Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset

His Grace
The Duke of Somerset
KG, PC

The Duke of Somerset, by Carlo Pellegrini, 1869.
First Commissioner of Woods
and Forests
In office
17 April 1849  1 August 1851
Monarch Victoria
Prime Minister Lord John Russell
Preceded by The Earl of Carlisle
Succeeded by Office abolished
First Commissioner of Works
In office
1 August 1851  21 February 1852
Monarch Victoria
Prime Minister Lord John Russell
Preceded by New office
Succeeded by Lord John Manners
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office
27 June 1859  26 June 1866
Monarch Victoria
Prime Minister The Viscount Palmerston
The Earl Russell
Preceded by Sir John Pakington, Bt
Succeeded by Sir John Pakington, Bt
Personal details
Born 20 December 1804 (1804-12-20)
Died 28 November 1885 (1885-11-29) (aged 80)
Nationality British
Political party Whig
Spouse(s) Jane Georgiana Sheridan
(d. 1884)
Alma mater Christ Church, Oxford

Edward Adolphus Seymour (later St. Maur), 12th Duke of Somerset, etc. KG, PC (Piccadilly, London, 20 December 1804 Stover Lodge, near Torquay, 28 November 1885), 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.

Background and education

Somerset was the eldest son of Edward St. Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset, and Lady Charlotte, daughter of Archibald Hamilton, 9th Duke of Hamilton.[1] He was baptized on 16 February 1805 at St. George's, Hanover Square, London.[2] He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.[3]

Political career

Somerset sat as Member of Parliament for Okehampton between 1830 and 1831[4] and for Totnes between 1834 and 1855.[5] He served under Lord Melbourne as a Lord of the Treasury between 1835 and 1839, as Joint Secretary to the Board of Control between 1839 and 1841 and as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department between June and August 1841 and was a member of Lord John Russell's first administration as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests between 1849 and 1851, when the office was abolished. He served on the Royal Commission on the British Museum (1847–49).[6] In August 1851 he was appointed to the newly created office of First Commissioner of Works by Russell. In October of the same year he entered the cabinet and was sworn of the Privy Council.[7] He remained First Commissioner of Works until the government fell in February 1852.

Somerset succeeded his father in the dukedom in 1855 and entered the House of Lords. He did not serve in Lord Palmerston's first administration, but when Palmerston became Prime Minister for a second time in 1859, Somerset was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, with a seat in the cabinet. He held this post until 1866, the last year under the premiership of Russell. He refused to join William Ewart Gladstone's first ministry in 1868, but gave independent support to the chief measures of the government.[3]

He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1862[8] and in 1863 he was created Earl St. Maur, of Berry Pomeroy in the County of Devon.[9] "St. Maur" was supposed to have been the original form of the family name and "Seymour" a later corruption. From some time in the early 19th century until 1923, "St. Maur" was used for the family name, but since 1923 the dukes have again used the familiar "Seymour".

Somerset was also the author of Christian Theology and Modern Scepticism (1872), and Monarchy and Democracy (1880).[3] Between 1861 and 1885 he served as Lord Lieutenant of Devon.[10]

Family

Somerset married in Grosvenor Square, London, on 10 June 1830, Jane Georgiana Sheridan. The Somersets had two sons and three daughters:

The Duchess of Somerset died in December 1884. Somerset survived her by less than a year and died in November 1885, aged 80, and was buried with her in St James's Churchyard in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. As his two sons had both died in his lifetime, the family titles (except the Earldom of St. Maur, which became extinct) devolved on his younger brother, Archibald Seymour, 13th Duke of Somerset.[1]

The 12th Duke left his London residence, Somerset House in Park Lane, to his eldest daughter Lady Hermione Graham.[12]

Ancestry

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Compton Domvile
Joseph Strutt
Member of Parliament for Okehampton
18301831
With: Hon. George Agar-Ellis
Succeeded by
William Henry Trant
John Thomas Hope
Preceded by
James Cornish
Jasper Parrott
Member of Parliament for Totnes
18341855
With: Jasper Parrott 18341839
Charles Barry Baldwin 18391852
Thomas Mills 18521855
Succeeded by
Thomas Mills
The Earl of Gifford
Political offices
Preceded by
Robert Gordon
Robert Vernon Smith
Joint Secretary to the Board of Control
William Clay

18391841
Succeeded by
William Clay
Charles Buller
Preceded by
Hon. Fox Maule
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
1841
Succeeded by
John Manners-Sutton
Preceded by
The Earl of Carlisle
First Commissioner of Woods and Forests
1850 1851
Succeeded by
Office abolished
Preceded by
New office
First Commissioner of Works
1851 1852
Succeeded by
Lord John Manners
Preceded by
Sir John Pakington, Bt
First Lord of the Admiralty
18591866
Succeeded by
Sir John Pakington, Bt
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Earl Fortescue
Lord Lieutenant of Devon
18611885
Succeeded by
The Earl of Iddesleigh
Peerage of England
Preceded by
Edward St Maur
Baron Seymour
(descended by acceleration)

18551863
Succeeded by
Ferdinand Seymour
Duke of Somerset
18551885
Succeeded by
Archibald St Maur
Preceded by
Ferdinand Seymour
Baron Seymour
18691885
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