Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset
Edward Adolphus St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset KG, FRS (24 February 1775 – 15 August 1855), styled Lord Seymour until 1793, was a British landowner and amateur mathematician.
Background
Seymour was born at Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire, the son of Webb Seymour, 10th Duke of Somerset, and Mary Bonnell, daughter of John Bonnell, of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire. He was baptised on 4 April 1775 at Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire.[1] He was baptised with the name of Edward Adolphus Seymour, but legally changed it to Edward Adolphus St. Maur. In 1793 he succeeded his father in the dukedom.
Public life
In 1795, in the company of Reverend John Henry Michell, Somerset undertook a tour through England, Wales and Scotland, his journal of which was published in 1845.[2] The tour took him as far as the isles of Staffa and Iona in the Hebrides. He was a patron of the Free Church of England. He was a gifted mathematician and served as President of the Linnean Society of London from 1834 to 1837 and as President of the Royal Institution from 1826 to 1842. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1837 he was made a Knight of the Garter.[3]
Family
Somerset married, firstly, Lady Charlotte Douglas-Hamilton (6 April 1772 – Somerset House, Park Lane, London, 10 June 1827), daughter of Archibald Hamilton, 9th Duke of Hamilton, and Harriet Stewart, on 24 June 1800. They had seven children:
- Lady Charlotte Jane Seymour (1803 – 7 October 1889), m. 31 March 1839 William Blount, of Orelton, Herefordshire (d. 27 July 1885)
- Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset (20 December 1804 – 28 December 1885)
- Lady Jane Wilhelmina Seymour
- Lady Anna Maria Jane Seymour (d. 23 September 1873), m. 13 September 1838 William Tollemache (7 November 1810 – 17 March 1886), son of Hon. Charles Manners Tollemache of the Earls of Dysart and wife Gertrude Florinda Gardiner, and had issue
- Lady Henrietta Seymour
- Archibald Seymour, 13th Duke of Somerset (30 December 1810 – 12 January 1891)
- Algernon St. Maur, 14th Duke of Somerset (22 December 1813 – 2 October 1894)
After his first wife's death in 1827 he married, secondly, Margaret Shaw-Stewart (d. Somerset House, Park Lane, London, 18 July 1880), daughter of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, of Blackhall, Renfrewshire, 5th Baronet, and his wife Catherine Maxwell, daughter of Sir William Maxwell, 3rd Baronet, in Marylebone, Portland Place, London, on 28 July 1836. There were no children from this marriage.[4]
In 1808, Somerset bought a house in Park Lane to act as his town house, which became known as Somerset House, and spent much of his time there.[5] In 1829 he bought Stover House in Devon, the Stover Canal and the Haytor quarries and Granite Tramway from George Templer.[6] Somerset died at Somerset House, in Park Lane, London, in August 1855, aged 80, and was buried like his second wife at Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
References
- ↑ The Complete Peerage vol.XIIpI, p.85.
- ↑ Michell, John Henry, Rev. The Tour of the Duke of Somerset, and the Rev. J. H. Michell, Through Parts of England, Wales, and Scotland in the Year 1795, R. Clay, London 1845
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 19486. p. 1026. 21 April 1837.
- ↑ http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/cgi-bin/gedlkup/n=royal?royal15537
- ↑ 'Park Lane', in Survey of London: volume 40: The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings) (1980), pp. 264-289, accessed 15 November 2010
- ↑ M.C. Ewans, The Haytor Granite Tramway and Stover Canal, David & Charles, Newton Abbott, 1966, p. 23
External links
| Honorary titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vacant Title last held by The Earl of Egmont |
Vice-Admiral of Somerset 1831–1855 |
Vacant |
| Peerage of England | ||
| Preceded by Webb Seymour |
Duke of Somerset 1793–1855 |
Succeeded by Edward Seymour |
| ||||||||||||||