MajorHenry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort, KG (5 February 1792 – 17 November 1853), styled Earl of Glamorgan until 1803 and Marquess of Worcester between 1803 and 1835,[1] was a British peer, soldier, and politician.
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.[1]
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.[1] In 1835, he successfully contested West Gloucestershire, but left the House when he succeeded as Duke of Beaufort that November. In 1836, he became High Steward of Bristol and was appointed a Knight of the Garter on 11 April 1842.[1]
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.
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: