Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort
English nobleman (1744-1803)
Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort (16 October 1744 – 11 October 1803) was an English courtier and politician. He was styled the Marquess of Worcester from 1745 until 1756, when he succeeded his father as 5th Duke of Beaufort, 7th Marquess of Worcester, 11th Earl of Worcester, and 13th Baron Herbert.
Early life
Somerset was born on 16 October 1744 at Brook Street, Hanover Square, London. He was the only son of Lord Charles Somerset (second son of the 2nd Duke of Beaufort) and Elizabeth Beaufort, daughter of John Symes Berkeley.
At the time of Somerset's birth, his father sat in the House of Commons. He was five months old when his father succeeded his elder brother 3rd Duke of Beaufort in the dukedom, at which point Somerset was styled by his father's subsidiary title, the Marquess of Worcester. The 3rd Duke left only an illegitimate daughter, Margaret Burr, who married the artist Thomas Gainsborough.
In October 1765, shortly after his 21st birthday, he succeeded his father as the 5th Duke of Beaufort. On 18 October 1760, Beaufort began his studies at Oriel College, Oxford, graduating on 7 July 1763 with a Doctor of Civil Laws (DCL) degree.
Career
Beaufort held the office of Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England between 1767 and 1772.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3785000. VIAF identifies the subject as 315945660. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1744, 1803, 1745 and 1756.
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This entry incorporates text from “Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.