Constituency Dates
Monmouth 30 Dec. 1813 – 1831, 18 July 1831 – 1832
Family and Education
b. 5 Feb. 1792, 1st s. of Henry Charles Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort, and bro. of Lord Granville Charles Henry Somerset. educ. by Rev. Walter Fletcher at Dalston, Cumb.; Westminster until 1805; by Edward Vernon, bp. of York; Christ Church, Oxf. 1809. m. (1) 25 July 1814, Georgiana Frederica (d. 11 May 1821), da. of Hon. Henry Fitzroy, 4th s. of Charles Fitzroy, 1st Baron Southampton, 2da., (2) 29 June 1822, Emily Frances, half-sis. of his 1st w., da. of Charles Culling Smith, 1s. 6da. suc. fa. as 7th Duke of Beaufort, 23 Nov. 1835; KG 11 Apr. 1842.
Offices Held

Ld. of Admiralty May 1815 – Mar. 1819.

Cornet, 10 Drag. 1811, lt. 1811; a.d.c. to Duke of Wellington 1812 – 14; lt. 7 Hussars 1815, 93 Ft. 1819; capt. 37 Ft. 1819, maj. 1819, half-pay 1821, ret. 1832; lt.-col. commdt. Glos. Hussars 1834.

High steward, Bristol 1836 – d.

biography text

In 1810 Lord Worcester joined his uncles Edward and Fitzroy in the Peninsula, where he became a.d.c. to Wellington, whose niece he subsequently married. While on home leave, after the writ had been delayed so that he could be present, he was returned for Monmouth on his father’s interest.1R. D. Rees, ‘Parl. Rep. S. Wales 1790-1830’ (Reading Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1962), ii. 508; Glos. RO, Bragge Bathurst mss X17/53. He was not opposed there until 1820. A ministerialist, he paired with government for the continuation of the property tax, 18 Mar. 1816, despite his constituents’ protests, and soon afterwards accepted a seat at the Admiralty Board. He had no inclination for business however, preferring the life of a man about town and sportsman and acquiring a certain notoriety for his high spirited pranks and scrapes, not least his liaison with the courtesan Harriette Wilson.2Jnl. of Mrs Arbuthnot, passim; ‘Nimrod’, Sporting Reminiscences, ch. 8. He voted against Catholic relief, 21 May 1816, 9 May 1817 and 3 May 1819, though his belated vote was on the latter occasion disallowed.3Parl. Deb. xl. 79. He died 17 Nov. 1853.

Author
R.G.T.
Volume
Commons 1790-1820
Notes
  • 1. R. D. Rees, ‘Parl. Rep. S. Wales 1790-1830’ (Reading Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1962), ii. 508; Glos. RO, Bragge Bathurst mss X17/53.
  • 2. Jnl. of Mrs Arbuthnot, passim; ‘Nimrod’, Sporting Reminiscences, ch. 8.
  • 3. Parl. Deb. xl. 79.