Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester

The Marquess of Worcester
Portrait by Alexander Craig (1856), after an original by Sir Anthony van Dyck (c.1640) (oil on canvas)
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Dormer Margaret O'Brien
Issue Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester Anne Somerset Elizabeth Somerset Mary Somerset
Noble family	House of Beaufort
Father	Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester
Mother	Anne Russell
Born	9 March 1602 or 9 March 1603
Died	3 April 1667

Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester (9 March 1602 or 9 March 1603 – 3 April 1667),^[1] styled Lord Herbert of Raglan from 1628–1644, was an English nobleman involved in royalist politics, and an inventor.

While Earl of Glamorgan, he was sent by Charles I to negotiate a peace treaty and alliance with the leadership of the Catholic Irish Confederacy. He enjoyed some success, but the agreement quickly broke down. He then joined the Confederates, and was appointed the commander of their Munster Army.

In 1655 he published The Century of Inventions, detailing more than 100 inventions, including a device that would have been one of the earliest steam engines.^[2]

Life

Edward Somerset graduated from Cambridge University, England, in 1627 with a Master of Arts (MA) degree.^[3] In his day he was one of the richest lords in England, funding his experiments, later self-funding his military endeavours, and sending large amounts of money to King Charles I during the English Civil War. He was a Cavalier who supported the King in Wales, where he raised a regiment of horse for him. His campaigning in the West of England and in Wales, however, did not go well.^[4] After a month with his force of over 2,000 troops encamped at Highnam, outside Gloucester, in March 1643 Herbert left them and travelled to meet the king at Oxford. In his absence the entire force surrendered without any exchange of fire, earning it the title "The Mushroom Army" (they appeared and disappeared very quickly). He was rewarded in 1644, however, with a peerage, being created Earl of Glamorgan and Baron Beaufort of Caldecote.^[5] Due to irregularities in the letters patent, these titles were not recognised after the Restoration.

Sent to Ireland, he made a false move in concluding a treaty, in great secrecy, on behalf of Charles that was considered to concede too much to the Catholics there; he himself was a Catholic.^[6] In extricating himself from that position, he became a close ally of Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, and a potential replacement for James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde as royalist leader.^[7] His plans to bring Irish troops over to England were overtaken by events, and he left for France with George Leyburn.^[8] He succeeded his father as Marquess of Worcester in 1646.

He was formally banished in 1649, but after four years in Paris returned to England in 1653. He was discovered, charged with high treason and sent to the Tower of London; he was treated leniently by the Council of State, and released on bail in 1654.^[8] That year he took up again his interest in engineering and inventions, leasing a house at Vauxhall where his Dutch or German technician Kaspar Kalthoff could work.^[9] After this he largely avoided politics, and did not press his claims to the various other titles of nobility.

Works

In 1655 he authored a book which consisted of textual descriptions of 100 separate inventions.^[10] It was eventually printed in 1663 and included a device described as his "Water-commanding Engine". Constructed from the barrel of a cannon, it was an obvious prototype design for what would later become the steam engine, and clearly anticipated the power and applications of that machine.^[11]

In 1663 Samuel Sorbière visited Edward's Vauxhall workshop and saw and described the "hydraulic machine which the Marquis of Worcester has invented." It was designed for purposes of irrigation, and would "raise to the height of forty feet, by the strength of one man and in the space of one minute of time, four large buckets of water." Cosimo de' Medici, Duke of Tuscany, visited it in 1669, when a similar description was given. Robert Hooke, however, described it as "one of the perpetual motion fallacies."^[1]

Edward suggested that when he died, a model of his engine should be buried with him. Almost 200 years later, in 1861, this prompted Victorian collector Bennet Woodcroft to mount an expedition, on behalf of The Science Museum, to the vault of Raglan church, to try to find a model of the invention in Somerset's tomb.^[12] Despite opening the coffin lid and searching thoroughly, no model was found. Woodcroft did, however, return with one of Edward's fingernails.

Family

He was the son of Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester and his wife Anne Russell. In 1628, he married Elizabeth Dormer (d. 31 May 1635), sister of Robert Dormer, 1st Earl of Carnarvon, by whom he had one son and two daughters:

• Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquess of Worcester, his heir and successor, who later became 1st Duke of Beaufort;
• Lady Anne Somerset (1631?–1662), married Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk, and had issue;
• Lady Elizabeth Somerset (bef. 1635 – aft. c. 1680), married William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis, and had issue.

In 1639, after Elizabeth's death, Lord Herbert married Margaret O'Brien (d. 26 July 1681), daughter of Henry O'Brien, 5th Earl of Thomond. They had one daughter:

• Lady Mary Somerset, died young.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester

16. Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester               8. William Somerset, 3rd Earl of Worcester                       17. Elizabeth Browne               4. Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester                             18. Edward North, 1st Baron North               9. Christian North                       19. Alice Squire               2. Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester                                   20. George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon               10. Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon                       21. Anne Stafford               5. Elizabeth Hastings                             22. Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu               11. Catherine Pole                       23. Jane Neville               1. Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester                                         24. John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford               12. Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford                       25. Anne Sapcote               6. John Russell, 3rd Baron Russell                             26. John St John               13. Margaret St John                       27. Margaret Waldegrave               3. Anne Russell                                   28. John Cooke               14. Anthony Cooke                       29. Alice Saunders               7. Elizabeth Cooke                             30. William Fitzwilliam               15. Anne Fitzwilliam                       31. Anne Hawes

Notes

1.  "Somerset, Edward (1601-1667)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
2. The Century of Inventions, written in 1655; by Edward Somerset, Marquis of Worcester. Being a verbatim reprint of the first edition, published in 1663. archive
3. G. E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910–1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume XII/2, page 859.
4. Plant, David (25 May 2009). "Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, Earl of Glamorgan, Marquis of Worcester, 1601–67". British Civil Wars, Commonwealth & Protectorate 1638–60. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
5. "Edward [Somerset], 2nd Marquess of Worcester" at cracroftspeerage.co.uk
6. Plant, David (25 May 2009). "The Glamorgan Treaty, 1645". British Civil Wars, Commonwealth & Protectorate 1638–60. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
7. "Giovanni Battista Rinuccini". Classic Encyclopedia. 3 September 2006. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
8. Dictionary of National Biography, article under Somerset, Edward.
9. "Edward Somerset, Second Marquis of Worcester (1601–1667)". Worcester's steam engine. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
10. Entitled A century of the names and scantlings of such inventions as at present I can call to mind to have tried and perfected which (my former notes being lost) I have, at the instance of a powerful friend, endeavored now, in the year 1655, to set these down in such a way, as may sufficiently instruct me to put any of them to practice. London : Printed by J. Grismond, 1663.
11. Dionysius Lardner: The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated; with an account of its invention and progressive improvements, London, Taylor & Walton 1840 p.23
12. Alexander Armstrong's Who Do You Think You Are at bbc.co.uk

External links

•  "Worcester, Edward Somerset, second Marquis of". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.