§ Committee for Privileges met: Counsel heard on behalf of the Petitioner Richard Harold St. Maur: Claims considered: Resolution agreed to by the Committee: Report thereof to be made to the House.
§ Report from the Committee for Privileges:—
§ That the Dukedom of Somerset was created by Letters Patent of King Edward VI, dated 16th February, 1546–7, granted to Edward Earl of Hertford, Viscount Beauchamp of Hache and Baron Seymour with the limitations therein specified; that Edward Duke of Somerset was executed 22nd January, 1551–2, was attainted and all his honours forfeited; that the said Dukedom of Somerset and the said Barony of Seymour with the limitations specified in the Letters Patent of creation were restored to William Seymour, great-grandson of the said Edward, 1st Duke of Somerset, and that the said William was summoned to the House of Lords in the said Dukedom of Somerset; that the said Dukedom descended according to the limitations specified in the Letters Patent of creation to Algernon, 15th Duke, who died without issue the the 22nd October, 1923.
§ That the claimant Sir Edward Hamilton Seymour has proved to the satisfaction of this Committee the extinction of the lines senior to his own, and, claiming through Lord Francis Seymour, who died 16th February, 1790, fourth son of Edward, 8th Duke, is (in the event of the validity of the marriage of Francis Compton Seymour, son and heir of the said Lord Francis Seymour and Leonora Hudson being established) the heir-male of the said Lord Francis Seymour, and of the said Edward 1st Duke of Somerset;
§ That, in the opinion of this Committee, the evidence of the validity of the marriage had between Francis Compton Seymour and Leonora Hudson produced by the said claimant Sir 740 Edward Hamilton Seymour is not rebutted by the allegations and the evidence in support thereof produced by the Petitioner Henry Sydney Seymour and the claimant George Francis Alexander Marquess of Hertford, and that therefore the said marriage stands, and that the said claimant Sir Edward Hamilton Seymour ought, on the evidence produced, to be regarded as the heir-male of Edward, 1st Duke of Somerset, and by virtue of the limitations contained in the patent of creation of the said Dukedom is entitled to his writ of summons in the said Dukedom of Somerset.
§ Read, and agreed to.