Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of BeaufortKG (16 October 1744 – 11 October 1803) was an English courtier and politician. He was styled the Marquess of Worcester from 1745 until 1756, when he succeeded his father as 5th Duke of Beaufort, 7th Marquess of Worcester, 11th Earl of Worcester, and 13th Baron Herbert.[2]
At the time of Somerset's birth, his father sat in the House of Commons. He was five months old when his father succeeded his elder brother 3rd Duke of Beaufort in the dukedom, at which point Somerset was styled by his father's subsidiary title, the Marquess of Worcester. The 3rd Duke left only an illegitimate daughter, Margaret Burr, who married the artist Thomas Gainsborough.
In October 1765, shortly after his 21st birthday, he succeeded his father as the 5th Duke of Beaufort. On 18 October 1760, Beaufort began his studies at Oriel College, Oxford, graduating on 7 July 1763 with a Doctor of Civil Laws (DCL) degree.[2]
Career
Beaufort held the office of Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England between 1767 and 1772.[2] From 1768 to 1770, he was Master of the Horse to Queen Charlotte.[2] He was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Monmouthshire in 1771 and Lord-Lieutenant of Brecknockshire in 1787, holding both offices until his death in 1803, as well as that of Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire from 1787 to 1799.[2] He was appointed Colonel of the Monmouthshire Militia on 23 December 1771 and assumed command of the Monmouth and Brecon Militia when the combined regiment was embodied on 1 February 1793. He remained in command until his death.[3]
He was invested as a Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG) on 2 June 1786.[2] On 4 June 1803, shortly before his death, he succeeded to the title of 5th Baron Botetourt.[2]
Rev. Lord William Somerset (1784–1861), who married Elizabeth Molyneux, daughter of Lt.-Gen. Sir Thomas Molyneux, 5th Baronet, in 1813. After her death in 1843, the following year he married Frances Westby Brady, daughter of Henry Brady of Raheen Manor, County Clare, and widow of Cornelius O'Callaghan of Ballynahinch (died 1829).[9][4]
Lady Anne Elizabeth Somerset (1786–1803), who died unmarried.[4]
Lord Beaufort died on 11 October 1803 and was buried at St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton. His last will was dated from 21 June 1789 to 11 September 1800.[10] He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son, Henry[2]
Beaufort and Richard III were both male-line descendants of the Plantagenet King Edward III: Beaufort through Edward's fourth son, John of Gaunt, and Richard through Edward's fifth son, Edmund of Langley.[11] After the exhumation of Richard III in 2012, intensive research was conducted using the DNA of descendants of the immediate relatives of Richard, who died without issue. The body exhumed was positively identified by matching his mitochondrial DNA with two living descendants of his eldest sister, Anne of York).
All five known living male-line relatives of Richard are descended from the 5th Duke of Beaufort; however, a Y chromosome type of Richard failed to match any of the five, indicating that at least one non-paternity event had occurred somewhere in the 19 generations between Richard and the 5th Duke. Four of the five, however, had DNA indicating they held Plantagenet ancestry through different ancestors. The fifth was not related at all, indicating an additional non-paternity event had occurred in the 5th Duke's male line in recent generations.[12]
Notes
^Lord Norborne was likely physically or/and intellectually disabled, as there is no public record of his life except birth and (delayed) death announcements. He died at age 67 at Wick House,[6] near Sherston, Wiltshire, close to the family seat of Badminton.
References
^"Died". General Evening Post. 13 October 1803. p. 4. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
^ abcdefghiG. E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 55.
^Capt B.E. Sargeaunt, The Royal Monmouthshire Militia, London: RUSI, 1910/Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, nd, ISBN 978-1-78331204-7, pp. 80–1, 258.
^Hammond, Peter W., editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Allen Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 77.
