Francis Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Trowbridge

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Francis Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Trowbridge (c. 1590-12 July 1664) was an English statesman, a Member of Parliament raised to the peerage by Charles I and a Royalist during the English Civil War.

Seymour was the third son of Lord Beauchamp, and was knighted in 1613. He entered Parliament in 1621 as member for Wiltshire; he also represented that county in the Parliaments of 1625 and 1628 and in the Short Parliament of 1640, and was elected for Marlborough in the Long Parliament. He was also High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1625, and was one of the leaders of opposition in the county to the arbitrary rule of the King, backing the Habeas Corpus bill of 1628 and later refusing to pay ship money. In the Short Parliament he spoke powerfully against granting any subsidies to the King before receiving any redress of grievances, and apparently compared "our affayres to the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt".

Nevertheless, as events moved toward civil war, Seymour placed himself firmly on the Royalist side, and in 1641 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Seymour of Trowbridge. He was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster by the King in 1644, and was re-appointed after the Restoration, serving from 1660 until 1664.

He married Frances Prinne, daughter of Sir Gilbert Prinne, of Allington, Wiltshire, in 1620. They had two children:

• Charles (c. 1621-1665), who succeeded to the peerage
• Frances Seymour (died 1679), who married Sir William Ducie

In 1635, after the death of his first wife, Seymour remarried, to Catherine Lee (died 1701), daughter of Sir Robert Lee of Billesley, Warwickshire.

Seymour's house at Marlborough was used as an inn until the 19th century, when it became Marlborough College.

[edit] References

• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Esther S Cope and Willson H Coates (eds), Camden Fourth Series, Volume 19: Proceedings of the Short Parliament of 1640 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1977)
• Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
• Burke's Extinct Peerage (London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1831) [1]
• www.thepeerage.com

Peerage of England
Preceded by New creation	Baron Seymour of Trowbridge 1641-1664	Succeeded by Charles Seymour
Honorary titles
Preceded by Edward Reade	High Sheriff of Wiltshire 1625	Succeeded by Sir Giles Estcourt
Political offices
Preceded by The Lord Barrett of Newburgh	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Royal nominee - de jure only) 1644-1645	Succeeded by No further royal nomination made
Preceded by Sir Gilbert Gerrard	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1660-1664	Succeeded by Sir Thomas Ingram