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 and her grandson, Roger Seymour, by his marriage with Maud, daughter and heir of Sir William Esturmi or Sturmy, acquired Wolf Hall in Wiltshire. The Protector's father, Sir John, was great-great-grandson of this last Roger. Born about 1476, he succeeded his father in 1492, was knighted by Henry VII for his services against the Cornish rebels at Blackheath in 1497, and was sheriff of Wiltshire in 1508. He was present at the sieges of Tournay and Therouenne in 1513, at the two interviews between Henry VIII and Francis in 1520 and 1532, and died on 21 Dec. 1536. He married Margaret (d. 1550), eldest daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlested, Suffolk; her grandfather, Sir Philip Wentworth, had married Mary, daughter of John, seventh lord Clifford, whose mother Elizabeth was daughter of Henry Percy (‘Hotspur’) and great-great-granddaughter of Edward III (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 51–2; Harl. MS. 6177). Sir John Seymour had ten children, of whom, John, the eldest, died unmarried on 15 July 1520, as did two other sons, John and Anthony, and a daughter Margery; Edward the Protector; Henry, who took no part in politics, was executor to his mother in 1550, and died in 1578, leaving three sons from whom there is no issue remaining, and seven daughters, from one of whom, Jane, are descended the barons Rodney; Thomas, baron Seymour of Sudeley [q. v.]; Jane Seymour [see ]; Elizabeth, who married, first, Sir Anthony Ughtred, secondly, in August 1537, Cromwell's son Gregory, and thirdly William Paulet, first marquis of Winchester [q. v.]; and Dorothy who married Sir Clement Smith (inscription in Bedwyn Magna Church printed in, pp. 375–6).

From the inscription on an anonymous portrait at Sudeley (Cat. Tudor Exhib. No. 196), Edward appears to have been born about 1506, and is said to have been educated first at Oxford, and then at Cambridge (, Athenæ Oxon. i. 210;, Athenæ Cant. i. 107). In 1514 he was retained as ‘enfant d'honneur’ to Mary Tudor on her marriage with Louis XII of France. On 15 July 1517 he was associated with his father in a grant of the constableship of Bristol. He was probably with his father in attendance upon Charles V on his visit to England in 1522, as Chapuys afterwards mentioned Seymour as having been ‘in Charles's service’ (Letters and Papers, x. 1069). He joined the expedition of the Duke of Suffolk which landed at Calais on 24 Aug. 1523, and was present at the capture of Bray, Roye, and Montdidier, being knighted by Suffolk at Roye on 1 Nov. In the following year he became an esquire of the king's household. On 12 Jan. 1524–5 he was placed on the commission for the peace in Wiltshire, and in the same year became master of the horse to the Duke of Richmond. In July 1527 he accompanied Wolsey on his embassy to the French king (Chron. of Calais, p. 37), and in 1528 was granted some lands of the monasteries dissolved in consequence of Wolsey's visitation. On 25 March 1529 he was made steward of the manors of Henstridge, Somerset, and Charlton, Wiltshire, and in 1530 he received with his brother-in-law, Sir Anthony Ughtred, Wolsey's manors of Kexby, Leppington, and Barthorpe, all in Yorkshire. On 12 Sept. following he was appointed esquire of the body to Henry VIII, who showed him much favour, borrowing from, and occasionally lending, him money (see Letters and Papers, vols. iv. v. and vi. passim). In 1532, Seymour and his father accompanied Henry to Boulogne to meet Francis I. In the following year he became involved in a dispute with Arthur Plantagenet, viscount Lisle [q. v.], and his stepson, John Dudley, afterwards duke of Northumberland [q. v.], about some lands in Somerset, which lasted many years, and is the subject of innumerable letters in the Record Office (cf., Letters of Illustrious Ladies, iii. 41; , Letters and Papers, vols. vii–xii.). In March 1534–5 he was granted various lands in Hampshire belonging to the convent of the Holy Trinity, Christchurch, London, and in the following October Henry VIII visited him at his manor of Elvetham in the same county. In March 1535–6 he was made a gentleman of the privy chamber, and a few days later, with his wife Anne and his sister Jane, was installed in the palace at Greenwich in apartments which the king could reach through a private passage (Letters and Papers, x. 601). On 5 June, a week after his sister's marriage to the king, Seymour was created Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, Somerset. Two days later he received a grant of numerous manors in Wiltshire, including Ambresbury, Easton Priory, Chippenham, and Maiden Bradley (one of the seats of the present Duke of Somerset). On 7 July he was made governor and captain of Jersey, and in August chancellor of North Wales. He had livery of his father's lands in the following year, was on 30 Jan. granted the manor of Muchelney, Somerset, and on 22 May sworn of the privy council. In the same month he was on the commission appointed to try Lords Darcy and Hussey for their share in the ‘pilgrimage of grace.’ On 15 Oct. he carried the Princess