SOMERSET, Henry, Mq. of Worcester (1792-1853).

In 1810 Lord Worcester joined his uncles Edward and Fitzroy in the Peninsula, where he became a.d.c. to Wellington, whose niece he subsequently married. While on home leave, after the writ had been delayed so that he could be present, he was returned for Monmouth on his father’s interest.R. D. Rees, ‘Parl. Rep. S. Wales 1790-1830’ (Reading Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1962), ii. 508; Glos. RO, Bragge Bathurst mss X17/53. He was not opposed there until 1820. A ministerialist, he paired with government for the continuation of the property tax, 18 Mar. 1816, despite his constituents’ protests, and soon afterwards accepted a seat at the Admiralty Board. He had no inclination for business however, preferring the life of a man about town and sportsman and acquiring a certain notoriety for his high spirited pranks and scrapes, not least his liaison with the courtesan Harriette Wilson.Jnl. of Mrs Arbuthnot, passim; ‘Nimrod’, Sporting Reminiscences, ch. 8. He voted against Catholic relief, 21 May 1816, 9 May 1817 and 3 May 1819, though his belated vote was on the latter occasion disallowed.Parl. Deb. xl. 79. He died 17 Nov. 1853.