Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort papers

The collection includes two typescript copies of volume one and two of the Duchess of Beaufort’s Florilegium. These are both carbon copies. The Collection also includes one file of a list of plants figured in the Duchess of Beaufort’s Florilegium and the date at which they were introduced to cultivation. Also contains one duplicate typescript of the second volume of the Duchess of Beaufort’s Florilegium.

These are all undated but likely to have been created c.1920.

Mary Somerset, née Mary Capell, was born c.1630s and baptised on 16 December 1630.

Somerset married her first husband,?Henry Seymour, Lord Beauchamp?on 28 June 1648. They had two children, William Seymour, 3rd Duke of Somerset?and Lady Elizabeth Seymour. After the death of Henry Seymour on 14 March 1654, she married Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort?on 17 August 1657, and together they had six children, Henry Somerset, Lord Herbert; Charles Somerset, Marquess of Worcester; Lady Mary Somerset; Lady Henrietta Somerset; Lord Arthur Somerset; Lady Anne Somerset; and one unknown daughter.

Somerset began collecting, cataloguing, and cultivating plants in the 1680s using the gardens and glasshouses in her houses in Badminton and Chelsea, London.

She created twelve volumes of herbarium specimens and received seeds from around the world, including Sri Lanka, the West Indies, South Africa. India, China, and Japan. regularly communicated with leading Natural Historians, Botanists, collectors, Philosophers, and horticulturalists of the day. She also assisted notable individuals, including Robert Southwell, Hans Sloane and Jacob Bobart to grow and identify plants from seeds.

Somerset also commissioned a two volume Florilegium to be created based on the plants she had cultivated in her gardens. The first volume was painted by the artist, Everard Kik from 1703-1705. The second volume had multiple contributors, including Daniel Frankham who was employed as a footman at Badminton House and trained by Everard Kik under Somerset?s orders. Many of the contributors to the second volume were anonymous.

She died on 7 January 1715 in?Chelsea, London, England and was buried at?St Michael and All Angels Church?in?Badminton, Gloucestershire. She bequeathed her herbarium to Sir Hans Sloane.

Somerset may also be recorded by her maiden name, Mary Capell or her name from her first marriage, Mary Seymour, Lady Beauchamp.