This surname is derived from a geographical locality. (1) 'of St. Maur,' some forgotten chapelry in Normandy. Local, (2) 'of Semer,' a parish in Suffolk. Bapt. (3) 'the son of Semar' (i.e. Sigmar; v. Yonge, ii. 311). All these various names must inevitably be mixed now, the tendency being towards the aristocratic Seymour; v. Seamer for a further derivation.

Laurence de Sancto Mauro, Derbyshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Henry de Sancto Mauro, Oxfordshire, ibid.

Henry de Semore, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

Richard de Semare, Buckinghamshire, ibid.

Henry de St. Maur, c. 1300. Writs of Parliament.

Richard de Semere, vicar of Hindringham, Norfolk, 1349: History of Norfolk.

Elizabeth Seyntmaur. Calendarium Inquisitionum Post Mortem.

Adam Semar, Huntingdonshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Hewerad Samar, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

William Samar, Huntingdonshire, ibid.

Johannes Semer, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Richardus Semar, 1379: ibid.

These last five references evidently concern (3), the personal name. Many of our Seymours are descendants of this Scandinavian personal name, having assumed the form of Seymour in later times.

(Anglo-French-Latin-Greek) belonging to St. Maur (France), prob. more specif. St. Maur-des-Bois, Manche, Norm. [French Maur, Latin Maur-us, Greek Μαΰρ-ος, a Moor, black man] This name was Latinized (e.g. in the Hundred-Rolls) de Sancto Mauro. (Teutonic) for Seamer, q.v.

Corruption of St. Morice.

(English) Descendant of Seamer (sea, famous); one who came from Seamer (lake, sea), in Yorkshire; one who came from St. Maur (black), in France.

A corruption of St. Maur. Many of the families who write themselves Seymour, have probably little claim to a Norman origin. Some may derive from Semer, a parish in Suffolk, and others from the Anglo-Saxon seamere, a tailor. Semar is also an ancient personal name. Camden.

A corruption of St. Maurus.

Or St. Maur, a baronial name, from St. Maur, near Avranches, Normandy. William de S. Mauro, Normandy 1198 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae). The early arms, two or more chevrons, appear to imply that this was a branch of the family of Avranches, which also bore chevrons. Wido de St. Maur came to England 1066, and was deceased before 1086, when William Fitz-Wido, his son, held a barony in Somerset, Wilts, and Gloucester; and ten manors in Somerset (of which Portishead was one) from Geoffry, Bishop of Coutances. He made conquests in Wales c. 1090, which his family afterwards held. He had, 1. Peter de St. Maur, who granted Portishead to the Hospitallers (Mon. ii. 530), and was ancestor of the Lords St. Maur, barons by writ 1314, who bore arg. two chevrons gules; 2. Richard Fitzwilliam, who inherited the Welsh barony, and t. Stephen granted four churches in Wales to the abbey of Kadwalli (Mon. i. 425). This marcher barony was reconquered soon after by the Welsh. His son Thomas de St. Maur held three knights’ fees from Humphry de Bohun in Wilts (Lib. Niger), and had issue Bartholomew, who witnessed the charter of Keynsham Abbey, c. 1170 (Mon. ii. 298). His son, William de St. M., conquered Woundy and Penhow, Monmouth, from the Welsh about 1235, and was ancestor of the Sey mours; from whom sprang Queen Jane Seymour, the Protector Duke of Somerset, and the Dukes of Somerset, the Marquises of Hertford, and other families.

(English), St. Maur, also Seamere; i. e., Seamer, Tailor.

From the French, St. Maur.

The Seymours were a very old and distinguished historical Bucks and Wilts family.