SEYMOUR, FAMILY OF. This family, whose history is largely interwoven with that of England. was originally settled at St. Maur—whenee its name—in Normandy. Coming over to England, the Seymours obtained lands in Monmouthshire as early as the beginning of the 13th century. They acquired estates at Ilatch Beauchamp, Somer• setshire, by marrying an heiress of the Ileauchamps early in the 15th century. In 1497 we find the head of the family. sir John Seymour, employed in suppressing (lie insur rection of !ord Audley and the Cornish rebels, and subsequently acccmpanying king Henry VIII. to his wars in France, and to the field of the cloth of gold. Of the issue of this worthy knight one daughter became the wife of Henry VIII., and mother of Edward VI.; one son, Thorna^.. created lord Seymour of Sudeley, became lord high admiral of England, and the second husband of Henry's widow (Catherine Parr), and ended his life on the scaffold, being attainted of high treason. Sir John's eldest son, Edward, who held many high positions in the court of henry, was created lord Sey. mow of Mae, and duke of Somerset in 1546-47. He had been sent into France by Henry to settle the disputed question of the border of the English possessions there, and secured the confidence of the king so far Viet he was left by him one of his executors and one of the council of the young prince Edward. Ile was subsequently made lord high treasurer, and eventually "protector and governor of the King and his realms." (See EDWAIID VI.) His subsequent fall, after a two years' tenure of his all but regal power by the influence of Dudley, earl of Warwick, and duke of Northumberland. was followed by an attainder of his honors, which was not reversed 'for more than e century.
• 'The eldest son of the protector' by his second marriage, beirrg created Sy Elizabeth earl of Hertford, married the lady Catharine Grey, a grand-niece of Henry VIII., sister of the unfortunate ladyjane Grey—a marriage which entailed on him along imprisonment and a heavy fine. His grandson, who succeeded him in the earldom of Hertford, was also sent to prison in the tower of London for marrying the lady Arabella Stuart, cousin of James I. of England; but subsequently, playing a conspicuous part in the royal cause in the civil wars, obtained in his own favor a reversal of his ancestor's attainder (see above), and in 1660 took his seat in the house of peers as second duke of Somerset, although the descendants of the first duke, by his first marriage, were then in existence. lie died in 1075, and his ducal title passed to a cousin, on whose death it was inherited by Charles Seymour, known in history as the "proud duke of Somerset," a nobleman whose style of living was ostentatious and haughty in the extreme, and who filled several s posts in the courts of Charles II., William III., and Anne. He married the heiress of the Percics, by whom he had a son, Algernon, 7th duke, who was created earl of Northumberland, with remainder to his son-in-law, sir Hugh Smithson, the ancestor of the present Percy line. On the death of this duke a curious peerage case arose, the title being claimed by the descendants of the first duke by his first marriage, on the failure of the younger branch; and the attorney-general having reported in favor of the claim, sir Edward Seymour took his seat in the house of peers us 8th duke. From him the present holder of the title is third in direct descent.