Family and Education

b. c.1563, 1st s. of Edward Seymour (s. of Protector Somerset) of Berry Pomeroy by Jane, da. of John Walshe, justice of the common pleas, of Cathanger, Som. m. Elizabeth, da. of Sir Arthur Champernown, of Dartington, 5s. inc. Edward Seymour II 4da. suc. fa. 1593. cr. Bt. 1611.

Offices Held

J.p. Devon from c.1583, rem. 1586, rest. 1590, dep. v.-adm. 1586, sheriff 1595-6, dep. lt. 1596.

Biography

Seymour was an obvious choice to take his turn as knight of the shire for Devon, and, as such, he may have taken part in the committees on the subsidy (26 Feb. 1593), a legal matter (9 Mar.), kerseys (23 Mar. and 2 Apr.), the order of business (3 Nov. 1601), procedure (11 Nov.), the Severn harbour (21 Nov.) and monopolies (23 Nov.). He had a particular reason for being in the 1601 Parliament as a bill dealing with the Seymour estates that had descended from the Duke of Somerset came into the Commons then; it did not reach the committee stage in 1601, but it did in 1604.

Seymour spent a good deal on his home at Berry Pomeroy. His father had purchased Totnes castle in 1591 but there is no indication that he could exercise parliamentary patronage in the borough during Elizabeth’s reign. Seymour sometimes appeared at court in the 1590s and was on good terms with Sir Robert Cecil and with the lord lieutenant of Devon, the Earl of Bath. Seymour died 11 Apr. 1613.

Roberts thesis; D’Ewes, 474, 496, 507, 513, 624, 635, 647, 649, 657; CJ, i. 237; PCC admon. act bk. 1613, f. 118.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes