| His Grace The Duke of Somerset KG, PC |
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|---|---|
| The Duke of Somerset, by Carlo Pellegrini, 1869. | |
| First Commissioner of Woods and Forests |
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| In office 17 April 1849 – 1 August 1851 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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 1805 |
| Died | 28 November 1885 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Whig |
| Spouse(s) | Jane Georgiana Sheridan (d. 1884) |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
Sir Edward Adolphus Seymour (later St. Maur), 12th Duke of Somerset, etc. KG, PC (Piccadilly, London, 20 December 1804 or 1805 – Stover Lodge, nr Torquay, 28 November 1885), styled Baron Seymour until 1855, was a British Whig aristocrat and politician, who served in various cabinet positions in the mid-19th century. He was also a baronet.
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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]
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]
Somerset married in Grosvenor Square, London, on 10 June 1830 Jane Georgiana Sheridan (5 November 1809 – London, 14 December 1884, interred at Gerrard's Cross, Buckinghamshire), daughter of Thomas Sheridan and wife Caroline Henrietta Callender, daughter of Colonel Sir James Callander of Craigforth and Ardkinglas. She was the younger sister of Helen Blackwood, 4th Baroness of Dufferin and Claneboye, song-writer, composer, poet, and author, and Caroline Norton, society beauty, feminist, social reformer, and author [11]. Jane, Helen, and Caroline were the granddaughters of Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.[1][12] Known for her loveliness, Jane was chosen to be the "Queen of Beauty" at the Eglinton Tournament in 1839. 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. 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, Lord Archibald St Maur.[1]
The 12th Duke left his London residence, Somerset House in Park Lane, to his eldest daughter Lady Hermione Graham.[14]
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