Family and Education

1st surv. s. of Edward Seymour of Woodlands.  suc. fa. 1708.

Offices Held

Biography

In the 16th century Edward Seymour, Lord Protector Somerset, married into the Filiol family, who owned the manor at Woodlands, Dorset; but the estate subsequently devolved into the hands of Samuel Rolle† of Heanton Satchville, Devon. The Seymours were not connected with the property again until a bill, introduced in February 1693, confirmed the transfer of the property to Edward Seymour, in all probability the father of this Member and grandson of Sir Edward Seymour, 2nd Bt.† He owned land in Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire and Hertfordshire, and also appears to have acted as deputy-clerk of the hanaper to his cousin Sir Henry Seymour, 1st Bt.* The Member was evidently the son of a placeman with Tory connexions and kinships. His father had links with both branches of the Seymour family, requesting for example to be buried near the Duke of Somerset’s vault in Salisbury Cathedral should he die in Dorset. He left provision in his will for the estate to pass to William Seymour* if his own family failed to produce an heir; and his executor was his ‘very good friend’ William Ettrick*, a Tory. His charitable bequests, moreover, were to be distributed only to ‘such as are conformable to the liturgy of the Church of England now established by law’.1

It is not known how Seymour came to be elected at Shaftesbury nor how he acted in the Commons, though he was marked as a Tory on the ‘Hanover list’ of 1710. He died after only a few months service at Westminster, ‘about the latter end of February’ 1711, and writs for a new election were ordered on 13 Mar. 1711. Seymour left no will, and administration was granted in March to his two sisters.2

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Mark Knights

Notes

• 1. Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 152–3; Pevsner, Buildings of Eng. Dorset, 493; Hoare, Wilts. Mere, 132; Frustfield, 51; Vivian, Vis. Devon, 703; PCC 165 Poley.
• 2. Boyer, Anne Annals, ix. 430; PROB 6/87, admon. Mar. 1711.