Seymour

Seymour, an ancient familly named from St. Maur, in Normandy, which in the 14th century had acquired landed estates in Monmouthshire and Somersetshire, SIR JOHN SEYMOUR, who served in Henry VIII.'s French Wars, was the father of Queen JANE SEYMOUR, that monarch's third wife and mother of Edward VI, Her elder brother EDWARD, Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, was made governor of the king and Protector of the realm on the aocession of Edward VI., but he was eventually supplanted by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland, and died on the scaffold in 1552, Jane's younger brother, THOMAS, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, after marrying Katharine Parr, Henry VIII.'s widow, and holding the office of Lord High Admiral, was put to death on a charge of treason in 1549. The Earl of Hertford, eldest son of the first Duke of Somerset by his second marriage, fell into disgrace in Elizabeth's reign in consequence of his marriage with Lady Katharine Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey (q.v.). The living representative of this branch was in 1660 recognised as Duke of Somerset, but the Protector's descendants by his first marriage recovered the title in 1750, The present Marquis of Hertford and Admiral Beauchamp Seymour, Lord Alcester, who distinguished himself in the bombardment of Alexandria (1882), both belong to the elder branch.