Charles Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort
Charles Noel Somerset, later 4th Duke of Beaufort, (12 September 1709–1756) was a British Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1731 until 1745 when he succeeded to the peerage as Duke of Beaufort.
Somerset was the younger son of Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort and his second wife, Rachel Noel.
He was educated at Winchester College and matriculated as University College, Oxford on 19 June 1725, being awarded MA on 16 October 1727.
Somerset was a High Tory and 'a most determined and unwavering Jacobite.'
He was returned as Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire his family's seat at a by election on 17 May 1731.
At the 1734 British general election, he transferred to Monmouth.
He adopted a traditional Tory line in Parliament, which included voting against the repeal of the Test Act in 1736; this demonstrates the complexity of the English Jacobite movement, which was staunchly anti-Catholic, yet in theory supported a Catholic monarchy.
On 1 May 1740, he married Elizabeth Berkeley, sister of Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt.
Somerset was returned again for Monmouth at the 1741 British general election.
The era was dominated by the Whigs under the premiership of Robert Walpole with the Tories excluded from power.
In February 1742, Walpole was finally ousted by a coalition of Tories, Patriot Whigs who opposed his foreign policy and members of the 'Prince's Party,' a group of younger politicians, most notably William Pitt who associated themselves with Frederick, Prince of Wales.
However, to the fury of their Tory allies, the Patriot Whigs did a deal with their Whig colleagues to shut them out of the new government, while in 1744, the Tory leader the Earl of Gower joined the so-called Broad Bottom ministry and Somerset assumed leadership of the party.
However, the government simply ignored him and continued to treat Gower as the Tory leader when negotiating the award of offices.
Somerset became Duke of Beaufort on the death of his brother, Henry Scudamore, 3rd Duke of Beaufort in February 1745.
He vacated his seat in the House of Commons and took his seat in the House of Lords.
His brother had been one of those who contacted the French government in late 1742 asking their support for an invasion to restore the Stuarts.
Beaufort himself also joined the project, sending assurances of support to the French in August 1745, and pressing a month later ‘for a body of troops to be landed near London.'
Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, executed for his part in the 45 Rebellion later declared ‘if the Duke of Beaufort had not promised to raise £12,000, he would not have concerned himself’
but as with many aristocratic Jacobite sympathisers, the Government took no action against Beaufort.
One of the complexities of 18th century politics was the hostility between Hanoverian monarchs and their heirs; as George II supported the Whigs, his son Frederick, Prince of Wales described himself as a Tory even though many of them were in theory Jacobites.
Since the Prince's 'programme' effectively amounted to ousting the current incumbents, Beaufort agreed to support him and in May 1749, Horace Walpole reported his presence at a meeting ‘between the Prince's party and the Jacobites.'
In September 1750, Beaufort and Lord Westmorland jointly presided at a meeting of English Jacobites held during Charles Stuart's secret visit to London in September 1750, which effectively signalled the last flicker of the Jacobite movement.
Beaufort died on 28 October 1756 and was buried in the family vault at Badminton, Gloucestershire; a contemporary described him as 'a man of sense, spirit and activity, unblameable in his morals, but questionable in his political capacity.'
His wife Elizabeth died on 9 April 1799.
The couple had one son and five daughters:
Georgia Powell
Georgia Powell( born 18 February 1969) is an English journalist and is the current Duchess of Beaufort through her marriage to Henry Somerset, 12th Duke of Beaufort.
Powell is the daughter of the director and producer Tristram Powell and his wife, the former Virginia Lucas, and is thus a granddaughter of the novelist Anthony Powell.
She studied Classics at the University of Oxford, and is best known as a columnist and obituarist for the" Daily Telegraph".
Her first marriage, in 1996, was to Tobias Coke; they had a son and a daughter.
On 30 April 2018, she married the Duke of Beaufort at St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton.
The Duke had previously divorced his first wife, actress Tracy Ward, after making a public announcement to guests at the Duke of Beaufort's annual hunt ball.
Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort
Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort KG( 16 October 1744 – 11 October 1803) was an English courtier and politician.
He was the only son of Charles Noel Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort and Elizabeth Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort.
Styled Marquess of Worcester from 1746, at his father's death on 28 October 1756, he succeeded him as 5th Duke of Beaufort, 7th Marquess of Worcester, 11th Earl of Worcester, and 13th Baron Herbert.
Hannah Arnold
Hannah Arnold, also known as Hannah Waterman King, was the grandmother of Benedict Arnolds children.
Frederic Augustus Alexander, Duke of Beaufort-Spontin
Frederic Augustus Alexander of Beaufort- Spontin, Duke of Beaufort( Namur, 14 September 1751 – Brussels, April 1817), was a member of the House of Beaufort- Spontin, a Belgian noble family that opposed Napoleon I of France.
Elizabeth Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort
Elizabeth Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort(" née" Berkeley; 9 April 1799) was born in Stoke Gifford in Gloucestershire to John Symes Berkeley and Elizabeth Norborne.
Her younger brother was Norborne, Lord Botetourt.
On 1 May 1740 she married Charles Noel Somerset, 4th Duke of Beaufort, younger son of Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort and his second wife Rachel Noel.
They had six children:
A stone obelisk to the memory of her daughter Lady Elizabeth Somerset is located in Stoke Park, Bristol.
It is engraved with the Latin inscription:
ELIZABETHA SOMERSET< br>
CAROLI DUCIS BEAUFORT FILIA SECUNDA HIC OBIIT VII< br>
MAII MDCCLX <br>
RESTITUTUM ANNO MMIV< br>
This translates as' Elizabeth Somerset, second daughter of Charles Duke of Beaufort, died here 7 May 1760.
Restored in the year 2004'.
She was killed when her horse shied.
Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort
Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort, KG PC (2 April 1684 – 24 May 1714) was an English peer and politician.
He was the only son of Charles Somerset, Marquess of Worcester, and Rebecca Child.
He was styled Earl of Glamorgan until 1698, and Marquess of Worcester from 1698 until his grandfather's death on 21 January 1700, when he succeeded him as 2nd Duke of Beaufort.
Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond
Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox, 4th Duke of Aubigny,( 9 December 176428 August 1819) was a Scottish peer, soldier, politician, and Governor General of British North America.
Hubba bint Hulail
Hubba bint Hulail was the grandmother of Hashim ibn' Abd Manaf, thus the great- great- great- grandmother of the Islamic" Nabī"( Prophet) Muhammad ibn Abdullah.
Henry Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort
Henry Charles Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort, KG( 22 December 1766 – 23 November 1835), styled Marquess of Worcester until 1803, was a British politician.

Question: Who is the paternal grandmother of Charles Somerset, 4Th Duke Of Beaufort?