John Seymour (died 1491)

John Seymour (c. 1450 – 26 October 1491) of Wulfhall, of Stalbridge, of Stinchcombe and of Huish, all in Wiltshire, England, was warden of Savernake Forest and a prominent member of the landed gentry in the counties of Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset. He was the grandfather of Jane Seymour (c. 1508–1537), the third wife of King Henry VIII, and was thus great-grandfather of King Edward VI.

Arms of Seymour: Gules, two wings conjoined in lure or

Origins

Seymour was the eldest of the three sons of John Seymour (c. 1425–1463), Knight of the Shire for Wiltshire and High Sheriff of Wiltshire, by his wife Elizabeth Coker (born about 1436), daughter of Sir Robert Coker of Lydeard St Lawrence, Somerset.

Seymour's father predeceased his own father John Seymour (died 1464), and thus in 1464 Seymour succeeded to his grandfather's estates.

Career

As warden of Savernake Forest, Seymour tried to restore the ancient boundaries of his bailiwick. At the forest eyre at Marlborough in 1464, and at the following eyre in 1477, he made wild claims. In June 1485 he was able to obtain letters patent to establish "the bounds of the Forest of Savernake before the perambulation of Henry III", and at the eyre of 1491 he used this to claim that the Farm and West bailiwicks of the forest extended from the Ridgeway and Pewsey in the west to the edge of Hungerford in the east.[1]

In 1489, on the death of his cousin Margaret Coker, the wife of Sir Reynold Stourton, Seymour inherited the Somerset manors of West Bower in Bridgwater, Moorland in North Petherton, and Cokers in Wembdon.[2]

Marriage and children

Seymour married twice. His first marriage was to Elizabeth Darrell (born c. 1451), daughter of Sir George Darrell (died c. 1474) of Littlecote, Wiltshire, by his first wife Margaret Stourton (born c. 1433), a daughter of John Stourton, 1st Baron Stourton, and of Margery or Marjory Wadham. By Elizabeth Darrell, Seymour had four sons and four daughters,[2][3] including:

Seymour's second marriage was to a daughter of Robert Hardon by whom he had one son, Roger Seymour (c. 1480 – before 1509), of Andover, Hampshire.[4]

Notes
  1. 'Royal forests', in A History of the County of Wiltshire volume 4 (1959), pp. 391–433, accessed 19 January 2011
  2. Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham, Magna Carta ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families (2005), p. 554
  3. Arthur Collins, Peerage of England: genealogical, biographical, and historical (1812), p. 148
  4. John Lodge, Mervyn Archdall, The peerage of Ireland: or, A genealogical history of the present nobility of that kingdom, vol. 7, p. 16
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