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. 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, 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 in 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, Wiltshire, by his marriage to Elizabeth Darell . 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 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 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
He 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.
Sir John Seymour, of Wulfhall, Savernake, Wiltshire, married Margery Wentworth on 22 October 1494. The couple had ten children:
John Seymour, 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:
Of the ten children born at Wulfhall, six survived:– three sons: Edward, Henry and Thomas, and three daughters: Jane, Dorothy and Elizabeth. 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. He also had an illegitimate son:
Sir John Seymour, 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 of Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and then later of 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 officially 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, secondly to Gregory Cromwell, son of Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, and for a third time to John Paulet, Baron St John, 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 the church of Great Bedwyn, the parish church of Wulfhall, where survives his monument. His eldest son and heir, Edward Seymour, inherited lands to the annual value of £275.
Monument, Great Bedwyn
His Monument in Great Bedwyn Church consists of a chest tomb displaying heraldic escutcheons, surmounted by his recumbent effigy, fully dressed in armour with hands in prayer, his head resting on his helm from which projects the sculpted Seymour crest of a pair of wings. His feet rest on a lion and a sword lies by his side. On the wall above is fixed 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, who also recorded the heraldry on the monument at that date, much of which has been lost.
