great civil war, and was one of four noblemen who offered to redeem the life of the king by suffering in his stead. At the Restoration the title of duke of Somerset, of which his grandfather had been deprived a century before, was restored to him by Charles II. "This," said the king, "is an extraordinary act, but it is done for an extraordinary person, who has merited as much of my father and myself as any subject can do."
There is nothing worthy of particular notice in the lives of the three immediate successors of this illustrious nobleman, but Charles, the sixth duke, commonly called "the proud duke," acted a conspicuous part in public affairs during the reigns of James II., William and Mary, Anne, George I., and George II. His grace was a zealous whig, and was one of the first nobles to join the prince of Orange. He was master of the horse to Queen Anne, and a commissioner for the union with Scotland. He rendered important service to the protestant succession, at the critical moment when Anne was on her deathbed, and by his unexpected appearance at the council board, along with the duke of Argyll, frustrated the schemes of the ministry in favour of the Pretender. The first wife of the duke was the heiress of the great family of Percy. After her death he married Lady Charlotte Finch, second daughter of the earl of Winchelsea. This lady having on one occasion tapped the duke on the shoulder with her fan, he turned round with an indignant countenance, and said, "Madam, my first duchess was a Percy, and she never took such a liberty." His orders were conveyed to his servants by signs. His children were taught to obey his mandates with profound awe. His two youngest daughters were accustomed to stand alternately while his grace took his after-dinner nap. One afternoon the younger of the two being wearied, sat down; the duke awoke, discovered her breach of etiquette, and as a mark of his displeasure left her by his will £20,000 less than her sister. The "proud duke" died in 1748, at the age of eighty-seven, and was succeeded by his only surviving son, Algernon, seventh duke, who held high commands in the army, and distinguished himself under the duke of Marlborough. At his death in 1750 the Percy estates descended to his daughter, who had married Sir Hugh Smithson, ancestor of the present duke of Northumberland; while the dukedom and estates of Somerset, as by an act of natural justice, fell to Sir Edward Seymour, Bart., the lineal descendant of the eldest son of the protector, who, as already mentioned, had been deprived of his inheritance by the intrigues of his step-mother.—The most celebrated man of this senior branch of the family was Sir Edward Seymour, speaker of the house of commons in the reign of Charles II., and the chief promoter of the Habeas Corpus act. He was a man of large fortune, and was remarkable for his skill in debate, his business habits, and his intimate knowledge of the rules, usages, and temper of the house of commons, in which he sat for many years. He was the first country gentleman whose abilities and acquirements enabled him to break through the custom, which had lasted for several generations, of appointing none but lawyers to the office of speaker. He subsequently had a seat in the cabinet, and held high political posts; but his haughty and unaccommodating temper disgusted his colleagues, and he was forced to retire. Zealous tory and churchman though he was, Seymour strenuously opposed the arbitrary measures of James II., and joined the prince of Orange shortly after his landing in England. At his first audience he exhibited his characteristic pride in a way which surprised and amused the prince. "I think. Sir Edward," said William, "that you are of the family of the duke of Somerset." "Pardon me, sir," was the reply of the haughty commoner, "the duke of Somerset is of my family." Seymour was a skilful tactician, and rendered important service to William by promptly organizing his adherents. He nevertheless opposed the bill for declaring the convention a parliament, and voted for a regency, though he took the oath of allegiance to the new sovereign, and supported the measures of the government for tranquillizing Ireland. William, who was anxious to conciliate the leader of the tory gentlemen of England, in 1692 appointed Seymour a member of the council, a member of the cabinet, and a lord of the treasury, and soothed and flattered his punctilious pride. He then became a zealous defender of those measures which, when out of office, he had vehemently attacked. His former friends were naturally indignant at his tergiversation, and his reputation was still more seriously injured by his corruption and licentious manners. Though too proud to behave with common politeness, he was not too proud to pocket illicit gain. Along with Carmarthen and other courtiers, he accepted of a large bribe from the East India Company to assist in obtaining a renewal of their charter in 1693, and was concerned in some corrupt contracts given for the same purpose. His influence was in consequence greatly diminished, and he was dismissed from office in 1694. He immediately became as virulent in opposition as he had been before place was conferred upon him, opposed the bill for attainting Sir John Fenwick, vehemently harangued against a standing army, attacked Lord Somers with rancorous violence, and was the chief manager for the commons in the dangerous dispute with the house of lords in 1700, concerning the resumption of the grants of crown lands and forfeited estates made by William to his favourites. This able and accomplished, but factious, faithless, and rapacious man, died in 1707. His grandson, as we have seen, succeeded to the Somerset titles and estates on the extinction of the younger branch of the family in 1750.
The most distinguished member in later times of this illustrious house was Lord Webb Seymour, son of the tenth duke. He was born in 1777, and in 1794 entered Christ church, Oxford, where he devoted himself to study with an intensity unexampled among students of his own rank. In 1797 he went to Edinburgh to prosecute his investigations into moral and physical philosophy. Slow, thoughtful, reserved, and very gentle, he was a great favourite with Playfair, Horner, Sydney Smith, and Jeffrey. Playfair and he associated so much together, that they used to be called husband and wife. Geology was their favourite pursuit, but Lord Webb also addicted himself to mathematics with great assiduity, under the tuition of his venerable friend; and he contemplated, and in part prepared, a work on the philosophy of the human mind, which his failing health did not allow him to complete. This amiable and accomplished nobleman died after a long decline on 19th April, 1819, at the age of forty-two. A short but beautiful memoir of him, written by his friend Mr. Hallam, has been published in the appendix to Homer's Memoirs, vol. i.—The present head of the Seymour family is Edward Adolphus, twelfth duke of Somerset and first lord of the admiralty, born in 1804. His grace married in 1830 a granddaughter of the celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan.—J. T.
SEYMOUR, Arabella, commonly known as Lady Arabella Stewart, was first cousin to King James I., being the great-grand-daughter of Margaret Tudor, queen of Scotland, by her second husband, the earl of Angus. She was born about 1577, and educated in London by her grandmother, the countess of Lennox. Queen Elizabeth held her in hand as a menace to James of Scotland, but took care that she should not marry. The Spaniards and papists intrigued for her marriage with a Roman catholic prince, the duke of Parma among others. On the accession of James in 1603 a pretence of conspiracy to raise Lady Arabella to the throne was made by Raleigh, Cobham, and others, but without a chance of success. In 1610 she was secretly married to Sir William Seymour, who was committed to the Tower for the act, while the lady was confined in a house at Lambeth, and afterwards at Highgate. She made her escape in male attire; but before she could join her husband, who escaped to France, she was retaken and sent to the Tower. There she languished four years, and died in a state little short of insanity, September 27, 1615.—R. H.
* SEYMOUR, Sir George Hamilton, G.C.B., diplomatist, is the eldest son of the late Lord George Seymour. He entered the diplomatic service in 1817, when he was attached to the embassy at the Hague. He had been employed diplomatically at Frankfort, Stuttgart, Constantinople, Florence, Brussels, and Lisbon, when in April, 1851, he was sent to St. Petersburg as envoy extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary. It was to him that, in the January and February of 1853, the Emperor Nicholas communicated his designs on "the sick man," in a series of remarkable conversations, graphically reported by the English envoy to the government at home. For the part which Sir Hamilton Seymour himself took in them, he was complimented by Earl Russell, then foreign secretary. Recalled to England in 1854, on the eve of the Russian war, he was sent as envoy to Austria, and continued to hold that post until March, 1858, when he retired from the diplomatic service.—F. E.
SEYSSEL, Claude de, a historian and politician of the sixteenth century. He was educated for the bar, and under Louis XII. of France was created master of requests and counsellor. In 1510 he became bishop of Marseilles, and in 1517
