John Seymour, 19th Duke of Somerset
John Michael Edward Seymour, 19th Duke of Somerset (born 30 December 1952), styled Lord Seymour between 1954 and 1984, is a British aristocratic landowner in Wiltshire and Devon, and a member of the House of Lords. Life. Educated at Hawtreys and Eton College, he qualified as a chartered surveyor before succeeding to the dukedom in 1984 on the death of his father. Having lost his seat in the House of Lords under the House of Lords Act 1999, he was elected at the December 2014 House of Lords by-elections, to sit as a  crossbencher. The Duke's principal seat is Bradley House, Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire, and he also owns Berry Pomeroy Castle in Devon. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Wiltshire in 1993 and for Devon in 2003. The Duke and his wife are patrons and official hosts of the Queen Charlotte's Ball. In 2015, the Duke was involved in a dispute over a plan to build housing on ancestral land he owns at Totnes, Devon. Family. The present Duke is the son of Percy Seymour, 18th Duke of Somerset, and Jane "née" Thomas (died 2005). His paternal grandmother, Edith Mary  Parker, was a daughter of William Parker and Lucinda Steeves, daughter of William Steeves, one of the Fathers of Canadian Confederation. He married at All Saints' Church, Maiden Bradley, on 20 May 1978, Judith-Rose Hull, daughter of John Folliott Hull; the Duke and Duchess have four children: