First Statute of Repeal First Statute of Repeal The First Statute of Repeal was an Act of the Parliament of England (1 Mary, st. 2, c. 2), passed in 1553 in the first Parliament of Mary I of England's reign, nullified all religious legislation passed under the previous monarch, the boy-King Edward VI, and the "de facto" rulers of that time, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Elizabeth I's Act of Uniformity nullified this act, stating that "at the death of our late sovereign lord King Edward VI there remained one uniform order of common service and
Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset and wife Elizabeth Somner, daughter of John Somner, of Seend. They had at least five children. In December 1740, his father died and Seymour inherited his manors in Wiltshire and Devon. On 11 September 1744, with the unexpected death of George Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp (1725–1744), the only son of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, the likelihood emerged of Seymour succeeding his distant cousin as Duke of Somerset and Baron Seymour, as the 7th Duke was then aged sixty, and his wife was past child-bearing age. On 23 November 1750 the Duke died, and Seymour duly succeeded to his titles.