Seymour family

Wilhelmina, Duchess of Cleveland (1819–1901), in her 1889 work The Battle Abbey Roll with some Account of the Norman Lineages[1] wrote as follows of the Esturmy family, which held the estates of Tottenham, Wulfhall and the Savernake Forest:

"Esturny for L'Estourmi, the true version of the name, as given on the Dives Roll; without any doubt a sobriquet, and, I am bound to add, to me, at least, incomprehensible. In England the first letter was often dropped, and it became Sturmy, Sturmid (as in Domesday), Stormey, Sturmer, Sturmyn, &c, while in Normandy it has survived to the present day as Etourmy. Jean L'Estourmi, a younger brother of the two companions-in-arms of the Conqueror, had remained at home; and became the ancestor of "a family that from the most remote antiquity held a high rank among the nobles of the province."—Nobiliaire de Normandie. In the seventeenth century they were Seigneurs de St. Privat; and in 1721 of Joinville. They bear D'azur a une fontaine d'argent, surmontee d'un renard couche de mime. Nothing can well be more unlike the coat of the English house: Argent, three demi-lions rampant gules. The two brothers who came over at the Conquest, Richard and Ralph, were both land-owners in 1086; Richard, as the elder, held of the King, and Ralph as a mesne-lord under him in Hants, Wilts, and Surrey. Cowsfield-Esturmy in Wiltshire, and Lysse-Sturmy, in Hampshire, were two of his manors. His descendants continued, for a long succession of generations, Foresters in fee of Savernake. "The Esturmies," says Camden, "from the time of King Henrie the Second were by right of inheritance the Bailiffes and Guardians of the Forest of Savernac lying hard by, which is of great name for plentie of good game, and for a kinde of Ferne there, that yeeldeth a most pleasing savour. In remembrance thereof, their Hunter's horn of a mighty bignesse and tipt with silver, the Earle of Hertford keepeth unto this day, as a monument of his progenitors." They founded the Hospital of the Holy Trinity at Easton, near Marlborough, where a Master (appointed at their presentation to the Bishop), was bound to have his "continual residence, to keep hospitality, and to find five priests to say daily masses for the founder's souls." Besides this "great inheritance" in Wiltshire, they possessed in Hampshire "large holdings at Odiham, Dogmersfield, Winchfield, and Elvetham. In 1206 Henry Esturmy paid at Porchester sixty out of one hundred capons promised in consideration of leave to break up land at Culefield; and in 1280 another Henry was summoned to show warrant for his taking the assize of bread and beer at Elvetham, and pleaded that his ancestors had enjoyed the privilege since the time of King Richard I."—Woodward's Hampshire. A third Henry, who was Sheriff of Wilts in 1362, and married Margaret, daughter and co-heir of Sir John de L'Ortie of Axford, was the father of the last of the line, Sir William Esturmy of Chedham and Wolfs Hall, living temp. Richard II. His only daughter Maud married Roger Seymour, ancestor of the Dukes of Somerset, to whom the great domain of the Esturmies thus accrued. His descendants, transplanted into Wiltshire from their distant home on the Welsh border, held it close upon three hundred years. The (Esturmy) family was represented in many other parts of England—in the Eastern Counties, in Worcestershire, Shropshire, and Yorkshire. In Shropshire, "the first of this race," says Eyton, "that occurs to my notice is Hugh Esturmi, amerced five marks in 1176 for trespass in the Forests of Worcestershire." This Hugh Esturmi came from Sussex, where his father exchanged some land near Chichester with the Earl of Arundel; and Hugh himself received from the same Earl—William de Albini, the first of the name—a grant of half a knight's fee in Offham.—v. Dallaway's Sussex. There is no further mention of the family in Sussex, and their connection with Shropshire had ceased in the first part of the fourteenth century. Stanford-Sturmy and Sutton-Sturmy bear their name in Worcestershire. "We find in the old White Book of the Bishopric, Willielmus Esturmy tenet Rushoke de dono domini Regis. They continued in possession in the reign of Ed. I., when Geoffrey Sturmy held it of the barony of William de Beauchamp, and it belonged to many lords of that name. Laurence Sturmy is reported in the Exchequer to have had it 28 Ed. I.; it then descended to Harry Sturmy, and 20 Ed. III. to Henry Sturmy his heir. Sutton-Sturmy was in early ages the habitation of that Sturmy who distinguished himself by his zeal for the recovery of the Holy Land, and is buried in Tenbury church. This memorable name of Sturmy ended in Rushoke 7 Hen. VI., and the lands were dispersed among the general heirs of Henry Sturmy."—Nash's Worcestershire. Robert Sturmy was knight of the shire in 1309 and 1315; and summoned for service against the Scots in 1322. The Yorkshire Esturmies (there, again, abbreviated to Sturmy) were Lords of Dromonby, in Cleveland, for four generations; their heiress married a younger son of Sir Robert Constable of Flamborough.—Grave's Cleveland. William Sturmy, in 1316, was joint Lord of Worsall, Faceby, and Skutterskelfe in Yorkshire.—Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs. At the same date, and in the same record, we find John Sturmy, joint Lord of Stratton and Thorp, Fritton, Skelton, and Hardwick; and Walter Sturmy, joint Lord of Surlingham, Rockwell, and Brandon; both in Norfolk. John was Admiral of the Fleet in 1325. Robert le Sturmy had received Stratton by grant from the Malherbes; "and gave his name to Sturmyn's or Sturmer's Manor, of which his son was Lord in 1262. The heiress of this family, Anne Sturmer, married Ralph Drury in the time of Edward IV."—Blomfield's Norfolk. Another contemporary family was seated at Buxhall in Suffolk: of whom Sir William Esturmy was High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk from 1210 to 1214. "In 1254 his grandson held the manor of Buxhall. About 1367 the last Sir William Esturmy died, leaving one daughter Rhosia, married to William Clement of Stow."—Hollingworth's History of Stowmarket. The name is found in Somersetshire in 1669; and certainly existed for 100 years after that; for it is inscribed on a pyramid of variegated marble in Cheltenham Church, which bears the three demi-lions that appertained to it, and commemorates Henry Sturmy, obt. 1772".

Sir William Esturmy (c. 1356 – 1427)[2]) was a Speaker of the House of Commons, a Knight of the Shire and an hereditary Warden of the royal forest of Savernake Forest. he was the son of Geoffrey Sturmy (died 1381) and nephew and heir of Sir Henry Sturmy of Wolfhall. He inherited in 1381 and was knighted by October 1388. He held the post of hereditary warden of Savernake Forest from 1381 to 1417 and from 1420 until his death in 1427. He served as knight of the shire for Hampshire in 1384 and again in 1390, and also eight times for Wiltshire and twice for Devon between then and 1422. He was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1404. He was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire for 1418. He held a number of public posts and served several times as an ambassador abroad. He married Joan Crawthorne, the widow of Sir John Beaumont of Shirwell and Saunton in North Devon, by whom he had no male progeny, only two daughters and co-heiresses including Maud Esturmy, wife of Roger II Seymour (c.1367/70-1420),[3] feudal barony of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset, by whom she had a son John Seymour (died 1464). He died at Wolfhall in 1427.

The Seymour family (anciently de St. Maur) is earliest recorded seated at Penhow Castle in Glamorgan in the 12th century. The parish church of Penhow is dedicated to St Maur. It should however be differentiated from the Anglo-Norman "baronial family" named St Maur, created Baron St Maur by writ in 1314, who bore different armorials (Argent, two chevrons gules) and which originated at the manor of St. Maur, near Avranches, in Normandy.[4]

No conclusive evidence exists to confirm the "baronial St Maurs" and the "Seymours, feudal barons of Hatch Beauchamp" as derived from a common stock, however Camden believed this to be most probable.[5] The two families adopted different arms at the start of the age of heraldry, c. 1200–1215, with the "baronial St Maurs" bearing: Argent, two chevrons gules. Certainly the "baronial St Maurs" died out in the male line in 1409 when their heir became Baron Zouche of Haryngworth, namely William la Zouche, 5th Baron Zouche (c. 1402 – 1462), whose son was William la Zouche, 6th Baron Zouche, 7th Baron St Maur (c. 1432 – 1468/69). One of the heirs of the St Maur/Zouche family was the Bampfield family of Poltimore in Devon (later Baron Poltimore) which inherited the Devon manor of North Molton from the Zouche family.[6] For the early history of the Seymour family see: Feudal barony of Hatch Beauchamp.

Roger II Seymour (c. 1367/70 – 1420), who married Maud Esturmy (alias Esturmi, etc.), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Esturmy (died 1427), of Wolfhall in Wiltshire, Speaker of the House of Commons and hereditary Warden of Savernake Forest in Wiltshire. Following his wife's inheritance, he moved his principal seat from Undy to Wolfhall.

Sir John Seymour(c. 1395/1402 – 1464), son and heir, of Wulfhall in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, and of Hatch Beauchamp. He served as Member of Parliament for Ludgershall in 1422 and Knight of the Shire for Wiltshire in 1435, 1439, and 1445[7] He was also High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1431–1432, having previously served as High Sheriff of Hampshire.[8] He married Isabel William (alias Williams) (died 1486), daughter of Mark William,[9] a merchant and Mayor of Bristol,[10]

John Seymour (died 1491), grandson and heir, son of John Seymour (1425–1463) who pre-deceased his father. His first wife was Elizabeth Darrell (born c. 1451), daughter of Sir George Darrell (died c. 1474) of Littlecote, Wiltshire, by his wife Margaret Stourton (born c. 1433), a daughter of John Stourton, 1st Baron Stourton, and of Margery or Marjory Wadham, daughter of the Justice of the Common Pleas, Sir John Wadham of Merryfield and Edge.

Sir John Seymour (1474–1536), eldest son from 1st marriage, knighted in 1497 after the Battle of Deptford Bridge, the father of Queen Jane Seymour (1508–1537), 3rd wife of King Henry VIII.

The arms of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset: Quarterly, 1st and 4th: Or, on a pile gules between six fleurs-de-lys azure three lions of England (special grant by his nephew King Edward VI); 2nd and 3rd: Gules, two wings conjoined in lure or (Seymour)[11] These arms concede the positions of greatest honour, the 1st & 4th quarters, to a special grant of arms incorporating the fleurs-de-lys and lions of the royal arms of Plantagenet

Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, KG, (c. 1500 – 1552), eldest son and heir, uncle of King Edward VI (1547–1553) and Lord Protector of England (1547–9). in 1536[11] on his sister's marriage to King Henry VIII, he was created Viscount Beauchamp of Hache and in 1537 was created by the same king Earl of Hertford. He received his dukedom together with the subsidiary title Baron Seymour on the accession of his nephew to the throne in 1547. In 1531 he had served as Sheriff of Somerset and during this time he probably resided at Hache Court.[12] Thomas Gerard in his "Description of Somerset" (1633) wrote as follows:[13]

"The mansion house in which theis nobleman lived which I went to see is soe ruined that were it not called Hach Court you would not believe that it were any of the remaynes of a Barons house. yet I sawe in the Hall Beauchampes Armes and in a little Chappell on the top of the house Seymer's, Winges "Or" in a red shield, and going a little further to the church to see some monuments I find not one, the church having bin new built long since the Beauchamps time".

The Duke was executed in 1552 for felony on the order of his nephew King Edward VI, and was attainted by Parliament shortly thereafter when all his titles were forfeited.

It was probably Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (1539–1621), son and heir of the 1st Duke, of nearby Wulfhall, who in about 1575 built the first Tottenham House, then known as Totnam Lodge, and enclosed its surrounding land to form a deer park.[14] He was the son and heir of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (executed 1522), brother of Queen Jane Seymour. The Seymours were hereditary Wardens of Savernake Forest, which office together with most of their Wiltshire estates had been inherited by marriage to the daughter and heiress of Sir William Esturmy (died 1427), of Wulfhall, Speaker of the House of Commons and hereditary Warden of the royal forest of Savernake. The house was still known as the Lodge in 1623, in which year the parish register of Great Bedwyn records the baptism of the 1st Earl's great-granddaughter Frances Seymour, the daughter of Sir Francis Seymour (c. 1590 – 1664) (later created Baron Seymour of Trowbridge), which was performed "at the Lodge in the Great Parke by Henrie Taylor, Vicar of Great Bedwin".[15]

William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1587–1660), grandson, inherited the estates on the death of his grandfather the 1st Earl, his father having predeceased the latter.

William Seymour, 3rd Duke of Somerset (1652–1671), grandson of the 2nd Duke. He inherited at the age of 8 and died aged 19 when his heir became his uncle John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset (1629–1675). However, the heir to his estates in Hampshire, namely Netley Abbey (where the 1st Earl had died) and Hound, was his sister Elizabeth Seymour, wife of Thomas Bruce, 2nd earl of Ailesbury, which were soon sold in 1676 to the Marquess of Worcester.

John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset (1629–1675), uncle, inherited the estate in 1671 on the death of his nephew the 3rd Duke, and in 1672 he rebuilt Totnam Lodge and redesigned the deer park, which at that date included long tree-lined walks and a deer "chase".[16] The topographer John Aubrey (1626–1697) visited Wiltshire in 1672 and wrote of Wulfhall, about one mile to the south:[17]

"The ancient seate of the Sturmeys, which house has been much bigger, and great parte pulled downe within these 10 years to build the house of Tocknam Parke. I remember a long gallery. It was never but a timber house, v(ide) Camden. Here is a very long barne of ..... bays, and 3 porches of timber and thatcht; in this barne was the wedding kept for Queen Jane, then hung with tapistry. Hard by is Tocknam Park, which is a most parkely ground and romancy pleasant place; several walks of great lengths of trees planted. Here the Duke of Somerset hath his best seate, which is now (1672) to be made a compleat new pile of good architecture; both in the parish of Bedwyn Magna".

He did not live long to enjoy his new house and died in 1675, aged 46, only three years after having started the rebuilding.

The 4th Duke of Somerset was childless, and faced with the Dukedom passing by law to his first cousin once removed and heir male the 5th Duke, who was seated at Marlborough Castle in Wiltshire, he bequeathed the unentailed Seymour estates to his niece Elizabeth Seymour, the wife of Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury (1656–1741), and thus the Seymour estates passed to the Bruce family.

The arms of Bruce consist of: Or, a saltire and chief gules on a canton argent a lion rampant azure.

Elizabeth Seymour's son and heir was Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury (died 1747), of Houghton House in the parish of Maulden, in Bedfordshire, who in 1721 rebuilt Totnam Lodge to the design of his brother-in-law the pioneering Palladian architect Lord Burlington. Henry Flitcroft was the executant architect.[18] The 3rd Earl added wings to Burlington's block in the 1730s, and also built in 1743 a Banqueting House in the park to the design of Burlington (demolished in 1824).[19] In 1746, one year before the death of the 3rd Earl, who had no son, it was apparent that on his death the Earldom of Ailesbury would become extinct and his other Earldom of Elgin would pass to a distant cousin and heir male. The former Seymour estates however he was free to dispose of as he pleased. He persuaded the king to create him Baron Bruce of Tottenham, with special remainder to his younger nephew Hon. Thomas Brudenell (1739–1814), 4th son of George Brudenell, 3rd Earl of Cardigan (1685–1732) by his wife Elizabeth Bruce, to whom he also bequeathed his estates with the proviso that he should adopt the additional surname of Bruce, thus having created a new noble family bearing doubly the Bruce name, to continue the custodianship of the Seymour lands.

The arms of Brudenell consist of: Argent, a chevron gules between three caps of maintenance (azure?) their fronts turned towards the sinister.[20]

On the 3rd Earl's death in 1747 his 8 year old nephew Thomas Brudenell duly became Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Baron Bruce of Tottenham, having inheited the barony, the estates and the Wardenship of Savernake Forest. In 1776 King George III created him Earl of Ailesbury. In 1814 he was succeeded by his son Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury (1773–1856).

Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury (1773–1856) in 1818 added stables to the design of Thomas Cundy II. In 1821 he was granted three further titles, Viscount Savernake, Earl Bruce and Marquess of Ailesbury. In 1823–26 he enlarged and re-modelled the house, again to designs of Thomas Cundy.[21]

George Brudenell-Bruce succeeded to his father's titles in 1856. A large church for the estate, St Katherine's, was built 0.6 miles (1 km) north of the house in 1861 by T.H. Wyatt for the marchioness, Mary Caroline (née Herbert).[22]