Major Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort (5 February 1792 – 17 November 1853), styled Earl of Glamorgan until 1803 and Marquess of Worcester between 1803 and 1835, was a British peer, soldier, and politician.
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Background
Beaufort was the eldest son of Henry Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort, and Lady Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford. Lord Granville Somerset was his younger brother.
Military and political career
Beaufort was commissioned a cornet in the 10th Hussars on 18 June 1811. He was promoted to lieutenant in the 14th Light Dragoons on 21 August, but transferred back to the 10th Hussars on 6 September. Worcester also served as an aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington in Portugal and Spain between 1812 and 1814.
In 1813, Beaufort was returned as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Monmouth Boroughs, as a Tory, and continued to hold the seat until 1831. On 26 October 1815, he transferred to the 7th Hussars. In the following year, he was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty under Lord Liverpool, serving on the Board until 1819. On 2 December 1819, he was made a captain in the 37th Foot, and on 30 December, was promoted to the rank of major.
In the contentious election of 1831, Beaufort was defeated by Benjamin Hall at Monmouth Boroughs. While Hall's victory was overturned on petition and Beaufort regained the seat, he again lost to Hall in the 1832 election. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant of the Gloucestershire Yeomanry in 1834. In 1835, he successfully contested West Gloucestershire, but left the House when he succeeded as Duke of Beaufort that November. In 1836, he became Lord High Steward of Bristol and was appointed a Knight of the Garter on 11 April 1842.
Family
Beaufort married Georgiana Frederica Fitzroy (1792–1821), daughter of the Hon. Henry FitzRoy and Lady Anne Wellesley, on 25 July 1814. They had three daughters:
Lady Charlotte Augusta Frederica Somerset (1816–1850), married, on 5 December 1844, Baron Philipp von Neumann (4 December 1781 – 14 January 1851), an Austrian diplomat, by whom she had issue.
Natalie von Neumann
Charlotte Augusta von Neumann
Lady Georgiana Charlotte Anne Somerset (1817–1884), married, in 1836, Sir Christopher Bethell-Codrington, son of Christopher Bethell-Codrington.
Alice Bethell-Codrington, married Sir Henry Mervyn Vavasour, 3rd Bt.
Sir Gerald Codrington, 1st Bt., married Lady Edith Denison, daughter of William Denison, 1st Earl of Londesborough.
George Bethell-Codrington.
Lady Anne Harriet Charlotte Somerset (1819–1877), married Colonel Philip James of Dorset.
After the death of his wife in 1821, he married her younger half-sister, Emily Frances Smith, daughter of Charles Culling Smith, on 29 June 1822; they were both daughters of Lady Anne Smith, the Duke of Wellington's sister. (This marriage, in contravention of the canon laws of the Church of England, rendered his marriage potentially annullable for many years: for this reason, Wellington himself strongly opposed it.) They had seven children, one son and six daughters:
Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort (1824–1899), married Lady Georgiana Charlotte Curzon and had issue.
Lady Emily Blanche Charlotte Somerset (1828–1895), married George Hay-Drummond, 12th Earl of Kinnoull.
Fictional portrayal
Both Beaufort and Harriette Wilson feature as minor characters in Black Ajax by George MacDonald Fraser.