Wul/kall and the Seymours. 



Ill 



a man as Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, viz., that of the 

 throe branches of Civil History, "Antiquities" is one. Among 

 obseure sources, he enumerates " Words/' — we all know how much 

 Attention has been of late years given to this subject; and how much 

 curious history is often wrapped up in an old word. "Monuments;" 

 the great trial for the Shrewsbury Peerage is a proof of their im- 

 portance, where so much often depends upon the preservation of an 

 inscription. " Private Records and Evidences," — It is my very 

 business this evening to endeavour to show you what they can do 

 for us in the case of an Old Wiltshire Mansion House now no more, 

 and its family (old also, but still vigorous), — Wulfhall and The 

 Seymours. 



The family of Seymour, Duke of Somerset, though the Title was 

 taken from the neighbouring county, has been for centuries connected 

 with our own. It fills a very exalted place in English History, for 

 it is able to say, what very few can say, that a single generation of 

 brothers and sisters supplied a Queen of England, a Protector of 

 the Realm, and a Husband to a Queen Dowager. Of course the 

 public and political career of those distinguished personages is to be 

 found in our English Histories, and the genealogical account of the 

 family in Books of the Peerage ; but there are some smaller and 

 more private matters, relating to themselves, in connection with our 

 neighbourhood, which, having been recovered from the wreck of 

 time, will be considered, I hope, a not unsuitable subject for the 

 evening ears of a Wiltshire Archaeological audience. 



In the large collection of Old Documents at Longleat, which I 

 had the pleasure of bringing out into the light and identifying, 

 there happens to be an unusual number that relate to the Seymour 

 family, especially to the Protector Duke ; and though I will not say 

 that there are any State Papers of the highest importance, still, 

 there are papers of considerable value affecting certain historical 

 transactions in which, as you will hear, one or two of his family 

 were involved. Besides correcting, in a few points, the usual ac- 

 counts of those events, these papers supply us, who take interest 

 more particularly in Wiltshire History, with a good deal of new 

 material for our purpose. 



