SEYMOUR, Algernon, Earl of Hertford (1684-1750).

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

27 Nov. 1705 - 1708
1708 - 23 Nov. 1722

Family and Education

b. 11 Nov. 1684, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, by his 1st w. Elizabeth, da. and h. of Joceline Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, wid. of (i) Henry Cavendish (afterwards Percy), Earl of Ogle, and (ii) Thomas Thynne, M.P., of Longleat, Wilts.; bro. of Lord Percy Seymour. m. Mar. 1715, Frances, da. and coh. of Hon. Henry Thynne, M.P. (s. and h. of Thomas Thynne, M.P., 1st Visct. Weymouth), 1s. d.v.p. 1da. suc. mother (in error) as Lord Percy 23 Nov. 1722; fa. as 7th Duke of Somerset 2 Dec. 1748, cr. Baron Warkworth of Warkworth Castle, Northumb. and Earl of Northumberland 2 Oct. 1749, Baron Cockermouth and Earl of Egremont 3 Oct. 1749.

Offices Held

Ld. lt. Suss. 1706-d.; col. 15 Ft. 1709-15; gov. Tynemouth castle 1710-d., gent. of the bedchamber to Prince of Wales 1714-Dec. 1717; col. 2 Life Gds. 1715-40; brig.-gen. 1727; gov. Minorca 1727-42; maj.-gen. 1735; lt.-gen. 1739; col. R. Horse Gds. 1740-Feb. 1742, Mar. 1742-d.; gov. Guernsey 1742-d.; gen. 1747.

Biography

At the accession of George I, Lord Hertford, an army officer, was appointed to a post in the Prince of Wales’s bedchamber. Returned in 1715 as a Whig for Northumberland, where his mother had inherited the Percy estates, he proposed Spencer Compton as Speaker on 17 Mar. following. In January 1716 he moved for the impeachment of Lord Kenmure, one of the rebel lords. He voted against the Government on Lord Cadogan in June 1717 but on the breach between George I and the Prince of Wales later that year he resigned his place in the Prince’s bedchamber.1 He moved the Address in November 1719, and on 16 Oct. 1722 took the chair at a committee of the whole House on the bill to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. On his mother’s death in November of that year he was summoned (in error) to the House of Lords as Lord Percy.2 In 1749 George II created him Earl of Northumberland with remainder to Sir Hugh Smithson, husband of his daughter Elizabeth, the heiress to the Percy estates, and Earl of Egremont, with remainder to Sir Charles Wyndham, heir to his Sussex and Cumberland estates under the will of his father, the 6th Duke of Somerset. He died 7 Feb. 1750.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. HMC Portland, v. 543.
  • 2. See CP.