John Seymour

Sir John Seymour, Knight banneret ( – 21 December 1536) was an English soldier and a courtier who served both Henry VII and Henry VIII. Born into a prominent gentry family, he is best known as the father of Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour, and hence the maternal grandfather of king Edward VI of England.

Family The Seymours were descendants of an Anglo-Norman family that took its name from St. Maur-sur-Loire in Touraine. William de St. Maur in 1240 held the manors of Penhow and Woundy (now called Undy) in Monmouthshire. William's great-grandson, Sir Roger de St. Maur, had two sons: John, whose granddaughter conveyed these manors by marriage into the family of Bowlay of Penhow, who bore the Seymour arms; and Sir Roger (c. 1308 – before 1366), who married Cicely, eldest sister and heir of John de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp. Cicely brought to the Seymours the manor of Hache, Somerset, and her grandson, Roger Seymour, by his marriage with Maud, daughter and heir of Sir William Esturmy, acquired Wulfhall (or Wolf Hall) in the parish of Great Bedwyn in the Savernake Forest, Wiltshire. Sir John Seymour was a great-great-grandson of this Roger Seymour.

Sir John Seymour was born around 1474, the eldest son of John Seymour of Wulfhall, by his marriage to Elizabeth Darell (or Darrell). He married Margery, the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead, Suffolk, and his wife Anne Say. Anne was the daughter of Sir John Say and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Lawrence Cheney (or Cheyne) and Elizabeth Cokayne. Margery Wentworth's grandfather, Sir Philip Wentworth, had married Mary, daughter of John Clifford, 7th Baron de Clifford, whose mother Elizabeth was daughter of Henry Percy (Hotspur) and great-great-granddaughter of Edward III. Margery was renowned for her beauty as well as her quiet and gentle demeanour, and she came to the attention of the poet John Skelton.

Career Seymour succeeded his father in 1492 and was knighted in the field by Henry VII for his services against the Cornish rebels at Blackheath on 17 June 1497. He was made Knight banneret in 1513. He was present at the sieges of Thérouanne and Tournay in 1513 as well as the two meetings between Henry VIII and Francis I: the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, and again in 1532.

Offices held His offices included: Warden, Savernake Forest, Wiltshire October 1491 Sheriff, Wiltshire 1498–1499, 1507–1508, 1518–19, 1524 – January 1526 Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset 1515–1516, 1526–1527 Justice of the peace Wiltshire 1499–1536 Steward, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham's lands, Wiltshire by 1503 Knight of the body by 1509 Constable and door-ward, Bristol Castle, Gloucestershire August 1509, jointly. (with son Edward) July 1517 Under captain, Dragon of Greenwich 1512 Commissioner subsidy, Wiltshire 1512, 1514, 1515, Wiltshire and Salisbury 1523 Commissioner musters, Wiltshire 1513 Commissioner loan 1524 Steward, manor of Kingston Lisle, Berkshire before 1513 Forester, Grovely, Wiltshire February 1526 Groom of the Bedchamber 1532

Marriage and issue

Sir John Seymour married Margery Wentworth on 22 October 1494. The couple had ten children: John Seymour (died 15 July 1510), eldest son and heir apparent who predeceased his father without progeny. His monumental brass survives set into the floor of Great Bedwyn church, inscribed as follows: "Here lyeth the body of John Seymour sonne and here of Sr John Seymour, Knight, & of Margery oon of the daughters of Sr Henry Wentworth, Knight, which decessed ye xv day of July the yer of or Lord MVCX on whos soule Jh(es)u have m(er)cy & of yor charitie say a Pater Nost(er) & Ave (Maria)" Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector of Edward VI (c. 1500 – 22 January 1552) married firstly Catherine Filliol, daughter of Sir William Filliol and secondly Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope Sir Henry Seymour (1503–1578) married Barbara, daughter of Morgan Wolfe Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley (c. 1508 – 20 March 1549) married Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII John Seymour (died young) Anthony Seymour (died c. 1528) Jane Seymour, queen Consort of Henry VIII (c. 1509 – 24 October 1537) Elizabeth Seymour, Lady Cromwell (c. 1518 – 19 March 1568) through whom Sir John Seymour is an ancestor of actor Danny Dyer Margery Seymour (died c. 1528) Dorothy Seymour, Lady Smith (c. 1520–1574) married firstly, Sir Clement Smith (c. 1515 – 26 August 1552), MP, of Little Baddow, Essex and secondly, Thomas Leventhorpe of Shingle Hall, Hertfordshire

Of the ten children born at Wulfhall, six survived – three sons: Edward, Henry and Thomas, and three daughters: Jane, Elizabeth and Dorothy. Edward, Thomas, Jane and Elizabeth were courtiers. Edward and Thomas would both be executed during the reign of Edward VI. Henry Seymour, who lacked his brothers' ambition, lived away from court in relative obscurity.

Seymour also had an illegitimate son: Sir John Seymour (c. 1530 – before August 15 1596), married in March 1568 Jane or Joan Poyntz, daughter of Sir Nicholas Poyntz and Joan Berkeley.

Notable children Four of the Seymour children achieved prominence at the royal court: Edward, Thomas, Jane and Elizabeth.

Jane Seymour, the eldest surviving daughter, was a maid of honour to Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and later to Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII stayed at Wulfhall with Queen Anne in the summer of 1535 for a few days. In early 1536, Henry declared his love for Jane and began spending increasing amounts of time with her, chaperoned by her brother, Edward. Henry and Jane were formally betrothed the day after Anne Boleyn was arrested and executed on charges of treason, adultery and incest. After Jane became queen on 30 May 1536, her family scaled the social ranks, as was befitting the family of a royal consort.

Her eldest brother, Edward, was made an earl and eventually a duke and briefly ruled England on behalf of his nephew, King Edward VI. Her second brother, Thomas, was made a baron and Lord High Admiral, and in 1547 eloped with Henry VIII's widow, Queen Catherine Parr. Both Edward and Thomas were beheaded for treason, a few years apart.

Seymour's second daughter, Elizabeth, was first married to Sir Anthony Ughtred (c.1478 – 1534), secondly to Gregory Cromwell (c.1520 – 1551), son of Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, and for a third time to John Paulet, Baron St John (c.1510 – 1576), who succeeded his father as Marquess of Winchester in 1572.

Death and burial

Seymour died on 21 December 1536. By royal custom, his daughter Queen Jane did not attend the funeral. He was first buried in the church of Easton Priory, but following the collapse of that building was reburied in 1590 by his grandson, Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, in St Mary's Church, Great Bedwyn, the parish church of Wulfhall, where his monument survives. On the wall above is a tablet inscribed as follows:

A transcript was made of the inscriptions of the Seymour monuments by the topographer John Aubrey on his visit to the church in 1672. He also recorded the heraldry on the monument at that date, much of which has been lost.

Arms