Record

Authorised form of name	Somerset; Charles (1660 - 1698); Marquess of Worcester; nobleman and politician
Dates	1660 - 1698
Nationality	British
Date of birth	December 1660
Place of death	Wales
Date of death	13 July 1698
Dates and places	Baptism: St Martin's-in-the-Fields, Westminster, London, England, Europe (December 1660) Burial: Raglan, Wales, Europe
Activity	Education: Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1677; MA 1682) Career: Left for continent on 6 May 1673, and kept a diary of his travels; Commissioner for Assessment for Brecon (1677-1679), and Gloucestershire, Middlesex, Monmouth and Brecon (1689-1690); travelled to the Netherlands (1681); Colonel of Militia, Bristol (1682-1685); Member of the Council in the Marches of Wales (1682-1689); Custos Rotulorum for Radnorshire (1682-1689); Deputy Lieutenant of Monmouthshire (1683-1687), for Wiltshire (1683-1688), and for Gloucestershire (1685-1687); Member of the Committee of the HEIC (1683-1691); Colonel of a regiment of foot (1685-1687); MP for Monmouthshire (1685-1687, 1689-1695); died in a coach accident Honours: Styled as Lord Herbert of Raglan from 1667 to 1682, then Marquess of Worcester.
Membership category	Fellow
Date of election	04/06/1673
Proposer	John Hoskyns
Other Royal Society activity	Youngest Fellow ever elected by the Royal Society (aged 12); Proposed as a candidate on 7 May 1673
Relationships	Parents: Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort, and Mary Capel; predeceased his father Married: Rebecca Child Children: Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort; Lady Henrietta Somerset Additional relatives: uncle-by-marriage Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon (FRS 1684); cousin Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk (FRS 1672)
General context	After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Somerset started associating with Jacobite loyalists although there is some uncertaintiy about his exact political and religious affiliations. He was not particularly active in the Royal Society's work. He was a committee member of the Honorable East India Company (HEIC), an English and later British company formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region. The company ended up seizing control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent (and briefly Afghanistan) and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. In 1689, he held £1,000 of company stock.
Sources	Sources: Bulloch's Roll; GEC; Hunter; Foster; Henning Notes: Diary of his travels from 1673 in archives of Duke of Beaufort [Dr Anne Benson transcribing]
Royal Society code	NA5755

Archives associated with this Fellow

Reference number	Title	Date
EL/H3/26	Letter, from Herbert to Henry Oldenburg, dated at Blois	18 July 1674
EL/H3/27	Letter, from Herbert to Henry Oldenburg, dated at Orleans	25 March 1675
EL/O2/117	Letter, from Henry Oldenburg to Charles Somerset, dated at London	10 June 1673
EL/H3/25	Letter, from Herbert to Henry Oldenburg, dated at Aix	12 April 1674
MC/7/15	Letter from H [Henry] Dircks, 7 Queen Street, Place, City, to Walter White, [Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society]	5 February 1864
MC/7	Volume 7 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society	1864-1866
EL/O2/124	Letter, from Henry Oldenburg to Charles Somerset, dated at London	11 August 1673
EL/O2/150	Letter, from Henry Oldenburg to Charles Somerset, dated at London	19 August 1674

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