Charles Seymour,6th Duke of Somerset (13 August 1662–2 December 1748),known by the epithet "The Proud Duke",was an English peer. He rebuilt Petworth House in Sussex,the ancient Percy seat inherited from his wife,in the palatial form which survives today. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition,he was a remarkably handsome man,and inordinately fond of taking a conspicuous part in court ceremonial;his vanity,which earned him the sobriquet of "the proud duke",was a byword among his contemporaries and was the subject of numerous anecdotes;Macaulay described him as "a man in whom the pride of birth and rank amounted almost to a disease".[1]
Three years later,in 1678,Charles's brother,the 5th duke,was murdered in Italy,aged 20,unmarried and without progeny,having been shot at the door of his inn at Lerici. The 16-year-old Charles Seymour became the 6th duke and the 4th Baron Seymour of Trowbridge.
"... for the preservation of the noble family and name of the Percys,he the said duke and all and every the issue of his body on her the said duchess begotten,should forever take upon him and them and be called and named only by the name and surname of Percy".
However,on attaining her majority of 21 the duchess under her hand and seal dated 30 January 1687 consented to waive and dispense with the agreement.[5] The intention stated in the marriage contract was however fulfilled in 1749 by their granddaughter Lady Elizabeth Seymour and her husband the former Sir Hugh Smithson,4th Baronet (who by special remainder had inherited in 1749 his father-in-law's title Earl of Northumberland) when in 1749 they obtained a private Act of Parliament entitled:[6]
"An Act to enable Hugh Earl of Northumberland and Elizabeth Countess of Northumberland and Barones Percy,his Wife,and their Children,Progeny and Issue,to take and use the Name of Percy,and bear and quarter the Arms of the Percies Earls of Northumberland".
The reason for the name-change was stated in the preamble to the Act as follows:[5]
"And as Algernon,late Duke of Somerset,did in his lifetime express his desire that the name of Percy should be used by and be the surname and family name of the Earls of Northumberland ... Sir Hugh Smithson now Earl of Northumberland and Lady Elizabeth his wife,Countess of Northumberland and Baroness Percy,as well out of their great regard to,and in compliance with the desire of,the said late duke,as for preserving the noble and ancient family and name of Percy and the coats of arms borne and quartered by the Percys Earls of Northumberland should be ... confirmed ... upon them ... by authority of Parliament".
Rebuilds Petworth House
Petworth House in Sussex,west front,depicted in about 1700,as newly re-built by the 6th Duke of Somerset. Collection of the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir CastlePetworth House,west front,in 2015,with flat roof line
Between 1688 and 1696 the Duke rebuilt Petworth House on a palatial scale. A painting made in about 1700 of his new house was identified by the art historian Sir Anthony Blunt in the collection of the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle.[7] It shows evidence of a French chateau style,with original central dome,now lost. A similar image is included in Laguerre's wall-painting on the Grand Staircase at Petworth.[8]Horace Walpole called it "in the style of the Tuileries". The parapets of the walls are surmounted by urns. On the three sections of the parapet in front of the central dome and the domed roofs of the two projecting wings are placed gesticulating statues. Today the roofline is lower and flat,giving the building a plain appearance,possibly following the fire of 1714 and subsequent repairs. The statues and urns are now lost and the entrance front has been moved to the rear.[9] One of the few elements of the old mansion he retained is the mediaeval chapel,which retains the large early 17th century Percy Window,depicting the coats of arms of several Percy Earls of Northumberland.
Career
In 1683,Somerset received an appointment in the royal household of King Charles II and in August 1685 he was appointed Colonel of the Queen Consort's Light Dragoons when James II expanded his army after the Monmouth rebellion.[10][lower-alpha 1] However,he fell from favour in 1687 when as Lord of the Bedchamber he refused to escort the newly appointed Papal Nuncio and was deprived of his various offices.[11]
At the Glorious Revolution of 1689,he supported the Prince of Orange,who became King William III. Having befriended Princess Anne in 1692,he became a favourite of hers after her accession to the throne as Queen Anne (1702–1714),and was appointed by her in 1702 Master of the Horse,a post he held until 1712. Finding himself neglected by Marlborough,he made friends with the Tories,and succeeded in retaining the Queen's confidence,while his wife replaced the Duchess of Marlborough as Mistress of the Robes in 1711.[1] The Duchess of Somerset became the Queen's closest confidante,causing Jonathan Swift to direct at her a violent satire,The Windsor Prophecy,in which he accused her of murdering her previous husband,Thomas Thynne (died 1682)[12] of Longleat. The Duchess retained her influence even after the Queen,following a quarrel,dismissed the Duke as Master of the Horse in 1712.[13]
He retained the office of Master of the Horse for the first year of the reign of King George I (1714–1727) until 1715,[14] when he was dismissed and retired to private life.[1]
In 1739,the Duke became a founding governor of the Foundling Hospital in London,the country's first and only children's home for foundlings,after his second wife,Charlotte Finch (1711–1773),became the first to sign the petition to King George II of its founder Captain Thomas Coram.
The Duke died at Petworth on 2 December 1748.
Marriages and descendants
Elizabeth PercyCharlotte Seymour,Duchess of Somerset
Following his wife's death in 1722 the Duke developed a romantic attachment to the widowed Sarah Churchill,Duchess of Marlborough (1660–1744) (née Sarah Jennings) whose husband the 1st Duke of Marlborough had died the same year. He sent her "feverish love letters",[16] but she remained loyal to her late husband.
By Elizabeth Percy he had one surviving son and three daughters:
Charles Seymour,[17] Earl of Hereford (baptized 22 March 1683–died before 26 August 1683),who died an infant in his first year.
Lady Anne Seymour (1709–27 November 1722),3rd daughter,who married (as his second wife) Peregrine Osborne,Marquess of Carmarthen (1691–1731),[17] later 3rd Duke of Leeds,by whom she had a son who died an infant. She died aged 13 without surviving progeny.
Secondly on 4 February 1725,at the age of 63 he married Lady Charlotte Finch (1693–1773),a daughter of Daniel Finch,7th Earl of Winchilsea,later 2nd Earl of Nottingham. He treated her poorly and once told her,after she had gently tapped him on the shoulder with her fan:"Madam,my first wife was a Percy and she never took such a liberty".[18] By Charlotte Finch he had two further children:
Somerset's last known letter to Sarah Churchill,Duchess of Marlborough,dated 1737,twelve years after his second marriage,declared his unchanged affections for her. The correspondence is preserved in the British Library.
Death and burial
Somerset died at Petworth on 2 December 1748 and was buried in the Seymour Chapel of Salisbury Cathedral,in Wiltshire,[19] where the elaborate monument to his ancestor Edward Seymour,1st Earl of Hertford (1539–1621),son of the 1st Duke of Somerset,survives.
Succession
Somerset's son and heir apparent,Algernon Seymour,Earl of Hertford (1684–1749) had in 1725 produced a son of his own,Lord Beauchamp. However,in 1744 this grandson died unexpectedly without having married,and thus his only grandchild was a daughter and sole heiress,Lady Elizabeth Seymour,who in 1740 had married Sir Hugh Smithson,4th Baronet. By 1744 Algernon Seymour was aged sixty,and his wife was past child-bearing age. Thus,on the death of his grandson,Somerset foresaw that his own line of the Seymour family was about to die out in the male line. As was said of the 9th Duke of Norfolk,"the honours of his family were about to pass away from his own line to settle on that of a distant relative".[20] So before the death of the 6th duke in 1748,it had become apparent that the dukedom of Somerset would ultimately devolve by law onto an extremely distant cousin and heir male,the 6th duke's 6th cousin Sir Edward Seymour,6th Baronet (1695–1757) of Berry Pomeroy in Devon and of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire,who in fact represented the senior line of the Seymour family,being descended from the first marriage of the first Duke,which had been excluded from the direct succession to the dukedom and placed in remainder only,due to the suspected adultery of the first duke's first wife. Moreover,the combined estates of the Seymours of Trowbridge and the incomparably greater inherited Percy estates were unentailed and would not devolve the same way,but could be bequeathed as the 6th duke pleased. However,the sixth Duke "conceived a violent dislike for Smithson",[21] whom he considered insufficiently aristocratic to inherit the ancient estates of the Percy family;his son disagreed,and wanted to include his son-in-law Smithson in the inheritance. The 6th Duke had included King George II in his plan to exclude Smithson from the inheritance,yet the King had received proposals in opposition from his son and Smithson himself. The 6th Duke died before his plan was put into effect,yet nevertheless the 7th Duke and King George II created an arrangement which did not entirely dismiss his wishes:the Percy estates would be split between Smithson and the 6th duke's favoured eldest grandson,Sir Charles Wyndham,4th Baronet (1710–1763). Smithson would receive Alnwick Castle and Syon House,while Wyndham would receive Egremont Castle and the 6th Duke's beloved Petworth. It was deemed appropriate and necessary by all parties concerned,including the King,that heirs to such families and estates as the Percys and Seymours should be elevated to the peerage. This was done in the following manner:Following the 6th duke's death in 1748,in 1749 King George II created four new titles for the 7th duke,each with special remainders in anticipation that he would die without having produced a male heir,which death in fact occurred the next year in 1750. He was created Baron Warkworth of Warkworth Castle and Earl of Northumberland,both with special remainder to Smithson;and was created at the same time Baron Cockermouth and Earl of Egremont,with special remainder to Wyndham. (It has always been customary on the creation of a greater peerage title to create at the same time a barony,to be used as a courtesy title for the eldest son).
Arms
Arms of Charles Seymour,6th Duke of SomersetArms of the 6th Duke of Somerset
The Somerset coat of arms is blazonedQuarterly,1st and 4th:Or,on a pile gules between six fleurs-de-lys azure three lions of England (a special grant to the first Duke of Somerset);2nd and 3rd:Gules,two wings conjoined in lure or (Seymour).[22] These arms concede the positions of greatest honour,the 1st &4th quarters,to a special grant of arms to the first Duke of Somerset (died 1552) 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.
The 6th Duke of Somerset used these arms with an inescutcheon of pretence of the House of Percy,of three quarters:1st:Or,a lion rampant azure (Percy modern/Brabant);2nd:Gules,three lucies hauriant argent (de Lucy);3rd:Azure,five fusils conjoined in fess or (Percy ancient). Marshalling as shown sculpted on the overmantel of the Marble Hall at Petworth House.[23]
Footnotes
↑ Commissions were private assets that could be bought, sold or used as an investment and many Colonels played no active military role.
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.
Duke of Northumberland is a noble title that has been created three times in English and British history, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain. The current holder of this title is Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland.
Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont, PC, of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, Petworth House in Sussex, and of Egremont House in Mayfair, London, was a British statesman who served as Secretary of State for the Southern Department from 1761–63.
Baron Leconfield, of Leconfield in the East Riding of the County of York, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1859 for Col. George Wyndham (1787–1869). He was the eldest illegitimate son and adopted heir of George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751–1837), from whom he inherited Petworth House in Sussex, Egremont Castle and Cockermouth Castle in Cumbria and Leconfield Castle in Yorkshire, all formerly lands of Josceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland (1644–1670), inherited by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (1662–1748) on his marriage to the Percy heiress Elizabeth Percy (1667–1722) and inherited as one of the co-heirs of his son Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Egremont (1684–1750) by the latter's nephew Sir Charles Wyndham, 4th Baronet (1710–1763) of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, who inherited by special remainder the Earldom of Egremont. The 1st Baron's eldest son, the second Baron, represented West Sussex in the House of Commons as a Conservative. He was succeeded by his eldest son, the third Baron, who served as Lord Lieutenant of Sussex from 1917 to 1949. The latter's nephew, the sixth Baron, served as Private Secretary to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan from 1957 to 1963. In 1963, four years before he succeeded his father in the barony of Leconfield, the Egremont title held by his ancestors was revived when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Egremont, of Petworth in the County of Sussex. As of 2017 the titles are held by his son, the seventh Baron. Known as Max Egremont, he is a biographer and novelist.
Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Salvin. It contains intricate wood-carvings by Grinling Gibbons (d.1721). It is the manor house of the manor of Petworth. For centuries it was the southern home for the Percy family, Earls of Northumberland.
The House of Percy is an English noble family. They were one of the most powerful noble families in Northern England for much of the Middle Ages, known for their long rivalry with another powerful northern English family, the House of Neville.
Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset was an English peer and landowner.
General Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, styled Earl of Hertford until 1748, of Petworth House in Sussex, was a British Army officer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 until 1722 when he was raised to the House of Lords as Baron Percy.
Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet, of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, was an English Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1710 to 1740. He served as Secretary at War in 1712 and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1713 during the reign of the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne (1702–1714). He was a Jacobite leader firmly opposed to the Hanoverian succession and was leader of the Tory opposition in the House of Commons during the reign of King George I (1714–1727) and during the early years of King George II (1727–1760).
Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland,, was an English peer, landowner, and art patron.
Earl of Egremont was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1749, along with the subsidiary title Baron of Cockermouth, in Cumberland, for Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, with remainder to his nephews Sir Charles Wyndham, 4th Baronet, of Orchard Wyndham, and Percy Wyndham-O'Brien. The Duke had previously inherited the Percy estates, including the lands of Egremont in Cumberland, from his mother Lady Elizabeth Percy, daughter and heiress of Joceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland. In 1750 Sir Charles Wyndham succeeded according to the special remainder as second Earl of Egremont on the death of his uncle. His younger brother Percy Wyndham-O'Brien was created Earl of Thomond in 1756.
George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of EgremontFRS of Petworth House in Sussex and Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, was a British peer, a major landowner and a great art collector. He was interested in the latest scientific advances. He was an agriculturist and a friend of the agricultural writer Arthur Young, and was an enthusiastic canal builder who invested in many commercial ventures for the improvement of his estates. He played a limited role in politics.
Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley FSA, styled Lord Algernon Percy between 1766 and 1786 and known as The Lord Lovaine between 1786 and 1790, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1786 when he succeeded to the Peerage.
Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, also suo jure2nd Baroness Percy, was a British peer.
JoscelinePercy, 11th Earl of Northumberland, 5th Baron Percy, of Alnwick Castle, Northumberland and Petworth House, Sussex, was an English peer.
Percy Wyndham-O'Brien, 1st Earl of Thomond was a British Member of Parliament and an Irish peer.
Elizabeth Seymour, Duchess of Somerset and suo jureBaroness Percy was an English heiress. She was styled Lady Elizabeth Percy between 1667 and 1679, Countess of Ogle between 1679 and 1681, Lady Elizabeth Thynne between 1681 and 1682, and Duchess of Somerset between 1682 and 1722. She was the only surviving child and sole heiress of Joceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland (1644–1670). Lady Elizabeth was one of the closest personal friends of Queen Anne, which led Jonathan Swift to direct at her one of his sharpest satires, The Windsor Prophecy, in which she was called "Carrots".
Elizabeth Percy, Countess of Northumberland, was a British courtier. She was one of the Windsor Beauties, painted by Sir Peter Lely.
Elizabeth Ilive was an English polymath. She was the mistress and later wife of George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont. She was the mother of eight of his children.
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.
↑ Tierney, M.A., History and Antiquities of Arundel, 1833, Chapter 6, p. 565, note 4
↑ Cruickshanks, Eveline, biography of Smithson, Sir Hugh, 4th Bt. (1715-86), of Stanwick, Yorks. and Tottenham, Mdx., published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715–1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
↑ Photograph in Nicolson, Nigel, Great Houses of Britain (London, 1978), p. 166
Bibliography
Lodge, Edmund, Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, Vol X, London, 1835, pp.1–7: Charles Seymour, Sixth Duke of Somerset
St Maur, Harold, Annals of the Seymours, Being a History of the Seymour Family, From Early Times to Within a Few Years of the Present, London, 1902 The author was the illegitimate grandson of the 12th Duke of Somerset, from whom he inherited the estate of Stover, Teigngrace in Devon.
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