THE elevation of the Seymours was extraordinary. They rose at once from the station of an ancient knightly family, to the highest pinnacle of the peerage, by the marriage of Henry VIII. to a daughter of this house. Among others who entered England with William the Conqueror, or soon after, were those of the name of Seymour, as the learned Camden and other genealogists agree; and that the name was antiently written St. Maur, and in old Latin records D. S. Mauro, deduced from a place of the same name in Normandy, b a The earliest and most certain information, concerning this family, and the place of their residence, is given us by Camden in his Britannia (in Monmouthshire) in these words: "Not far from Caldecot, are Woundy and Penhow, the seats formerly of the illustrious family of St. Maur, now corruptly called Seymour. For we find that about the year 1240 (in order to wrest Woundy out of the hands of the Welsh) Gilbert Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, was obliged to assist William of St. Maur; from whom was descended Roger of St. Maur, Knight, who married one of the heiresses of the illustrious John Beauchamp, the noble Baron of Hache, &c." Vincent in his MS. Baronage in the College of Arms, No. 20, a Camden's Remains, p. 113, 151. b There was an antient baronial family of the name of St. Maur, of whom Milo de St. Maur took part with the rebellious barons against King John; and Nicholas de St Maur had summons to parliament 8 Edward II. Alice, the heiress of this family, married Sir William Le Zouche, temp Hen. VI. Dugd. Bar. vol. ii. p. 89. They seem to have had no alliance to the present family of Seymour, and bore different arms; viz. Arg. 2 chevrons Gu a label of three points, Az. has transcribed the Latin record, viz. “Gilbertus Marescallus Comes Pembrochiæ tenetur præbere Dn° Willo de S. Mauro consilium et auxilium in quantum poterit, secundum leges Angliæ ad perquirendum Manerium de Woundy, de Morgano filio Hueli, tali conditione, quod si præd. Willus dictum Manerium perquirere poterit, dictus Gilbertus habebit medietatem dicti Manerij, et aliam medietatem faciat extendi dicto Willo, per probos, et legales homines ad hoc, ex eâque parte electos. Ita quod pro quâlibet summâ 201. redditus dictus Gilbertus dabit Willo de S. Mauro decem Libras. Et quod idem Willus de S. Mauro, teneat medietatem dicti Manerij in manu suâ donec inde plenam solutionem, sicut præscriptum est, receperit. Et si forte contigeret, quod eidem Willo de consilio dictus Gilbertus defecerit, dictus Willus de S. Mauro remaneat solutus et quietus de obligatione quam dictus Gilbertus fecit super dictum Manerium de Woundy." Whether the Earl of Pembroke performed his part of this covenant, it does not appear. But certain it is, that this Sir WILLIAM St. Maur (for Vincent assures us he was a Knight) soon after became master of Woundy, Penhow, &c. in Monmouthshire; and at the last of those places fixed the seat of his family. The church of Penhow was dedicated to St. Maur; their park there was called by their own name; and here likewise they had their castle, which continued in the family to Henry VIII's time: for, in a letter of the Earl of Hertford to Sir J. Thynne, he desires him to inform him, to whom his grandfather had sold Seymourcastle in Wales. Sir ROGER de St. Mauro was the son and heir of Sir William. He was Lord of the manor of Woundy, as appears by e an assize, 23 Henry III. wherein it was found, that Roger de St. Maur ought to have housebote and heybote at his house at Woundy, by the moiety of Magor-park, and upon his fee of Woundy by the feoffment of Sir Barth. de Moor. And in a grant of his of a messuage to Thomas Elliot, of the chapel at Woundy, his seal appendant was a pair of Wings, circumscribed Sigill. Rogeri de Seimor. This Sir Roger died before the 28 of King Edward I. ROGER de St. Mauro, the second of that christian name, was f the son and heir of Sir Roger. He was Lord of Penhow and Woundy, and was living in the 8th of King Edward II. as appears from an inquisition of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester; where it is mentioned, that Roger de Seymour, William de Gamage, and their tenants in Woundy, are answerable in pleas of the crown, in the court of Caerlton. This Roger married Joan, daughter and heir of ...... Damarel of Devonshire, whose arms were, per fess, gules and azure, three crescents, argent. His eldest son was JOHN Seymour, who died in 32 Edward III. leaving ROGER, his son and heir, eighteen years of age; after whose decease the inheritance went by his daughter to a family of the name of Bowlays, of Penhow in Monmouthshire, who bore the Seymour arms; and terminated in a daughter and heir, who was married to Sir George Somerset, a third son of Charles, first Earl of Worcester. The second son of Roger de St. Mauro and Joan his wife, was also called ROGER; who, by his marriage with Cecilia one of the daughters and heirs of John de Beauchamp, Baron of Hacche, &c. in com. Somerset, considerably added to the fortunes as well as the dignity of his family, and was the cause of their removal into Somersetshire, to their very great advantage. On this occasion I chuse to represent, in the learned Camden's own words, the great accession that accrued to the honour of the family, by this noble alliance. "From this William de St. Maur, who first settled at Woundy, descended Roger de St. Maur, Knight, who married one of the heiresses of the illustrious John Beauchamp, the noble Baron of Hache, who was descended from Sibyl, one of the coheiresses of that most puissant William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and from William Ferrars, Earl of Derby, Hugh de Vivon, and William Malet, men of eminent worth in their times. The nobility of all which, as also of several others have (as may be made evident) concentered in the Right Honourable Edward de St. Maur, or Seymour, now Earl of Hertford, a singular encourager of virtue and learning; for which qualification he is deservedly famous." The said Cicilia, wife of Roger Seymour, in 36 Edward III. had assigned for her share, on the partition of the inheritance of the Beauchamps, 8 the manors of Hache, Shepton-Beauchamp, Murifield, and the third part of the manor of Shepton-Malet, in com. Somerset ; also certain lands in Sturminster-Marshal, in com. Dorset; the manors of Boultbury, and Haberton, in com. Rot. Fin. 36 Edward III. m. 27, claus. 42 Edward III. m. 12. Devon; the manors of Dourton, in com. Bucks; Little-Haw, in com. Suff.; and two parts of the manor of Selling; in com. Kanc. She survived her husband, and died in 1393, seised of the manor of Shepton-Beauchamp, and the advowson of the church, Roger Seymour, son of Sir William Seymour, being her grandson and heir, and then of the age of twenty-seven years. i Which Sir WILLIAM, in 36 Edward III. attended the Prince of Wales into Gascony, and, on that account, had the King's letters of protection, dated at Bamburge, February 8th, the same year. He sometimes resided at Woundy, as appears by his deed, bearing date there in 36 Edward III. wherein he is stiled William Seymour, Miles, filius et hæres Rogeri Seymour, Militis. He had to wife Margaret, daughter and heir of Simon de Brockburn, of Brockburn, in the county of Hertford, by Joan, sister and heir to Sir Peter de la Mare, Knight, and died in 15 Richard II. * leaving the before-mentioned Roger, his son and heir, of full age. This ROGER married Maud (or Margaret) daughter and coheir to Sir William Esturmi, or Sturmy, of Chadham, in com. Wilts, Knight, Lord of Wolf-hall in the same county, whose ancestors were bailiffs and guardians of the forest of Savernake, by right of inheritance, from the time of Henry II. as Camden has observed in his Britannia, in Wiltshire; and that their hunters horn, of a mighty bigness, and tipt with silver, was, in his time, kept by the Earl of Hertford. The before-mentioned Roger Seymour died, leaving issue, John his son and heir in minority, who, by inquisition taken in the county of Gloucester, in 1422, 10 Henry V. was found cousin and heir to Sir Peter de la Mare, Knight, viz. son of Margaret, daughter of Joan, sister of the said Peter; and that John, son of the said Roger Seymour, was next heir, and of the age of twenty-years. 1 Which JOHN Seymour was a very noted and active person, having been sheriff of several counties, and in other public offices. In 9 Henry VI. he was sheriffm of the county of Southampton, and the year following for Wiltshire. In 12 Henry VI. when the title of the house of York was set on foot, and all persons of note in the several counties of England were summoned to take the Ex Collect. Rev. Harbin. i Rymer's Foed. tom. v. p. 845. 1 oaths, to preserve the peace for themselves and retainers, he appeared in Wiltshire; and is the first mentioned in the list after the Knights in that county. He was that year Sheriff of Dorset and Somersetshire, and knighted before the 15th year of Henry VI. when he was again sheriff of the county of Southampton. He was likewise in the same office of Wiltshire, in the 29th of Henry VI and one of the knights for the said county," in the parliament held at Reading in 31 Henry VI. also the year following was a third time sheriff of Southampton; and departed this life in the 4th year of the reign of Edward IV. He had issue by Isabel his wife, daughter and heir of William Mac-Williams of Gloucestershire, Esq. JOHN, who was P sheriff of Wiltshire in 36 Henry VI. and died the year before his father, having to wife Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir Robert Coker, of Lawrence Lydiard, in com. Somerset, re-married to Nicholas Carew of Haccomb, Knight, by whom he left two sons, John, and Humphrey Seymour, of Evinswinden, who married Elizabeth, daughter and one of the heirs of Thomas Winslow of Burton, in com. Oxon, from whom the Seymours of Oxfordshire descended. JOHN Seymour, Esq. the eldest son, was fourteen years of age at the death of his grandfather. He took to his first wife Elizabeth, daughter to Sir George Darell, of Littlecote, in com. Wilts, by Margaret his wife, daughter of John Lord Stourton. The issue of this John Seymour by her were four sons, and as many daughters; viz. first, Sir John Seymour, hereafter men. tioned; second, Sir George Seymour, Sheriff of Wiltshire in 14 Henry VII.; third, Sir Robert Seymour; and fourth, Sir William Seymour, made Knight of the Bath at the marriage of Prince Arthur, eldest son to Henry VII. and by his will, dated Septemper 3d, 1503, 19 Henry VII. orders his body to be buried in Joseph of Arimathea's chapel in the abbey of Glastonbury. The daughters were, Margaret, married to Sir William Wadham; Jane, the wife of Sir John Huddleston of Warleston, in com. Cumbr. Elizabeth, espoused to John Crofts, Esq. and Catherine, who died a maiden. r He had also a second wife, daughter of Robert Hardon, by whom he had issue Roger Seymour, Esq. who left four daughters his coheirs. " MS. penes B. Willis, Arm. Fuller, ut antea, p. 161. • Vincent, ut antea. |