SEYMOUR, an historic family, origi nally settled in Normandy at St. Maur— whence the name. Going over to Eng land, they obtained lands in Monmouth shire as early as the 13th century, and in the 14th at Hatch Beauchamp, Somer setshire, by marriage with an heiress of the Beauchamps. In 1497 SrR JOHN SEY• MOUR helped to suppress the insurrection of Lord Audley and the Cornish rebels, and subsequently he accompanied Henry VIII. to his wars in France, and to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. For his daughter, see SEYMOUR, LADY JANE; his fourth son, THOMAS, created Lord Sey mour of Sudeley, became Lord High Ad miral of England and the second husband of Henry's widow (Catharine Parr), but ended his life on the scaffold (1549). Sir John's eldest son, EDWARD, was succes sively created Viscount Beauchamp, Earl of Hertford, and Duke of Somerset, and as Protector played the leading part in the first half of the reign of EDWARD VI. (q. v.). The Protector's eldest son by his second marriage, being created by Elizabeth Earl of Hertford, married the Lady Catharine Grey, a grand-niece of Henry VIII., and sister of the unfortu nate Lady Jane Grey—a marriage which entailed on him a nine years' imprison ment and a fine of $75,000. His grand son, who in 1621, succeeded him in the earldom of Hertford, also fell into dis grace for attempting to marry the Lady Arabella Stuart, cousin of James I., but subsequently, playing a conspicuous part in the royalist cause in the Great Rebel lion, obtained a reversal of the Protector's attainder, and in 1660 took his seat in the House of Peers as 3d Duke of Somer set, though the descendants of the first duke, by his first marriage, were then in existence. He died unmarried in 1671,
and the ducal title ultimately passed to a cousin, on whose death it was inherited by CHARLES SEYMOUR (1661-1748), known in history as the "Proud Duke of Somer set," a nobleman whose style of living was ostentatious and haughty in the ex treme, and who filled several high posts in the courts of Charles II., William III., and Anne. He married the heiress of the Percies, by whom he had a son, ALGER NON, 7th duke, who in 1749 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 in 1750 a curious peerage case arose, the title being claimed by the descendants of the 1st duke by his first marriage; and the attorney-gen eral having reported in favor of the claim, SIR EDWARD SEYMOUR took his seat in the House of Peers as 8th duke. The earldom of Hertford, which became ex tinct in 1750, was in that same year con ferred on this 8th duke's first cousin, FRANCIS, who in 1793 was advanced to the dignity of marquis.