nobles who, by insisting on their right to be present in the Privy Council, secured the Hanoverian succession to the Crown. He retained the office of Master of the Horse for the first year of the reign of King George I (1714–1727) until 1715, when he was dismissed and retired to private life. In 1739, the Duke became a founding governor of the Foundling Hospital in London, the country's first and only children's home for foundlings, after his second wife, Charlotte Finch (1711–1773), became the first to sign the petition to King George II of its founder Captain Thomas Coram. The Duke died at Petworth on 2 December 1748. Marriages and descendants Somerset married twice. Firstly, in 1682, at the age of twenty, as described above, he married the 15-year-old heiress Lady Elizabeth Percy (1667–1722), already twice widowed. As Duchess of Somerset, she served as Groom of the Stole and First Lady of the Bedchamber at the court of Queen Anne. Following his wife's death in 1722 the Duke developed a romantic attachment to the widowed Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (1660–1744) (née Sarah Jennings) whose husband the 1st Duke of Marlborough had died the same year. He sent her "feverish love letters", but she remained loyal to her late husband. By Elizabeth Percy he had one surviving son and three daughters: Charles Seymour, Earl of Hereford (baptized 22 March 1683died before 26 August 1683), who died an infant in his first year. Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset (11 November 16847 February 1749), eldest surviving son and heir, known during his father's lifetime by the courtesy title of Earl of Hertford, one of his father's subsidiary titles. Algernon's only daughter and sole-heiress Lady Elizabeth Seymour, suo jure Baroness Percy, together with her husband Sir Hugh Smithson, 4th Baronet (died 1786) (who in 1749 adopted the surname Percy and in 1766 was created Duke of Northumberland) inherited half the great Percy estates including Alnwick Castle and Syon House. Percy Seymour, died unmarried. Lady Elizabeth Seymour (16852 April 1734), eldest daughter, wife of Henry O'Brien, 8th Earl of Thomond (1688–1741), without progeny. His chosen heir was her younger nephew Percy Wyndham-O'Brien, 1st Earl of Thomond (c. 1713–1774) of Shortgrove, Essex, who adopted the surname O'Brien and was elevated to the peerage as Earl of Thomond. Lady Catherine Seymour (16939 April 1731), 2nd daughter, wife of Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet (c.