Elizabeth Seymour (c. 1518 – 19 March 1568) was a younger daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wulfhall, Wiltshire and Margery Wentworth. Elizabeth and her sister Jane served in the household of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. The Seymours rose to prominence after the king's attention turned to Jane. In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was accused of treason and adultery, and subsequently executed. On 30 May 1536, eleven days after Anne's execution, Henry VIII and Jane were married. Elizabeth was not included in her sister's household during her brief reign, although she would serve two of Henry VIII's later wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. Jane died 24 October 1537, twelve days after giving birth to a healthy son, Edward VI.
Elizabeth lived under four Tudor monarchs (Lady Jane Grey is not included) and was married three times. By July 1530 she had married Sir Anthony Ughtred, Governor of Jersey, who died in 1534. She then married Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, the son of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII in 1537; Gregory died in 1551. She married her third and last husband, Sir John Paulet, later Lord St. John, the son of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester in 1554.
The Seymour family took its name from St. Maur-sur-Loire in Touraine. William de St. Maur in 1240 held the manors of Penhow and Woundy (now called Undy in Monmouthshire). William's great-grandson, Sir Roger de St. Maur, had two sons: John, whose granddaughter conveyed these manors by marriage into the family of Bowlay of Penhow, who bore the Seymour arms; and Sir Roger (c. 1308 – Bef. 1366), who married Cicely, eldest sister and heir of John de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp. Cicely brought to the Seymours the manor of Hache, Somerset, and her grandson, Roger Seymour, by his marriage with Maud, daughter and heir of Sir William Esturmy, acquired Wolf Hall in Wiltshire. Elizabeth's father, Sir John Seymour, was a great-great-grandson of this Roger Seymour.
Sir John Seymour was born in 1474. He succeeded his father in 1492, was knighted by Henry VII for his services against the Cornish rebels at Blackheath in 1497, and was sheriff of Wiltshire in 1508. He was present at the sieges of Thérouanne and Tournay in 1513, at the two interviews between Henry VIII and Francis I in 1520 and 1532, and died on 21 December 1536.
He married Margery, the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead, Suffolk, and his wife Anne Say. Anne was the daughter of Sir John Say and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Lawrence Cheney (or Cheyne) (c. 1396 – 1461) and Elizabeth Cokayne. Margery Wentworth's grandfather, Sir Philip Wentworth, had married Mary, daughter of John Clifford, 7th Baron de Clifford, whose mother Elizabeth was daughter of Henry Percy (Hotspur) and great-great-granddaughter of Edward III.
Sir John Seymour (1474 – 21 December 1536), of Wulfhall, Savernake, Wiltshire, and Margery Wentworth (c. 1478 – c. October 1550) were married 22 October 1494. The couple had ten children:
John Seymour (died 15 July 1510)
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector of Edward VI (c. 1500/1506 – 22 January 1552) married firstly Catherine, daughter of Sir William Fillol, and secondly Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Stanhope.
Sir Henry Seymour (1503 – 1578) married Barbara, daughter of Morgan Wolfe
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley (c. 1508 – 20 March 1549) married Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII
Anthony Seymour (died c. 1528)
Jane Seymour, queen Consort of Henry VIII (c. 1509 – 24 October 1537)
Margery Seymour (died c. 1528)
Elizabeth Seymour (c. 1518 – 19 Mar 1568)
Dorothy Seymour (c. 1519 – 4 January 1574) married firstly, Sir Clement Smith (c. 1515 – 26 August 1552) of Little Baddow, Essex and secondly, Thomas Leventhorpe of Shingle Hall, Hertfordshire.
Of the ten children born at Wulfhall, six survived:– three sons: Edward, Henry and Thomas, and three daughters: Jane, Elizabeth and Dorothy. Edward, Thomas, Jane and Elizabeth were courtiers. Edward and Thomas were both executed during the reign of Edward VI. Henry Seymour, who did not share his brothers' ambition, escaped their fate.
Elizabeth Seymour was born about 1518, probably at Wulfhall. Her letters to Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII show that she was both intelligent and astute. She was also skilled in needlework. She played a brief but prominent role in the 1530s and 1540s, during the rise to power of her father-in-law, Thomas Cromwell, and her brother, Edward. Elizabeth and her sister, Jane, served in the household of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, their second cousin. She married three times and by her first two marriages had seven children. She is best known as the wife of Gregory Cromwell.
By July 1530 Elizabeth had married, as his second wife, Sir Anthony Ughtred, of Kexby, Yorkshire.