Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hatch (21 September 1561 – 21 July 1612) had a theoretically strong claim to the throne of England through his mother, but whose legitimacy was questioned. He was the son of Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (1539–1621), by his wife Lady Catherine Grey (died 1568), younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, "The Nine Day Queen". His grandfather was Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (executed 1552), all of whose titles became forfeit on his attainder by Parliament, during the reign of his nephew King Edward VI (1547–1553). His father was
Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset of Hertford (1684–1749) had produced a son of his own, Lord Beauchamp (d.1744), who had predeceased him without progeny, and thus he had only a daughter and sole heiress Lady Elizabeth Seymour, who in 1740 had married Sir Hugh Smithson, 4th Baronet. Before the death of the 6th duke in 1748, it had thus become apparent that the dukedom of Somerset would devolve by law onto an extremely distant cousin and heir male, the 6th duke's 6th cousin Sir Edward Seymour, 6th Baronet (1695–1757) of Berry Pomeroy in Devon and of Maiden Bradley in Wiltshire, who in fact represented the