Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/332

 and in 1782 the Latona, which was attached to the fleet under Howe at the relief of Gibraltar. After the peace, he, with his younger brother, George, and ‘Jack’ Payne [see ], took a house in Conduit Street, where, leading an irregular and convivial life, he was admitted to the intimacy of the Prince of Wales; from this fate he was in great measure rescued by his marriage on 3 April 1785 to the Lady Anne Horatia Waldegrave, daughter of the Duchess of Gloucester by her first marriage to James, second earl Waldegrave [q. v.] During the Spanish armament of 1790 he commanded the Canada, and while in her received an accidental blow on the head from the lead, as soundings were being taken. He had in consequence to live for a time in retirement in the country. By February 1793 he was able to undertake active service, and was appointed to the Leviathan, in which he accompanied Lord Hood to the Mediterranean. After the occupation of Toulon he was sent home with despatches, but returned at once and resumed command of the Leviathan, which was shortly afterwards sent home to join the fleet under Lord Howe. He had thus a distinguished part in the actions of 28 and 29 May and 1 June 1794. On the death of his father he dropped the name of Conway, by which he had till then been known, and for the future appeared in the list of captains as Seymour.

Early in 1795 he was moved into the Sanspareil, and on his promotion to flag rank, 1 June 1795, he hoisted his flag on board the same ship, in which he took part in the action off Lorient on 23 June. In March 1795 he was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty, and so he continued till 1798, without, however, taking any active share in the work of the board, as he was at sea, with his flag still in the Sanspareil, for almost the whole time. On 14 Feb. 1799 he became a vice-admiral, and during the spring commanded a detached squadron off Brest. In the summer he was appointed commander-in-chief at Jamaica, where, with his flag in the Prince of Wales, he arrived in August. With the exception of the capture of Surinam in the August of 1800, his command was uneventful, and on 11 Sept. 1801 he died, while cruising for his health off Jamaica. His body was sent to England. His portrait by Hoppner, which belonged to his grandson, Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour, lord Alcester [q. v.], was engraved. By his wife, the Lady Horatia, he had issue four daughters and three sons, the eldest of whom was Sir George Francis Seymour [q. v.]

[Naval Chronicle, ii. 358, vi. 462; Ralfe's Nav. Biogr. ii. 126; James's Naval History; Lists of Sea Officers; Foster's Peerage, s.n. ‘Hertford.’]

 SEYMOUR, JAMES (1702–1752), animal-painter, son of James Seymour, a banker and amateur artist, who lived on terms of intimacy with Sir Peter Lely and Sir Christopher Wren and died in 1739, was born in 1702. He gained a great reputation for his hunting subjects and portraits of racehorses, many of which were engraved by Thomas Burford [q. v.] and Richard Houston [q. v.] He was employed by Charles Seymour, sixth duke of Somerset [q. v.], to decorate a room at Petworth with portraits of his racehorses, and Walpole tells a curious story of his truculent behaviour to the duke when the latter took offence at Seymour claiming relationship to him. Seymour's picture of the famous carriage match against time at Newmarket in 1750, which was at one time in the collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds, now belongs to Colonel Smith-Barry, M.P. The Duke of Grafton owns his ‘Mr. Delmé's Foxhounds,’ and several of his hunting and racing works are in the possession of Sir Walter Gilbey, bart. Seymour's sketches of the horse in its various attitudes show extraordinary power, but he never acquired much skill as a painter, his technique being hard and coarse and his colouring unpleasant. He died on 30 June 1752.

[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Dallaway and Wornum; Sports Exhibition Catalogue (Grosvenor Gallery), 1891; Gent. Mag. 1752, p. 336.]  SEYMOUR, JANE (1509?–1537), third queen of Henry VIII. [See .]

SEYMOUR, MICHAEL (1768–1834), rear-admiral, second son of the Rev. John Seymour (d 1795), one of a younger branch of the family of the dukes of Somerset which settled in Ireland in the time of Elizabeth, was born at the Glebe House, Pallas, co. Limerick, on 8 Nov. 1768. By his mother, Griselda, daughter and coheiress of William Hobart of High Mount, co. Cork, he was related to the family of the earls of Buckinghamshire. He entered the navy in November 1780 on board the Merlin sloop with Captain James Luttrell [q. v.], whom he followed in March 1781 to the Portland; in April 1782 to the Mediator, and in April 1783 to the Ganges. When Luttrell retired from the navy in September 1783, Seymour was moved into the Europa, going out to Jamaica with the flag of Vice-admiral James Gambier (1723–1789) [q. v.] From the Europa he was transferred to the Antelope,