. The Earl was thereupon proceeded against in the Star Chamber, the Queen treating the alleged marriage as an in- vention, was fined 15,0001., and kept prisoner in the Tower for nine years, his unfortunate wife dying in that prison on January 26, 1567. The validity of the marriage was afterwards tried and established by the verdict of a jury. Notwithstanding all his mis- adventures, the Earl recovered so much of his fortune,—his long imprisonment no doubt contributing to swell his property by ac- cumulations,—that when in James I.'s reign, in 1605, he was with much importunity prevailed upon to go as Ambassador to the Archduke Albert, Governor of the Netherlands, Carte says that he was said to be possessed of more ready money than any other nobleman, and that he resolved to spend on his embassy 10,0001. beyond his allowance. He died in April, 1621, at the age of eighty-three. He was twice married after the death of his first wife, but had no issue, by any except her.
His eldest son, Edward, Lord Beauchamp, had died before him. Lord Beauchamp had obtained, May 14, 1608 (notwith- standing the protest of the elder branch of the Seymours) letters patent that he and the heirs male of his body, imme- diately after the death of his father, should be Barons of Par- liament, and have place and voice there ; and for the enjoy- ment of the title of Earl of Hertford immediately on his father's decease, or, in case of his death before his father, the said title to be enjoyed by his sons in succession and the heirs male of their bodies. Ho got into considerable trouble through marrying with- out the consent of his father Honoria, daughter of Sir Richard Rogers, of Bryanston, Dorset. He died before his father, and his eldest son, Edward, who had been created a Knight of the Bath, and married Anne Sackville, daughter of the Earl of Dorset, having died before his father and grandfather, leaving no male issue, the Earldom of Hertford and Baronyof Beauchampdevolved on the next son of Lord Beauchamp, Fir William Seymour, Knight of the Bath. How this nobleman, when only Mr. Seymour, engaged the affections of the Lady Arabella Stuart, daughter of Charles Stuart, fifth Earl of Lennox, uncle of James I., and involved himself and her in deep trouble, is part of the history of England. They had been acquainted as children, and meeting again at Court, formed an attachment, which was discovered in February, 1609. They were called before the Council, sharply reprimanded, and warned as to their future conduct. They contrived, however, soon after to get secretly married, and the marriage being discovered in 1610, Mr. Seymour was committed to the Tower and Lady Arabella to private custody. On the 3rd of June, 1611, she managed to escape from her keeper, and reached a French vessel in safety ; Seymour effected his escape from the Tower at the same time, but failing to join his wife in time she sailed without him, and being pursued and. overtaken in Calais Roads by a vessel of war, was brought back, and died half-crazed in the Tower, September 27, 1615. Seymour had reached Flanders in another vessel. Here ho remained till the year after the death of his wife, when he was permitted to return, pardoned, and restored to favour, the dread of the King lest an heir should be born uniting the claims to the throne of the Stuart and Suffolk branches of the Royal family having ceased with Lady Arabella's death. William Seymour, whose career had commenced time inauspiciously, soon became conspicuous in Parliament. He was a man of the closet, and when he could form his opinions there without being disturbed by the external passions of party or the exigencies of a political crisis, lie generally formed a sound judgment, and by his charicter and conduct gained general respect. His opinions were really in accordance with the popular party, though his extreme caution or moderation in practice scarcely brought him into collision with the King. Ile married, secondly, Frances, daughter of Rebut Devereux, Earl of Essex, Elizabeth's unlucky favourite, and this alliance bound him up to a considerable extent with the popular party, of which his wife's brother was one of the leaders. His brother also, Sir Francis Seymour, took a leading part in tho counsels of Eliot and Pym. The King probably to some extent weakened this connection by raising Hertford to the title of Mar- quis, on the 3rd of June, 1640, just after the dissolution of the Short Parliament, and by creating Sir Francis Baron Seymour of Troubridge, Wiltshire, on the 19th February, 1641, thus alienat- ing him from his former friends. But the Marquis of Hertford continued to be regarded with confidence by the popular party. He was chosen, on their request, Governor of the Prince of Wales, and named by them for two of the Lord-Lieutenancies for which they gave in a list of recommendations to the King. But Hertford wavered more and more between his abstract loyalty and his liberal tendencies and attachment to Protestantism. At last, in the crisis of the rupture with the King, he carried off the Prince of Wales, and openly joined Charles. During the civil war which followed he shared his fortunes, and commanded for him in Somersetahiro and Wiltshire, being always looked upon, however, as a moderate man, scarcely a true Cavalier, and in his actual opinions much in harmony still with the moderate of the popular party. Before the King's execution the Marquis, with the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Southampton, and the Earl of Lindsey, are said to have offered to suffer in his stead, if his life were spared, and they ob- tained licence to attend and superintend the burial of the King. He had been elected by the King's orders Chancellor of the Uni- versity of Oxford, on October 24, 1643, which appointment was of course not recognized by the Parliament, but was realized on the Restoration. During the Commonwealth and Protectorate he lived in retirement, but met King Charles II. on his return at Dover, and the next day, May 27, 1660, had the Garter bestowed on him. On the 13th September in the same year the attainder of his ancestor the great Duke was reversed iu Parliament, and he was restored to the titles of Duke of Somerset and Baron Sey- mour. But he died on the 24th October in the same year.
He had by his second wife two sons who grew up to maturity, Henry and John. The former, styled Lord Beauchamp, married Mary, eldest daughter of Arthur, Lord Capel, and died in the lifetime of his father, in the year 1650, leaving a son, William, who succeeded his grandfather, and a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Thomas Bruce, Lord Bruce, and afterwards Earl of Ailesbury, from whom (through a female) descend the present Brudenell-Bruces, Marquises of Ailesbury, Earls Bruce, and Viscounts Savernake, the great Wiltshire estates of the Seymours having passed away eventually through this marriage to the Bruce family. William Seymour, third Duke of Somerset, died, after a few days' illness, at Worcester House, in the Strand, unmarried, at the age of twenty, September 26, 1671, and was succeeded by his uncle, Lord John Seymour, fourth Duke of Somerset, who died April 20, 1675, without issue. His wife, Sarah, daughter of Sir Edward Alston, President of the College of Physicians, who survived him till 25th October, 1692, by her will settled in the strictest form the manors of Powsey, and Titcombe-cum- Oxenwood, and Harding farm, in Wiltshire, on the successive Dukes of Somerset, descendants of Edward Seymour, the first Duke. Her husband was succeeded by his cousin, Francis, third Baron Seymour, of Troubridge, grandson of Sir Francis Seymour, brother of William Seymour, second Duke of Somerset, who, as we have mentioned, was also raised to the peerage by Charles I. in 1641. This first Lord Seymour, of Troubridge, was constituted Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster June 1, 1660, and died July 12, 1664, leaving by his first wife, Frances, daughter and coheiress of Sir Gilbert Prinne, of Allington, Wilts, a son, Charles, second Lord Seymour, of Troubridge, who died August 25, 1665, leaving by
his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of William, Lord Allington, two sons, who became successively Dukes of Somerset. The elder brother, Francis, fifth Duke of Somerset, while travelling in Italy, three years after his accession to the Dukedom, happening to make the acquaintance of some French gentlemen and accompany- ing them into the Church of the Augustinians in Lerice, in the Geno- ese territories, some ladies in the church were insulted, it is said by the Frenchmen, and not by.the Duke, whereupon the husband of one of them, Horatio Botti, laid wait for the party, and on April 20, 1678, shot the Duke dead at the door of his inn. The assassin escaped, though the Republic of Genoa, on the demand of the Duke's maternal uncle, offered a reward for his apprehension and hung him in effigy.
The Duke was succeeded by his brother, Charles, sixth Duke of Somerset, commonly called "the proud Duke of Somerset," on account of his magnificent style of living and his haughtiness. He married (May 30, 1682)-as we have already had to mention in our account of the Percies-Lady Eliza- beth, the heiress of Josceline Percy; last Earl of Northumberland of that family. According to the marriage articles the Duke was to take the name of Percy instead of Seymour, but soon after she came of age the Duchess released him from this obligation. " He was," says Macaulay, " a man in whom the pride of birth and rank amounted almost to a disease," and many anecdotes are told of the ridiculous manner in which he exhibited his failing. He was made a Knight of the Garter April 8, 1684, and in the reign of James II. was made a Lord of the Bedchamber. He raised the militia of Somersetahire against the Duke of Monmouth, and had the command given him of a regiment of dragoons raised after that insurrection. " Ile had not scrupled to carry the Sword of State into the Royal {Catholic] chapel on days of festival," but when, in July, 1687, the King ordered him to introduce the Pope's Nuncio to his audience at Windsor, Somerset positively refused. Some of his family implored him not to draw down on himself the Royal displeasure, and the King himself expostulated with him, "I thought, my Lord, that I was doing you a great honour in ap- pointing you to escort the Minister of the first of all crowned heads." " Sir," replied the Duke, " I am advised that I cannot obey your Majesty without breaking the law." " I will make you fear me as well as the law," exclaimed the King ; " do you not know that I am above the law 7" " Your Majesty may be above the law," rejoined the Duke, " but I am not, and while I obey the law I fear nothing." On this Somerset was dismissed from his posts in the Household and the army, and a few months afterwards removed from his Lord-Lieutenancy of the East Riding of Yorkshire. On the other hand, he was in 1688 elected Chancellor by the University of Cambridge. When the Prince of Orange landed the Duke joined his enterprise, though on its success he voted for the Regency scheme. Still he carried the Queen's sword at the coronation of William and Mary, and entertained William at his house at Marlborough, afterwards a celebrated inn, and now a collegiate school, during his progress after his return from Ireland. He became President of the Council June 28, 1701, and in the same year a Lord of Regency during the King's absence. On Queen Anne's accession he was sworn of the Privy Council, and appointed Master of the Horse, July 3, 1702, and in 1708 one of the Commissioners for the Union. The Duchess also, on January 16, 1711, was appointed " Groom of the Stole " and first Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen. But on January 17, 1712, the Duke was dismissed from his Mastership of the Horse. His political course had not been a very consistent one, except on the question of the Protestant religion. Starting as a Tory, he had after- wards associated himself with the Whigs, but thinking himself not sufficiently consulted by them, he had abandoned them in his overweening pride, his wife also being in high favour with the Queen, and he joined Harley's party. But in 1711, differing with the new Tory Ministry on the point of dissolving Parliament, and being overruled in his opinion, he became sullen and unmanage- able, and at last discontinued his attendance at the Council Board, began to associate again with his old Whig friends, and was accused of imparting to them the counsels of the Government, especially the secret negotiations for peace. He re-appeared uninvited and unexpected at the Council Board on July 80, 1714, when the Queen was dying, and aided Shrewsbury and Argyll to disconcert and overthrow the Jacobite schemes of Bolingbroke. His name stood second on the list of noblemen added by King George to the great officers of State as guardians of the kingdom before his arrival. He was sworn of the new Privy Council, and on September 27 restored to his office of Master of the Horse, but he only held this office for a year. His second daughter, Lady Catherine Seymour, had married in July, 1708, Sir William Wyndham, Bart., of Orchard- Wyndham, Somerset, and this alliance produced a new change in Somerset's political connections. Sir William had engaged in the
Jacobite conspiracy of 1715, and was seized at his seat while asleep in bed. He managed to escape again by pretending to go into an inner room to take leave of his wife, who was with child ; but a proclamation being issued offering a reward of 1,0001. for his discovery, and a clue obtained to his place of concealment, he thought it better to surrender, and "coming up to London put him- self into the hands of Lord Hertford, his brother-in-law, who sent notice of it to Stanhope. The matter was then laid before the Privy Council, the King himself being present, and the Duke of Somerset offered to be responsible for the conduct of his son-in- law. It was no light matter," observes Lord Stanhope, in his history, "to refuse and offend the first Protestant Peer of the country, a firm friend of the Hanover succession, a powerful leader of the Whig party. But Lord Townshend considered the proofs against Wyndham so strong, and the necessity for his arrest so urgent, that he resolutely made a motion for that object. A long pause ensued. During nearly ten minutes no other member ventured to support him, until at length two or three rose toge- ther to second the motion. It was carried, and as the King withdrew into his closet he took Lord Townshend's hand and said, You have done me a great service to-day.' Somerset, who expressed his resentment warmly and intemperately, was removed from his office, of Master of the Horse-the first appearance of a schism in the Whig Administration." Somerset never again held any office at Court, but for some years before his death retired altogether from publical affairs to his seat at Petworth, where he died December 2, 1748. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Algernon, seventh Duke of Somerset, who on the death of his mother; in 1722, had succeeded to the baronies of Percy, Lucy, Poynings, Fitz- Payne, Bryan, and Latimer, and took his seat in the House of Peers, having previously represented Marlborough and the county of Northumberland in the House of Commons. In 1706 he was constituted Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex, and in 1708 made the cam- paign in Flanders as a volunteer, being present at the battle of Oudenarde and taking of Lille, Marlborough sending him home with the news of these successes, and, according to the Gazette, he " was received by the Queen with great distinction." In 1709 he served again as a volunteer at the taking of Tourney, the battle of Malplaquet, and the capture of Mons, which concluded that cam- paign. On this he was made Colonel of the 15th Regiment of Foot, and served in every campaign in the Netherlands down to the Peace of Utrecht, 1713, when he was, appointed Governor of Tynemouth Castle and Clifford Fort. In the first year of George I. he was appointed Colonel and. Captain of the second troop of Horse Guards and a Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales. In 1726 he was appointed Lord-Lieu- tenant of Wilts, in 1727 Brigadier-General, and in 1735 Major- General of the Horse. On September 26, 1737, he was ap- pointed Governor of Minorca; and July 2, 1739, Lieutenant- General of the Horse. On May 6, 1740, he was made Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, and March 13, 1742, Governor of Guernsey. On March 24, 1747, he was constituted General of the Horse. By his wife, Frances Thynne, granddaughter of the first Viscount Weymouth, he had a eon, George, Viscount Beauchamp, who died on his travels of small-pox, September 11, 1744, on his nineteenth birthday, and a daughter, Lady Elizabeth, who married Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart. We have spoken in our account of the Percies of the new creations and limitations of peerages made a few years after the death of the Duke's eldest son, viz., the Earldom of Northumberland, with remainder to his son-in-law, and the Earldom of Egremont, with remainder to his nephews, the sons of his sister, Lady Wyndham. The Duke, who was President of the Society of Antiquaries, died February 7, 1750. By his death without male issue the male line of the younger family of Edward Seymour, the first Duke of Somerset, became extinct, and the Dukedom (in accordance with the patent of creation) devolved on the descendant of the elder branch, which had been postponed to the younger. This was Sir Edward Seymour, Baronet.
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