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Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset

Wife of Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset. (1809–1884)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ5548110 ↗
Source-derived summary

Jane Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (née Sheridan; 5 November 1809 – 14 December 1884), was the wife of Edward, Duke of Somerset.

Early life

Jane Georgiana Sheridan was the third daughter of Thomas Sheridan and his wife the novelist Caroline Callander, daughter of Sir James Callander of Craigforth and Ardkinglas. She was the younger sister of "three beautiful Sheridan girls," her elder sisters being Helen (wife of Price Blackwood, 4th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye), songwriter, composer, poet, and author, and Caroline (wife of George Chapple Norton and Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet), society beauty, feminist, social reformer, and author. Georgiana, Helen, and Caroline were the granddaughters of Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Society life

Known for her loveliness, the Duchess was chosen to be the "Queen of Beauty" at the Eglinton Tournament in 1839.

According to the memoirs of Lady Dorothy Nevill, the Duchess unsuccessfully attempted to introduce guinea pigs to the English culinary scene.

Personal life

On 10 June 1830, when he was twenty-five and she was twenty, she married Edward, Lord Seymour, the eldest son of Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset, and Lady Charlotte Hamilton (a daughter of the 9th Duke of Hamilton). Together, they had two sons and three daughters:

Lady Jane Hermione Seymour (1832–1909), who married Sir Frederick Graham, 3rd Baronet, son of Sir James Graham, 2nd Baronet, who served as Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty.

Lady Ulrica Frederica Jane Seymour (1833–1916), who married the Rt. Hon.

Editorial summary

“Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset” enters the record as wife of Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset. (1809–1884). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Georgiana, Seymour and Duchess can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1809, 1884, 1839, 1830—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1809-11-05. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Georgiana, Seymour and Duchess.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Georgiana, Seymour and Duchess provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5548110. VIAF identifies the subject as 43146285535015372830. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1809, 1884, 1839 and 1830.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset primary sources, Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset archive and Georgiana research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset” 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.