settled in Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth, from which Sir Michael Seymour (1768–1834) claimed descent. Sir Michael, like so many of his name, was an officer in the navy, in which he rendered much distinguished service in the last decade of the 18th century. He lost an arm in Howe's action on the 1st of June 1794; and between 1796 and 1810 as commander of the “ Spitfire,” and afterwards of the “ Amethyst, ” he captured a great number of prizes from the French in the Clilannel. Seymour became a rear-admiral in 1832, and died two years later while in chief command on the South American station. His son, Sir Michael Seymour (1802–1887), entered the navy in 1813, and attained the rank of rear-admiral in 1854, in which year he served under Sir Charles Napier in the Baltic during the war with Russia. In 1856 he was in command of the China station, and conducted the operations arising out of the affair of the lorcha " Arrow ”; he destroyed the Chinese fleet in June 1857, took Canton in December, and in 1858 he captured the forts on the Pei-ho, compelling the Chinese government to consent to the treaty of Tientsing. In 1864 he was promoted to the rank of admiral.
Authorities.—The Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, vol. xv.; William Camden, Britannia, English translation, edited by Richard Gough (4 vols., London, 1806); Arthur Collins, Peerage of England (8 vols., London, 1779); G. E. C., Complete Peerage, sub. “ Somerset," “ Seymour of Trowbridge," and “ Hertford ” (London, 1896); Burke's Peerage, sub. “ Somerset,” Dictionary of National Biography, sub. “ Seymour, ” vol. li. (London, 1897).
SEYMOUR, HORATIO (1810–1886), American statesman,
was born at Pompey, Onondaga county, New York, on the 31st
of May 1810. His ancestor, Richard Seymour, a Protestant
Episcopal °clergyman, was an early settler at Hartford, Connecticut,
and his father, Henry Seymour, who removed from Connecticut
to New York, was prominent in the Democratic party in
the state, being a member of the “ Albany Regency ” and
serving as state senator in 1816–1819 and in 1822, and as canal
commissioner in 1819-1831. The son was brought up in Utica,
studied in 1824–1825 at Geneva Academy (afterwards Hobart
College), and then at a military school in Middletown, Conn.,
and was admitted to the bar in 1832. He was military secretary
to Governor W. L. Marcy in 1833–1839, was a member of
the New York Assembly in 1842, in 1844 and in 1845, being
speaker in 1845; mayor of Utica in 1843, and in 1852 was
elected governor of the state over Washington Hunt (1811-1867),
the Whig candidate, who had defeated him in 1850. He vetoed
in 1854 a bill prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors (which
was declared unconstitutional almost immediately after its reenactment
in 1855), and in consequence he was defeated in 1854
for re-election as governor by Myron Holley Clark (1806-1892),
the Whig and temperance candidate. Seymour was a conservative
on national issues and supported the administrations
of Pierce and Buchanan; he advocated compromise to avoid
secession in 1860–1861; but when war broke out he supported
the maintenance of the Union. In 1863–1865 he was again
governor of New York state. His opposition to President
Lincoln's policy was mainly in respect to emancipation, military
arrests and conscription. The president tried to win him over
early in 1863, but Seymour disapproved of the arrest of C. S.
Vallandigham in May, and, although he responded immediately to
the call for militia in June, he thought the Conscription Act unnecessary
and unconstitutional and urged the president to
postpone the draft until its legality could be tested. During
the draft riots in July he proclaimed the city and county of
New York in a state of insurrection, but in a speech to the
rioters adopted a tone of conciliation-a political error which
injured his careers He was defeated as Democratic candidate
for governor in 1864. In 1868 he was nominated presidential
candidate by the National Democratic Convention, Francis
P. Blair, Jr., being nominated for the vice-presidency; but
Seymour and Blair carried only eight states (including New York,
New Jersey and Oregon), and received only 80 electoral votes
to 214 for Grant and Colfax. Seymour did not re-enter political
life, refusing to be considered for the United States senator ship
from New York in 1876. He died on the 12th of February
1886 in Utica, at the home of his sister, who was the wife of
Roscoe Conkling.
The Public Record of Horatio Seymour (New York, 1868) includes his speeches and official papers between 1856 and 1868.
SEYMOUR, THOMAS DAY (1848–1997), American educationist,
was born in Hudson, Ohio, on the 1st of April 1848.
He graduated in 1870 at Western Reserve College, where his
father, Nathan Perkins Seymour, was long professor of Greek
and Latin. Here, after studying in Berlin and Leipzig, the son
was professor of Greek in 1872–1880; and he became professor of
Greek at Yale University in 1880, holding his position until his
death in New Haven on the 31st of December 1907. He was
from 1887 to 1901 chairman of the managing committee of the
American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and was president
of the Archaeological Institute of America from 1903. Except
for his Selected Odes of Pindar (1882), his published work was
practically confined to the study of the Homeric poems: An
Introduction to the Language and Verse of Homer (1885);
Homer's Iliad, i.-iv. (1887–1890); Homeric Vocabulary
(1889); Introduction and Vocabulary to School Odyssey
(1897); and Life in the Homeric Age (1907). He edited, with
Lewis R. Packard and John W. White, the “ College Series of
Greek Authors.”
SEYMOUR, a city of Jackson county, Indiana, U.S.A., about
59 m. S. by E. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 5337; (1900) 6445,
(321 foreign-born); (1910) 6305. It is served by the Baltimore &
Ohio, South-Western (which has repair shops here), the Pittsburg,
Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, and the Southern Indiana
railways, and by the Indianapolis, Columbus & Southern and
the Indianapolis & Louisville interurban electric lines. The city
has a considerable trade in produce, and has various manufactures,
including woollen-goods, furniture, carriages and automobiles.
Seymour was settled in 1854, incorporated as a town in 1864,
and chartered as a city in 1867.
SEYMOUR OF SUDELEY, THOMAS SEYMOUR, BARON (c. 1508-1549), lord high admiral of England, was fourth son of
Sir John Seymour of Wolf Hall, Wiltshire, and younger brother
of the Protector Edward Seymour, ISI duke of Somerset. His
sister Jane Seymour became the third wife of Henry VIII. in 1536, and another sister, Elizabeth, married Thomas Cromwell's son. Seymour's Connexions thus ensured his promotion, and he quickly won the favour of the king, who gave him many grants of land and employed him in the royal household and on diplomatic missions abroad. From 1540 to 1542 he was at Vienna, and in 1543 in the Netherlands, where he served with distinction in the War against France, holding for a short time the supreme command of the English army. In 1544 he was rewarded with the post of master of the ordnance for life, becoming admiral of the fleet a few months later, in which capacity he was charged with guarding the Channel against French invasion. Henry VIII. left Seymour a legacy by his will, and is said to have directed that he should be raised to the peerage. In February 1547 he was accordingly created Baron Seymour of Sudeley and appointed lord high admiral. From this time forward he was mainly occupied in intrigue against his brother the Protector, of whose power he was jealous; and he aimed at procuring for himself the position of guardian of the young king, Edward VI. Several matrimonial projects entered into Seymour's schemes for gratifying his ambitions. No sooner was Henry VIII. dead than the lord high admiral tried to secure the princess (afterwards queen) Elizabeth in marriage; and when this project was frustrated he secretly married the late king's widow, Catherine Parr, whose hand he had vainly sought as early as 1 543. He also took steps to ingratiate himself with Edward, and proposed a marriage between the king and the Lady lane Grey. He entered into relations with pirates on the Western coasts, whom it was his duty as lord high admiral to suppress, with a view to securing their support; and when the Protector invaded Scotland in the summer of 1547 Seymour fomented opposition to his authority in his absence. On the death of his wife in September of the next year he made renewed attempts to marry the princess Elizabeth. Somerset strove ineffectually to save his brother from ruin, and in January 1549 Seymour was arrested and sent to the Tower; he was convicted of treason, and executed on the 20th of March 1549.
See Sir John Maclean, Life of Sir Thomas Seymour (London, 1869); Chronicle of Henry VI I I ., translated from the Spanish, with notes by M. A. S. Hume (London, 1889); Literary Remains of Edward VI., with notes and memoir by J. G. Nichols (2 vols., London.
