Life

Seymour was the eldest son of Francis Seymour, of Sherborne, Dorset

Francis Seymour, of Sherborne, Dorset

Francis Seymour was a British gentleman and politician, who owned an estate at Sherborne, DorsetHe was a son of Sir Edward Seymour, 5th Baronet and his wife Letitia Popham....

. He was educated at New College

New College, Oxford

New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...

. In January 1746/7, he inherited the estate of East Knoyle

East Knoyle

East Knoyle is a small village and former civil parish in Wiltshire, in the south west of England. The parish lies on the A350 road about nine miles south of Warminster, fifteen miles west of Salisbury, and two miles south west of Hindon, at grid reference ST880305...

 from his uncle, William.

In 1753, Seymour married Lady Caroline Cowper (d. 1773), daughter of William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper

William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper

William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper , styled Viscount Fordwich between 1718 and 1723, was a British peer and courtier....

, by whom he had two daughters:

• Caroline Seymour (31 January 1755 – 20 March 1821), married in September 1775 William Danby, of Swinton Park
  Swinton Park
  Swinton Park, the seat of the Danby family and of the Cunliffe-Lister family is an English country house in Swinton near Masham, North Yorkshire, England. It is set in of parkland, lakes and gardens...
  
   (b. 9 July 1752)
• Georgiana Amelia Seymour (31 Dec 1756 – ?), married on 27 September 1794 Félicité Jean Louis de Durfort, Comte de Deyme (4 March 1752 – 10 Mar 1801)

He inherited an estate at Sherborne, Dorset upon the death of his father in December 1761, and also owned estates at Redland Court, Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, and Northbrook, Devonshire. After his father's death, he entered politics, obtaining the office of Groom of the Bedchamber on 16 February 1763 and being returned as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Totnes

Totnes (UK Parliament constituency)

Totnes is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament , using the first-past-the-post voting system....

 in a by-election that year. On 17 January 1765, he resigned his office as Groom of the Bedchamber. In 1768, he was returned for Huntingdon

Huntingdon (UK Parliament constituency)

Huntingdon is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

. After buying an estate at Norton, Worcestershire, he was returned as a Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

 for Evesham

Evesham (UK Parliament constituency)

Evesham was a parliamentary constituency in Worcestershire which was represented in the British House of Commons. Originally a parliamentary borough consisting of the town of Evesham, it was first represented in 1295...

 in 1774, but did not stand in 1780. He is only known to have addressed the House once, in 1776, supporting Fox's

Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...

 motion to inquire into the mismanagement of the American war

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

.

On 5 October 1775, after the death of his first wife in 1773, he married the widow Anne Louise Thérèse, Comtesse de Panthou. By this marriage he had one son:

• Henry Seymour
  Henry Seymour (Knoyle)
  Henry Seymour MP, JP , of Knoyle House, Wiltshire, of Trent, and of Northbrook, was a British Tory politician....
  
   (1776–1849)

Seymour and his wife moved to Paris in 1778, and he soon after bought an estate at Prunay. Around 1779 or 1780, Seymour became the lover of Madame du Barry

Madame du Barry

Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry was the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.-Early life:...

. He separated from his second wife in early 1781.

The French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 led him to flee France in August 1792, and he lost most of his property in that country through confiscation. He spent the rest of his life in retirement at Knoyle. Seymour is often stated to have died in 1805, but his monument in Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....

 dates from 1807. By this time, he had disposed of his estates at Sherborne, Redland, and Norton, leaving Knoyle and Northbrook to his son Henry.

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