of thirty-one (Parl. Hist. xxiv. 546). When the subject of commercial union between England and Ireland was before the house in May 1785, Beauchamp unsuccessfully opposed Pitt's fourth proposition, which bound Ireland to adopt such regulations as Great Britain should enact (ib. xxv. 738), and expressed himself as opposed to any idea of compulsion of the Irish parliament, his opinion being that ‘the only lasting connection between the two countries can be of freedom and common interest, not of power’ (Letter to the First Company of Belfast Volunteers). Although a warm advocate of the independence of the Irish parliament, he regarded the interests of the two countries as inseparable and their political connection as indissoluble (Parl. Hist. xx. 1202).
After 1788 Beauchamp ceased to take so prominent a part in the House of Commons, but in 1793 he gave strong support to Pitt in the matter of the alien bill, and during the debate on the king's message asking for the augmentation of the forces (ib. xxx. 197, 291). On his father being created Marquis of Hertford in 1793 he took the title of Earl of Yarmouth, and was employed as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Berlin and Vienna, 1793–4. He succeeded to the peerage as second Marquis of Hertford on his father's death, 23 June 1794, but in the debates of the House of Lords on political matters he took no part.
Hertford was appointed master of the horse 11 July 1804, holding that office till 12 Feb. 1806. He was invested knight of the Garter 18 July 1807, and appointed lord chamberlain of the household 7 March 1812, and held that office till 11 Dec. 1821. In February 1822 he was created vice-admiral of Suffolk. He died, 17 June 1822, at Hertford House, Manchester Square, and was buried in the family vault at Ragley in Warwickshire. He married, in February 1768, Alicia Elizabeth, second daughter and coheir of Herbert, first viscount Windsor; she died on 11 Feb. 1772, aged 22. He married, secondly, 20 May 1776, Isabella Anne Ingram Shepherd, daughter and coheir of Charles, ninth and last viscount Irvine (d. 1778), by his wife Frances Gibson (born Shepherd). Upon the death of the latter, on 20 Nov. 1807, leaving a ‘very large fortune,’ Hertford and his wife took the name of Ingram before that of Seymour. The Marchioness of Hertford, who survived her husband until 12 April 1836, was a lady of great wealth and possessed of great personal charms; for many years she exercised considerable influence over the regent (Wraxall, Memoirs, iv. 138).
The only son (by the second marriage) was Francis Charles Seymour-Conway, third Marquis of Hertford (1777–1842). Born 11 March 1777, he graduated B.A. from St. Mary Hall, Oxford, 1796, and represented the family boroughs of Orford, Lisburne, and Camelford (1819–1822). He had great influence with the regent, of whose household he was vice-chamberlain, and was created K.G. on 22 Nov. 1822, shortly after succeeding to the peerage. He was in 1827 envoy extraordinary (bearing the order of the Garter) to Nicholas I of Russia, from whom he had in 1821 received the order of St. Anne; but he is best remembered as the original of the Marquis of Steyne in Thackeray's ‘Vanity Fair’ and Lord Monmouth in Disraeli's ‘Coningsby.’ He married, 18 May 1798, the great heiress Maria Fagniani [see under Selwyn, George], and died at Dorchester House, Park Lane, on 1 March 1842. His portrait, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, was engraved for Doyle's ‘Official Baronage’ (cf. Croker's Corresp.; G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage). He was succeeded as fourth marquis by his son Richard Seymour Conway (1800–1870), known from 1822 until his father's death as Earl of Yarmouth. Like his brother, Lord Henry Seymour [q. v.], he led an epicurean existence in Paris, rarely, if ever, visiting England, and amassing a splendid collection of pictures and articles of vertu, which he left, along with his Irish estates, to Sir Richard Wallace [q. v.] Upon the fourth marquis's death, on 25 Aug. 1870, the peerage passed to Francis George Hugh, son of Sir George Francis Seymour [q. v.]
[Collins's Peerage of Engl. ed. Brydges, ii. 566; Doyle's Official Baronage; Gent. Mag. 1822, i. 561; Wraxall's Memoirs, ed. 1884, iii. 137.]
SEYMOUR, Sir FRANCIS (1813–1890), general, eldest son of Henry Augustus Seymour, by Margaret, daughter of the Rev. William Williams of Cromlech, co. Anglesey, was born on 2 Aug. 1813, and was commissioned as ensign in the 19th foot on 2 May 1834. He became lieutenant 16 June 1837. In February 1839, at the request of the king of the Belgians, he joined Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg at Florence, and accompanied him during his travels in Italy. In 1840, after Prince Albert's marriage with the queen, he was appointed groom-in-waiting to him, and retained the office till the prince's death.
He was promoted captain on 4 Sept. 1840, and on 21 Jan. 1842 he exchanged into the Scots fusilier guards, in which regiment he obtained a company on 28 June 1850. He
