suc. fa. 12 July 1664 as 2nd Bar. SEYMOUR OF TROWBRIDGE
First sat 26 Nov. 1664; last sat 1 Dec. 1664
MP Great Bedwyn 28 Apr. 1640; Wiltshire 1661–12 July 1664
b. 5 Feb. 1621, o. s. of Francis Seymour, Bar. Seymour of Trowbridge, and 1st w. Frances, da. and coh. of Sir Gilbert Prynne of Alington. educ. Magdalen, Oxf. 1636. m. (1) 4 Aug. 1632, Mary, da. and coh. of Thomas Smith of Soley, Chilton Foliat, Wilts. 1s. d.v.p. 2da.; (2) by 1654, Elizabeth (d.1691), da. of William Alington, Bar. Alington of Killard [I], 5s. (3 d.v.p.), 2da. (1 d.v.p.).1 d. 25 Aug. 1665; will 17 Aug. 1665, pr. 26 Nov. 1683.2
Commr. for sequestrations (royalist), Wilts. 1642, for assessment, Aug. 1660–4, for corporations 1662–3; col. militia ft. by Nov. 1660–?d.; dep. lt. Wilts. 1661–d.; custos rot. Wilts. 1664–d.
Associated with: Marlborough Castle, Wilts.; Preshute, Wilts.; Allington, Wilts.
Seymour was born into the Trowbridge branch of the family, which had extensive political and social connections in Wiltshire. His father and his uncle William Seymour, 2nd duke of Somerset, were prominent royalists throughout the civil wars. After initially joining his father at Oxford, Seymour was neither in arms for the king nor did he contribute financially to the royalist cause and appears to have lived quietly at his first wife’s family home at Allington, Wiltshire. At the end of the civil wars his yearly income was estimated at £630.3
In 1660 Seymour’s father returned to his places at court as Privy Councillor and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, while Charles was elected to the Cavalier Parliament for Wiltshire in partnership with Henry Hyde, the future 2nd earl of Clarendon, the two men sharing election expenses of £195.4 Seymour succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father on 12 July 1664.
On 8 Nov. 1664 Seymour was informed that ‘for the ceremony of your admittance into the House of Lords’ as soon as he came to town ‘you must send for Sir Edmund Walker, and he will see your robes made fit, and he and the Black rod are to convey you to your seat’.5 He took his seat on 26 Nov. 1664, but attended only one other sitting on 1 Dec. of that year. He was absent from a call of the House on 7 Dec. and three days later he registered a proxy with Thomas Wriothesley, 4th earl of Southampton, who was married to his cousin Lady Frances Seymour.
Seymour died on 25 Aug. 1665 and was buried on 7 Sept. at Trowbridge. In his will he left £200 per year to his wife, to be raised from his estates, provided she remain unmarried. However, she subsequently became the second wife of Sir John Ernle‡, the future chancellor of the exchequer. Seymour bequeathed to his sons William (who died young) and Charles Seymour, the future 6th duke of Somerset, a yearly income of £100 until they reached the age of 21, when they would receive £4,000 each. His daughter Honora was bequeathed an annual income of £100 and a lump sum of £4,000 at 21 or her marriage; she married Sir Charles Gerard‡ in 1676. His other daughter, Frances, who had married Sir George Hungerford‡ in April 1665, was to receive £100. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Francis Seymour, 3rd Baron Seymour of Trowbridge, who became 5th duke of Somerset in 1675 on the death of his father’s cousin John Seymour, 4th duke of Somerset.
A.C./S.N.H.