Tomb of Sir John Seymour: Father of Thomas

Sir John Seymour was reburied by his grandson, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford at the Great Bedwyn Church in 1590. The tomb displays the heraldic escutcheons, with a Seymour’s effigy on top which is fully dressed in armor with hands in prayer, his head resting on his helm from which projects the sculpted Seymour crest of a pair of wings. His feet rest on a lion and a sword lies by his side. 

On the wall above is a tablet inscribed as follows:

“Here lyeth entombed the worthy Sr John Seymour of Wolf Hall, Knight, who by Margery his wife, daughter of Sir Henry Wentworthe, Knight, from whom the now Lord Wentworthe is descended, had six sons and four daughters, to which:

John who died unmarried;

Edward, Duke of Somerset, Earl of Hertford, Viscount Beauchamp and Baron Seymour, uncle to King Edward the Sixth, Governor of his Royal Person, Protector of all his Dominions and Subjects, Lord Treasurer and Earl Marshall of England; which Duke married Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope, Knight, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Sir Fulk Bourchier, Lord Fitzwarin, from whom the modern Earls of Bathe are descended;

Sir Henry Seymour, Knight, who married Barbara daughter of Thomas Morgan, Esquire;

Thomas Lord Seymour of Sudeley, High Admiral of England, who married Katherine, Queen of England, and widow to King Henry the Eighth.

One other John, and Anthony, who died in their infancy.

Jane Queen of England, wife to King Henry the Eighth, and mother to King Edward the Sixth;

Elizabeth, first married to Sir Henry Ughtred, Knight, after to Gregory, Lord Cromwell, and last to John Lord of Basing,after Marquess of Winchester;

Margery, who died in her infancy, and Dorothy, married to Sir Clement Smith, Knight.

This Knight departed this life at LX (60) years of age, the XXI (21) day of December, Anno 1536, and was first buried at Easton Priory Church amongst divers of his ancestors, both Seymours and Esturmys. Howbeit that Church being ruined, and thereby all their monuments either wholly spoiled, or very much defaced during the minority of Edward, Earl of Hertford, son to the said Duke, the said Earl after, as well for the dutiful love he beareth to his said grandfather, as for the better continuances of his memory, did cause his body to be removed, and here to be entombed at his own cost and charged, the last day of September, Anno 1590, in the XXXII (32) year of the most happy reign of our gracious Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth.”

Source:  Frederic Madden, Bulkeley Bandinel, John Gough Nichols, (Eds.), Collectanea Topographica Et Genealogica, Vol.5, pp.21-24, corrected from observation of photograph