Bradley House, or Maiden Bradley House, is a country house in the village of Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire, England, between the great country estates of Stourhead and Longleat. It is the family home of the Duke of Somerset, having been in the Seymour family for over 300 years. [1] The house is an 1820s remodelling of the west wing of a much larger house which had been completed in the early 18th century.
Bradley House is listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. [2]
According to William Camden, the manor was named after the daughter of Manasser Biset, who during the reign of King Henry II (1154–1189) had found herself infected with leprosy and had founded on the site a hospital for women lepers. This account was dismissed as a fable by Gough and Tanner, who asserted it had been founded by Manasser Bisset himself. In about 1190 it was converted into an Augustinian priory by Hubert, Bishop of Salisbury.
At the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII granted the priory to Edward Seymour, 1st Viscount Beauchamp (c.1500–1552) [3] (later 1st Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector), the eldest brother of his third wife Queen Jane Seymour (d.1537), and mother of the future King Edward VI (1547–1553). It then descended briefly to Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (1539–1621), the 1st Duke's eldest surviving son by his second marriage, whom he had made his heir, having suspected the legitimacy of his two sons from his first marriage, John Seymour (1527–1552) and Lord Edward Seymour (1529–1593) of Berry Pomeroy, Devon, whom in 1540 he excluded from their paternal and maternal inheritances with all their claims to their father's dignities being postponed to his children by his second wife. John petitioned parliament for the restoration of his maternal inheritance, but as the lands had been sold, he was awarded compensation in the form of the estate of Maiden Bradley. He did not live to enjoy the grant and died in the Tower of London, having bequeathed the estate with all his other lands and goods to his younger brother Lord Edward Seymour, [3] ancestor of the present Duke of Somerset, whose seat it remains today.
Construction of the house was started by Sir Edward Seymour, 3rd Baronet Seymour of Berry Pomeroy (1610–1688). In about 1688 his son Sir Edward Seymour, 4th Baronet abandoned the previous family seat of Berry Pomeroy Castle in Devon, and used the proceeds derived from stripping the castle to fund improvements to the new house at Maiden Bradley. [4] This new Bradley House was completed in about 1710. It was a large building: a plate in Vitruvius Britannicus (1717) shows the seven-bay front elevation with its Baroque doorcase, together with plans of the first and second floors. [5] Wings came forward on the east and west sides of the central part, and behind was a service court, with a stable court beyond. [6]
Sir Edward Seymour, 6th Baronet had inherited the dukedom from a distant cousin in 1750, and thus the house became the seat of the Dukes of Somerset (although for part of the 19th century they made Stover House, Devon, their principal seat). [7] Edward further enlarged the house after 1750. [6]
Much of the house was demolished in 1821–2, leaving only the west wing which was altered and forms the present house, which stands just north-east of the 12th-century parish church. Built in rendered limestone, the 18th-century part (originally just one room deep) has two floors and an attic; it was lengthened from five bays to eight sometime after 1822, and in the same century a rear range and service wing were added. The ground floor windows have pediments, and above the stone cornice a balustraded parapet was added at some point. A bay behind the left end was probably added in 1887, and the central porch – arched and pedimented – is also Victorian. Reception rooms have marble chimney-pieces from the late 18th century, moved from elsewhere and described as "fine" by Orbach. [2] [6]
Bradley House remains the home of the Duke of Somerset. [1] Tours are available by prior appointment, and the ground floor and Coach House are marketed as a venue for weddings and other functions. [8]
The Grade I listed All Saints' Church, just south-west of the house, [9] is the principal burial place of the Dukes of Somerset. The church and the family cemetery are connected to the grounds of Bradley House by private access. Members of the Seymour family buried at the church include:[ citation needed ]
Algernon Seymour, 15th Duke of Somerset, and his wife Susan Seymour, are buried on Brimble Hill Clump near Bradley House. Their graves are in a little wood on a hilltop surrounded by agricultural land, with a metal fence around them, and marked by standing rough stones with small text plaques. [10]
Duke of Somerset, from the county of Somerset, is a title that has been created five times in the peerage of England. It is particularly associated with two families: the Beauforts, who held the title from the creation of 1448, and the Seymours, from the creation of 1547, in whose name the title is still held. The present dukedom is unique, in that the first holder of the title created it for himself in his capacity of Lord Protector of the Kingdom of England, using a power granted in the will of his nephew King Edward VI.
The titles of Earl of Hertford and Marquess of Hertford have been created several times in the peerages of England and Great Britain.
Edward AdolphusSt. Maur, 12th Duke of Somerset,, styled Lord Seymour until 1855, was a British Whig aristocrat and politician, who served in various cabinet positions in the mid-19th century, including that of First Lord of the Admiralty.
John Michael Edward Seymour, 19th Duke of Somerset, styled Lord Seymour between 1954 and 1984, is a British aristocratic landowner in Wiltshire and Devon, and a member of the House of Lords.
Archibald Algernon Henry St. Maur, formerly Seymour, 13th Duke of Somerset, etc. was the son of Edward St. Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset and Lady Charlotte Douglas-Hamilton. He was also a baronet. His motto, Foy Pour Devoir, "Faith for Duty", has been adopted by HMS Somerset (IV) by permission.
Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset, styled Lord Seymour until 1793, of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire and Stover House, Teigngrace, Devon, was a British peer, landowner, astrologer and mathematician.
Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset was an English peer and landowner.
General Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset 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.
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.
Alexander Popham of Littlecote, Wiltshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1669. He was patron of the philosopher John Locke.
Berry Pomeroy Castle, a Tudor mansion within the walls of an earlier castle, is near the village of Berry Pomeroy, in South Devon, England. It was built in the late 15th century by the Pomeroy family which had held the land since the 11th century. By 1547 the family was in financial difficulties and sold the lands to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. Apart from a short period of forfeit to the Crown after Edward's execution, the castle has remained in the Seymour family ever since, although it was abandoned in the late 17th century when the fourth baronet moved to Wiltshire.
Sir Edward Seymour, of Berry Pomeroy, 4th Baronet, MP was a British nobleman, and a Royalist and Tory politician.
Maiden Bradley is a village in south-west Wiltshire, England, about 6 miles (10 km) south-west of Warminster and bordering the county of Somerset. The B3092 road between Frome and Mere forms the village street. Bradley House, the seat of the Duke of Somerset, is adjacent to the village.
There have been three Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Seymour, two in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. One creation is extant as of 2008.
Sir Edward Seymour, 1st Baronet of Berry Pomeroy, Devon, was Member of Parliament for Devon, twice High Sheriff of Devon and an Army Colonel.
Sir Edward Seymour, of Berry Pomeroy, 5th Baronet of Bradley House, Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire was an English landowner and Tory politician.
The Feudal Barony of Berry Pomeroy was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire, England, which existed during the mediaeval era. It had its caput at the manor of Berry Pomeroy, 20 miles south of the City of Exeter and 2 miles east of the town of Totnes, where was situated Totnes Castle, the caput of the feudal barony of Totnes. The exact location of the 11th-century baron's residence is unclear; perhaps it was next to the parish church on the site of the former rectory known as Berry House, as it is now believed that the nearby ruined Berry Pomeroy Castle was not built until the 15th century.
Stover is a historic estate in the parish of Teigngrace, about half way between the towns of Newton Abbot and Bovey Tracey in South Devon, England. It was bought by James Templer (1722–1782) in 1765 and passed through three generations of that family before being bought by Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset in 1829.
Mary Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, formerly Mary Webb, was the wife of Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset, and the mother of both the 9th and 10th dukes.
Amesbury Abbey is a Grade I listed mansion in Amesbury, Wiltshire, England, built in the 1830s for Sir Edmund Antrobus to designs of Thomas Hopper. The house, which stands in Grade II* listed parkland, is now used as a care home. It takes its name from Amesbury Abbey, founded in about 979 on or near the same site.