Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset

British Army officer, Whig politician and peer (1684–1750)

Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset

A portrait of Seymour by John Vanderbank

Governor of Guernsey
In office
1742–1750
Governor of Minorca
In office
1737–1742
Member of Parliament for Northumberland
In office
1708–1722
Member of Parliament for Marlborough
In office
1707–1708
Member of Parliament for Marlborough
In office
1705–1707
Personal details
Born| (1684-11-11)11 November 1684
Died| 7 February 1750(1750-02-07) (aged 65)
Political party| Whig
Spouse| Frances Thynne
Children| 2, including Elizabeth
Parents|

* Charles Seymour (father)
* Elizabeth Percy (mother)

Relatives| Charles Wyndham (nephew)
Charles Seymour (grandfather)
Joceline Percy (grandfather)
Military career
Service| British Army
Rank| General
Commands| 15th Foot
2nd Life Guards
Royal Horse Guards

General Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset (11 November 1684 – 7 February 1750) was a British Army officer, Whig politician and peer who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1722 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Percy and took his seat in the House of Lords.[1]

## Background

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Seymour was the only son of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, by his first wife, the heiress Lady Elizabeth Percy, deemed Baroness Percy in her own right, the only surviving child of Joceline Percy, 11th and last Earl of Northumberland. He set out on a Grand Tour at the age of 17, visiting Italy from 1701 to 1703 and Austria in 1705.[2]

## Public life

[edit]

Arms of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset: Quarterly, 1st and 4th: Or, on a pile gules between six fleurs-de-lys azure three lions of England (special grant to 1st Duke of Somerset (d. 1552)); 2nd and 3rd: Gules, two wings conjoined in lure or (Seymour)[3] These arms concede the positions of greatest honour, the 1st & 4th quarters, to a special grant of arms to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset by his nephew King Edward VI, incorporating the fleurs-de-lys (with tinctures reversed) of the Royal arms of France (first quartered by King Edward III) and the lions of the royal arms of Plantagenet

Seymour was still in Austria when he was returned as Member of Parliament for Marlborough on the recommendation of his father at a by-election on 27 November 1705. In 1706 he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Sussex for the rest of his life. He went to Flanders in the summer of 1708 to serve as a volunteer under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and brought back news of the relief of Brussels in November. At the 1708 British general election, he was returned as a Whig MP for both Marlborough and Northumberland and chose to sit for Northumberland. He became a Colonel of the 15th Foot in 1709, and was returned in the subsequent by-election. He acted as a teller for the Whigs on several occasions and voted for the impeachment of Dr Henry Sacheverell in 1710. At the 1710 British general election he was returned again as Whig MP for Northumberland. He was appointed Governor of Tynemouth Castle by Robert Harley in 1711 and was also appointed a justice of the peace for Northumberland. In Parliament, he voted for the motion of ‘No Peace without Spain’ on 7 December 1711. He was returned again for Northumberland at the 1713 British general election and spoke strongly in support of Richard Steele, voting against his expulsion. In 1714 he was appointed Groom of the Bedchamber to George, Prince of Wales.[2]

Seymour was returned unopposed as Whig MP for Northumberland at the 1715 British general election and proposed Spencer Compton as Speaker on 17 March 1715. He also became colonel of the 2nd Life Guards. He moved for the impeachment of William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure, a rebel lord, in January 1716 and voted against the Government on William Cadogan 1st Baron[vague] in June 1717. When there was a break in relations between George I and his son George, Prince of Wales later in 1717 he resigned his post as Groom of the Bedchamber to the Prince. He was returned again unopposed at the 1722 British general election. On 16 October 1722 took the chair at a committee of the whole House on the bill to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. On his mother's death on 23 November 1722, he was summoned to the House of Lords as Baron Percy and vacated his seat in the House of Commons.[4]

Percy was Custos Rotulorum of Wiltshire from 1726 to 1750. He became a brigadier-general in 1727 and in the same year was appointed Governor of Minorca, a post he held until 1742. He was promoted to major-general in 1735 and to lieutenant-general in 1739. From 1740 to 1750 he was colonel of the Royal Horse Guards and then served as Governor of Guernsey from 1742 to 1750. In 1748 he succeeded his father as Duke of Somerset.[4]

## Land ownership and titles

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The Duke's only son Lord Beauchamp died unmarried in 1744, aged 19 (see below). In 1748 Somerset was created Baron Warkworth, of Warkworth Castle in the County of Northumberland, and Earl of Northumberland, with remainder to his son-in-law, Sir Hugh Smithson, 4th Baronet,[5] with the intention that the majority of the Percy estates should descend in this line. He was at the same time created Baron Cockermouth, in the County of Cumberland, and Earl of Egremont, with remainder to his nephews, Sir Charles Wyndham, 4th Baronet, of Orchard Wyndham, and Percy Wyndham-O'Brien,[5] a revival of the Egremont title held by an earlier member of the Percy family, Thomas Percy, 1st Baron Egremont.

## Family

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In March 1715,[citation needed] Somerset married Frances Thynne, daughter of Henry Thynne and granddaughter of Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth.[1] This Thomas Thynne was the first cousin of "Tom of ten thousand", who had been the second husband of Algernon's own mother, Elizabeth. Somerset and Frances had two children:

* George Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp (11 September 1725 – 11 September 1744), predeceased his father, unmarried.[6]
* Elizabeth Percy, suo jure 2nd Baroness Percy (26 November 1716 – 5 December 1776), married Sir Hugh Smithson, 4th Baronet, later 2nd Earl of Northumberland by right of his wife and 1st Duke of Northumberland by creation; had issue.

Somerset died in 1750 and was buried in the Northumberland Vault, within Westminster Abbey.[7] He was one of the richest landowners in England, but as he died with no surviving son his estates were split after his death. The ducal title passed to a distant cousin, Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset. The earldom of Northumberland and most of the traditional Percy estates passed to his daughter and her husband (see Alnwick Castle, Northumberland House and Syon House). Petworth House in Sussex passed to the Duke's nephew Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont. Later dukes of Somerset lived at Maiden Bradley, a far more modest estate than those already mentioned, and for a short while at Stover House, Teigngrace, Devon and at Berry Pomeroy, Devon.[citation needed]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Seymour, Algernon, seventh duke of Somerset (1684–1750)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25156. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 8 February 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. ^ a b "SEYMOUR, Algernon, Earl of Hertford (1684-1750), of Petworth, Suss". History of Parliament Online (1690-1715). Retrieved 18 July 2019.
3. ^ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p. 1036
4. ^ a b "SEYMOUR, Algernon, Earl of Hertford (1684-1750)". History of Parliament Online (1715-1754). Retrieved 18 July 2019.
5. ^ a b "No. 8887". The London Gazette. 23–26 September 1749. pp. 2–3.
6. ^ G.E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, new ed., ed. Vicary Gibbs et al., 14 vols in 15 (London, 1910–59; Stroud, 1998), 12.1:81-82.
7. ^ "Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland - Westminster Abbey". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2013.

Parliament of England

Preceded by

Edward Ashe
John Jeffreys

|  Member of Parliament for Marlborough
1705–1707
With:  John Jeffreys | Succeeded by

Parliament of Great Britain

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by

Parliament of England

|  Member of Parliament for Marlborough
1707–1708
With:  John Jeffreys 1707–1708
James Bruce 1708  | Succeeded by

James Bruce
Sir Edward Ernle

Preceded by

Thomas Forster
Sir John Delaval, Bt

|  Member of Parliament for Northumberland
1708–1722
With:  Thomas Forster 1708–1716
Francis Delaval 1716–1722  | Succeeded by

Francis Delaval
Sir William Middleton

Military offices
Preceded by

Emanuel Howe

|  Colonel of the Earl of Hertford's Regiment of Foot
1709–1715  | Succeeded by

Henry Harrison

Preceded by

The Duke of Northumberland

|  Captain and Colonel of
The Queen's Troop of Horse Guards
1715–1740  | Succeeded by

The Duke of Marlborough

Preceded by

Richard Kane

|  Governor of Minorca
1737–1742  | Succeeded by

The Earl of Stair

Preceded by

The Duke of Argyll

|  Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards
1740–1742  | Succeeded by

The Duke of Argyll

Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards
1742–1750  | Vacant

Title next held by

The Duke of Richmond
Preceded by

The Earl of Pomfret

|  Governor of Guernsey
1742–1750  | Succeeded by

Sir John Ligonier

Honorary titles
Preceded by

The Earl of Dorset

|  Lord Lieutenant of Sussex
1706–1750  | Vacant

Title next held by

The Earl of Ashburnham
Preceded by

The Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull

|  Custos Rotulorum of Wiltshire
1726–1750  | Succeeded by

Robert Sawyer Herbert

Peerage of England
Preceded by

Charles Seymour

|  Duke of Somerset
1748–1750  | Succeeded by

Edward Seymour

Earl of Hertford
1748–1750  | Extinct
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation |  Earl of Northumberland
1749–1750  | Succeeded by

Hugh Percy

Earl of Egremont
1749–1750  | Succeeded by

Charles Wyndham

Baron Percy
1722–1750  | Succeeded by

Elizabeth Smithson

* v
* t
* e

Dukes of Somerset

House of Beaufort (1443–1471)|

* John, 1st Duke (1443–1444)
* Edmund, 2nd Duke (1448–1455)
* Henry, 3rd Duke (1455–1464)
* Edmund, 4th Duke (1464–1471)

House of Tudor (1499–1536)|

* Edmund (1499–1500)
* Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset (1525–1536)

House of Seymour
(1547–1552, 1660–)|

* Edward, 1st Duke (1547–1552)
* William, 2nd Duke (1660)
* William, 3rd Duke (1660–1671)
* John, 4th Duke (1671–1675)
* Francis, 5th Duke (1675–1678)
* Charles, 6th Duke (1678–1748)
* Algernon, 7th Duke (1748–1750)
* Edward, 8th Duke (1750–1757)
* Edward, 9th Duke (1757–1792)
* Webb, 10th Duke (1792–1793)
* Edward, 11th Duke (1793–1855)
* Edward, 12th Duke (1855–1885)
* Archibald, 13th Duke (1885–1891)
* Algernon, 14th Duke (1891–1894)
* Algernon, 15th Duke (1894–1923)
* Edward, 16th Duke (1923–1931)
* Evelyn, 17th Duke (1931–1954)
* Percy, 18th Duke (1954–1984)
* John, 19th Duke (1984–present)

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