House of Seymour

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Seymour
Coat of arms of the
Seymour Dukes of Somerset
CountryKingdom of England
United Kingdom
Founded11th century
FounderWido de St Maur
Current headJohn Seymour, 19th Duke of Somerset
Titles

Hertford branch:

Seymour, Semel or St. Maur, is the name of an English family in which several titles of nobility have from time to time been created, and of which the Duke of Somerset is the head.

Origins

The family was settled in

Caldicot in Monmouthshire, from the Welsh. Woundy and Penhow, at the latter of which he made his residence, were the property of Sir Richard St. Maur at the end of the 13th century, but they were lost by the family through the marriage of Sir Richard's great-great-granddaughter, the only child of John St. Maur
, who died in 1359. John St. Maur's younger brother Roger married Cecily de Beauchamp (d.1393), one of the daughters and eventual co-heiresses of
John III de Beauchamp, 2nd Baron Beauchamp
(1306-1343),
Wolf Hall, Wiltshire
.

According to Agnes Strickland:

Sir John Seymour, of Wolf-hall, Wiltshire, and Margaret Wentworth, daughter of Sir John Wentworth, of Nettlestead, in Suffolk. The Seymours were a family of country gentry who, like most holders of manorial rights, traced their ancestry to a Norman origin. One or two had been knighted in the wars of France, but their names had never emerged from the herald's visitation-rolls into historical celebrity. They increased their boundaries by fortunate alliances with heiresses, and the head of the family married into a collateral branch of the lordly line of Beauchamp. After that event, two instances are quoted of Seymours serving as high sheriff of Wilts. Through Margaret Wentworth, the mother of Jane Seymour, a descent from the blood-royal of England was claimed from an intermarriage with a Wentworth and a supposed daughter of Hotspur and lady Elizabeth Mortimer, grand-daughter to Lionel duke of Clarence. Few persons dared dispute a pedigree with Henry VIII., and Cranmer granted a dispensation for nearness of kin between Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour – rather a work of supererogation, since the parties could not be related within the forbidden degree. Although the royal kindred appears somewhat doubtful, yet it is undeniable that the sovereign of England gained by this alliance one brother in-law who bore the name of Smith, and another whose grandfather was a blacksmith at Putney.[1]

Sir John Seymour

During the next three or four generations the wealth and importance of the Seymours in the western counties increased, until in the reigns of

Edward VI; his third son was Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley; and his eldest daughter Jane was third wife of King Henry VIII, and mother of Edward VI. The Protector was married twice; and, probably owing to the adultery of his first wife whom he repudiated about 1535, his titles and estates were entailed first on the issue of his second marriage with Anne
, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope.

The Protector's eldest surviving son by his first marriage, Sir

Langley
in Buckinghamshire, where he lived till his death in 1686. In 1681, his son Henry, at the age of seven years, was created a baronet.

Family tree

Henry VII of England
John Seymour
Mary Tudor, Queen of FranceMargaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland
Henry VIII of England
Jane SeymourThomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of SudeleyEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of SomersetFrances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk
Lady Catherine Grey
Lady Jane Grey
Dukes of SomersetMany GenerationsMany Generations
George VI of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Sir Edward Seymour, 4th Baronet

Whig ministers; and in later years he was not less hostile to those of Queen Anne, but owing to the ascendancy of Marlborough he lost all influence for some time before his death, which took place in 1708. Seymour was not less arrogant than his relative the proud Duke of Somerset; but he was described by Burnet as the ablest man of his party, the first speaker of the House of Commons that was not bred to the law; a graceful man, bold and quick, and of high birth. Sir Edward Seymour was twice married. By his first wife he had two sons, Edward, 5th baronet, whose son Edward became the 8th duke of Somerset, and William, who became a lieutenant-general; by his second wife, a daughter of Alexander Popham of Littlecote House, he had six sons, the eldest of whom, Popham, on succeeding to the estates of his mother's cousin, Edward, Earl of Conway, assumed the name of Conway in addition to that of Seymour. Popham was killed in a duel with Colonel Kirk in 1669, and his estates devolved on his next brother, Francis, who likewise assumed the name of Conway, and having been created Baron Conway in 1703 was the father of Francis Seymour Conway (1719–1794), created Marquess of Hertford in 1793, and of field-marshal Henry Seymour Conway
.

Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford

The eldest son of the Protector's second marriage,

will of Henry VIII. On this account both parties to the marriage incurred the displeasure of Queen Elizabeth; they were imprisoned in the Tower of London, and the fact of their marriage, together with the legitimacy of their two sons, was denied. The eldest of these sons was Edward Seymour (1561–1612), styled Lord Beauchamp notwithstanding the question as to his legitimacy, who in 1608 obtained a patent declaring that, after his father's death he should become earl of Hertford. He, however, died before his father, leaving three sons, one of whom, William, became 2nd duke of Somerset; and another, Francis, was created Baron Seymour of Trowbridge in 1641. The latter had at first taken an active part in the opposition in the House of Commons to the government of Charles I, having been elected member for Wiltshire in 1620. He represented the same constituency in both the Short and the Long Parliaments; and he refused to pay ship money in 1639. When, however, the popular party proceeded to more extreme measures, Francis Seymour refused his support, and was rewarded by being raised to the peerage; he voted in the House of Lords against the attainder of Strafford, and in 1642 he joined Charles at York
and fought on the royalist side throughout the Great Rebellion. He died in 1664. His grandson Francis, 3rd baron, succeeded to the dukedom of Somerset in 1675; and on the death of his nephew Algernon, 7th duke of Somerset, in 1750, the male line of the Protector by his second marriage became extinct, and the dukedom reverted to the elder line, the 6th baronet of Berry Pomeroy becoming 8th duke of Somerset.

Henry Seymour

Roger Tichborne, impersonated in 1871 by the famous impostor Arthur Orton
.

Lord Hugh Seymour

Lord Hugh Seymour (1759–1801), a younger son of Francis Seymour-Conway, marquess of Hertford, was a distinguished naval officer who saw much active service especially under

Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour
, Baron Alcester.

Sir Michael Seymour

A younger branch of the great house of Seymour is said to have settled in Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth, from which

Edward Hobart Seymour
was the nephew of Sir Michael Seymour (1802–1887).

Descent of the estate

Esturmy

Arms of Esturmy

Wilhelmina, Duchess of Cleveland (1819–1901), in her 1889 work The Battle Abbey Roll with some Account of the Norman Lineages wrote about the Esturmy family, which held the estates of Tottenham, Wulfhall and the Savernake Forest.[2]

Sir

Wolfhall. He inherited in 1381 and was knighted by October 1388. He held the post of hereditary warden of Savernake Forest from 1381 to 1417 and from 1420 until his death in 1427. He served as knight of the shire for Hampshire in 1384 and again in 1390, and also eight times for Wiltshire and twice for Devon between then and 1422. He was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1404. He was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire
for 1418. He held a number of public posts and served several times as an ambassador abroad. He married Joan Crawthorne, the widow of Sir John Beaumont of Shirwell and Saunton in North Devon, by whom he had no male progeny, only two daughters and co-heiresses including Maud Esturmy, wife of Roger II Seymour (c.1367/70-1420),[4] feudal barony of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset, by whom she had a son John Seymour (died 1464). He died at Wolfhall in 1427.

Seymour

Arms of Seymour

The

Seymour family (anciently de St. Maur) is earliest recorded seated at Penhow Castle in Glamorgan
in the 12th century. The parish church of Penhow is dedicated to St Maur.

Roger Seymour (c. 1367/70 – 1420), who married Maud Esturmy (alias Esturmi, etc.), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir

Speaker of the House of Commons and hereditary Warden of Savernake Forest
in Wiltshire. Following his wife's inheritance, he moved his principal seat from Undy to Wolfhall.

His son and heir was Sir

Knight of the Shire for Wiltshire in 1435, 1439, and 1445[5] He was also High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1431–1432.[6]

He was succeeded by

Battle of Deptford Bridge, the father of Queen Jane Seymour
(1508–1537).

John's eldest son and heir was

Sheriff of Somerset and during this time he probably resided at Hache Court.[8] Thomas Gerard in his "Description of Somerset" (1633) wrote as follows:[9]

"The mansion house in which theis nobleman lived which I went to see is soe ruined that were it not called Hach Court you would not believe that it were any of the remaynes of a Barons house. yet I sawe in the Hall Beauchampes Armes and in a little Chappell on the top of the house Seymer's, Winges "Or" in a red shield, and going a little further to the church to see some monuments I find not one, the church having bin new built long since the Beauchamps time".

The Duke was executed in 1552 for felony on the order of his nephew King Edward VI, and was attainted by Parliament shortly thereafter when all his titles were forfeited.

It was probably Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (1539–1621), son and heir of the 1st Duke, of nearby Wulfhall, who in about 1575 built the first Tottenham House, then known as Totnam Lodge, and enclosed its surrounding land to form a deer park.[10] The Seymours were hereditary Wardens of Savernake Forest, which office together with most of their Wiltshire estates had been inherited by marriage to the daughter and heiress of Sir William Esturmy (died 1427), of Wulfhall. They were also hereditary Wardens of the royal forest of Savernake.[citation needed] The house was still known as the Lodge in 1623, in which year the parish register of Great Bedwyn records the baptism of the 1st Earl's great-granddaughter Frances Seymour, which was performed "at the Lodge in the Great Parke by Henrie Taylor, Vicar of Great Bedwin".[11]

William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1587–1660), grandson, inherited the estates on the death of his grandfather the 1st Earl, his father having predeceased the latter. His grandson, William Seymour, 3rd Duke of Somerset (1652–1671) inherited at the age of 8 and died aged 19 when his heir became his uncle John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset (1629–1675). However, the heir to his estates in Hampshire, namely Netley Abbey (where the 1st Earl had died) and Hound[clarification needed], was his sister Elizabeth Seymour, wife of Thomas Bruce, 2nd earl of Ailesbury, which were soon sold in 1676 to the Marquess of Worcester.[citation needed]

unentailed Seymour estates to his niece Elizabeth Seymour,[citation needed] the wife of Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury
(1656–1741), and thus the Seymour estates passed to the Bruce family.

Bruce

Arms of Bruce

Elizabeth Seymour's son and heir was

special remainder to his younger nephew Hon. Thomas Brudenell (1739–1814), 4th son of George Brudenell, 3rd Earl of Cardigan
(1685–1732) by his wife Elizabeth Bruce, to whom he also bequeathed his estates with the proviso that he should adopt the additional surname of Bruce, thus having created a new noble family bearing doubly the Bruce name, to continue the custodianship of the Seymour lands.

Brudenell

Arms of Brudenell

On the 3rd Earl's death in 1747 his 8 year old nephew Thomas Brudenell duly became

Earl of Ailesbury. In 1814 he was succeeded by his son Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury
(1773–1856).

Earl Bruce and Marquess of Ailesbury. In 1823–26 he enlarged and re-modelled the house, again to designs of Thomas Cundy.[15]

George Brudenell-Bruce succeeded to his father's titles in 1856. A large church for the estate, St Katherine's, was built 0.6 miles (1 km) north of the house in 1861 by T.H. Wyatt for the marchioness, Mary Caroline (née Herbert).[16]

References

  1. ^ Strickland, Agnes. [1843]. "Jane Seymour," in Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest. New York: Miller.
  2. ^ Powlett, Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina (1899). The Battle Abbey Roll: With Some Account of the Norman Lineages. J. Murray. p. 15. Retrieved 29 November 2015. esturny.
  3. ^ Easton Royal History Archived 2011-10-04 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ISBN 9781445635163
    .
  5. ^ J. S. Roskell, The Commons in the Parliament of 1422 (Manchester University Press), p. 126 (see footnotes)
  6. ^ Mervyn Archdall, The Peerage of Ireland, p. 16
  7. ^ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.1036
  8. ^ Cookson
  9. ^ Quoted in Cookson
  10. ^ Historic England. "TOTTENHAM HOUSE AND SAVERNAKE FOREST, Burbage (1000472)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  11. ^ Collectanea Topographica Et Genealogica, Volume 5 edited by Frederic Madden, Bulkeley Bandinel, John Gough Nichols, p.31 [1]
  12. ^ "Marquess of Ailesbury, 1962", quoted in
  13. ^ Rudolf Wittkower, in Architectural Journal 102 1945, noted in Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840, 3rd ed. 1995, s.v. "Boyle, Richard, Earl of Burlington".
  14. ^ Colvin, "Boyle".
  15. ^ Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840, 3rd ed. 1995, s.v. "Cundy, Thomas", "Wyatville, Sir Jeffry".
  16. ^ Historic England. "Church of St Katherine, Great Bedwyn (1183857)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 November 2015.

Further reading

Seymour, William. 1972. Ordeal by Ambition: An English Family in the Shadow of the Tudors. New York: St. Martin's.

Strickland, Agnes, and Antonia Fraser. 2011. Agnes Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.

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