Francis, fifth Duke of Somerset, 



without leaving any child, the title passed to a younger branch, the 

 Lords Seymour of Trowbridge, who resided at Marlborough Castle 

 and were then represented by Francis Seymour, born in January, 

 1657. (See opposite page) 



Francis succeeded (1675) as fifth Duke in his eighteenth year, 

 but his enjoyment of the title and estates was very brief, and 

 terminated sadly. On reaching the age of twenty-one he went on 

 his travels into Italy, accompanied by his maternal uncle, the Hon. 

 Hildebrand Allington (afterwards the fourth and last Baron Ailing- 

 ton). This gentleman, being on the spot, sent the following 

 account of the affair, which is preserved in the British Museum, 

 Lansd. MS., 722, fo. 133:— 1 



" An acct. of the murther of Francis Seymour, D. of Somerset, reed, from 

 Hildebrand, late Ld. Allington, who was with him at the time of his death. 



" F. Seymour, Duke of Somerset, arrived at Lerice,* on the Territories of the 

 Genoeze, on the 20 April, 1678. At his entrance into the town, he had the 

 misfortune to fall into the company of some French gentn., who travelled as the 

 Duke did, only out of curiosity. It was about the middle of the day when they 

 reached this place, a time when the Churches usually are open, and consequently, 

 where the Italian Ladies were most likely to be seen. Upon this motive they 

 went into the Church of the Augustinians, where the French gentlemen were guilty 

 of some indecencies towards certain ladies of the family of Botti, of that town 

 which was severely revenged upon the Duke soon after. For Horatio Botti, the 



Duke having, as she stated in the petition, "by the instigation of some evil- 

 disposed persons, without any the least cause given by her, withdrawn himself 

 from her and refused to cohabit with her, and would not permit her to come 

 either into his house in London or in the country, and left her quite destitute of 

 maintenance, exposing her to contempt and scorn and her inexpressible grief." 

 She brought at marriage a fortune of £10,000 : and it was by her marriage 

 settlement that she had, as survivor, the power of dealing with certain landed 

 estates. She married thirdly Henry Hare, second Lord Coleraine. There is a 

 letter from her (1683) to Lord Coleraine, cautioning him " not to eat too much mus- 

 millon — Lord Conway had just died of a surfeit of it." What Her Grace meant 

 by " mus-millon " it is difficult to guess. In an old play by Middleton, called 

 " The Witch," one of the contributors to the cauldron says, " I have mar-martin 

 and man-dragon : " whereupon Hecate corrects her, " Marmaritan and mandragora 

 thou wouldst say." So, perhaps the Duchess meant to say "musk-melon." There 

 is a large portrait of her as a benefactress, in the Hall of Brasenose College, Oxford. 



1 In Collins's Peerage I., 191, there is a short account of this murder : apparently 

 taken from that in the Lansd. MS. given above. 



* Lerici is a small place on the sea-coast in the Bay of Spezzia, about sixty miles from Genoa on 

 the way to Leghorn. 



