Earl of Yarmouth in high court battle with family over control of £85 million estate

He says the "trauma" of not taking over the estate at 30 has "upended" his life. A bitter family feud over an £85 million estate has landed in the high court, pitting a craft liquor-brewing earl against his parents. William Seymour, the Earl of Yarmouth, and his wife Kelsey, a former Goldman Sachs banker, are locked in a legal battle with the Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford, William's parents, over control of the 400-year-old Ragley Hall estate in Warwickshire.

Thirty-two-year-old William, as the eldest son, had anticipated inheriting the ancestral home, Ragley Hall, the High Court has heard. However, his father, 66-year-old Harry, Lord Hertford, claims that William's relationship with the family “deteriorated very sharply” in the lead-up to and following his wedding to Kelsey in 2018. He also sent what his parents say were “hostile and inflammatory” emails to his marchioness mum Beatriz, Lady Hertford, 64, “questioning (his dad's) mental capacity”, which they say caused “enormous upset and anger”.

Alongside this, there were clashes between the couple and the trustees controlling a large part of the 6,000-acre Ragley Estate, which is the source of the family's wealth, with the earl and countess claiming amongst other things that the trustees refused to release funds for their two children's private school fees. The couple also say they were kicked out of their cottage home on the estate with just a few days' notice.

Now after years of simmering dispute, the earl — who with his wife runs craft elderflower liquor distillery St Maur from part of the estate — is facing off against his parents and siblings in court, fighting to dismantle the structure controlling the trusts and remove the trustees, who he claims have sided with his parents. He says that the “trauma” of having his expectations that he would “take over the estate” when he turned 30, in 2023, dashed has “upended” his life. He has needed “professional help and counselling to deal with trauma as a consequence”.

But lawyers for Lord and Lady Hertford and William’s three siblings, Lady Gabriella Seymour, 32, Lord Edward Seymour, 30, and Lady Antonia Seymour, 26, say William has behaved in an “unreasonable and vindictive” manner, and want the trusts left undisturbed, whilst those running the family trusts — the Ragley Trust Company Ltd and Seymour Trust Company Ltd — deny bias. The court heard that the Seymour family, which indirectly descends from Henry VIII’s favourite wife, Jane Seymour, have had their family seat at Ragley, near Alcester, Warks, for around 400 years.

The estate comprises a Robert Hooke Palladian mansion, working farms, businesses and properties, as well as woods and hundreds of acres of parkland, although the two trusts do not run the house itself. William, who the court heard had already been passed estate land and property worth over £4m by the time he was 21, had “little interest in the estate or the trusts” until 2017, the family's barrister Richard Dew said.

But after getting together with his financier wife Kelsey, he “started to assert himself”, with the couple asking to be given financial information about the estate and to attend management meetings, he said. This led to complaints from William about his ideas about how the estate should be run being disregarded and “disrespect” being shown to his wife, by not inviting her to a trustee meeting.

At the same time, relations with his family were nosediving. Tim Sherwin — barrister for the two family trusts — claimed William had sparked conflict with his dad by raising the topic of his succession as the oldest son and heir. “Harry’s account is that William asked him to confirm that Harry would hand over Ragley Hall to William when William turned 30, i.e. in late 2023,” explained Mr Sherwin.

“Harry says he was disappointed with William’s lack of achievements, and that the tipping point in their falling out was a letter from William sent on 25 July 2018 to (Lady Hertford) questioning Harry’s mental capacity.”. William says he was rocked to receive an email from his mother in March 2018, in which she told him: “As you know, darling, there are no funds available for supporting two generations at the same time and you should prepare for that.

“There are no obligations as to when or what is handed over.”. William is now seeking to have the trusts dismantled, with trust companies removed and replaced with independent professional trustees on the basis that their relationship has broken down. His barrister, Paul Burton, said the trustees had contributed to family strife and misdirected the estate. Backing the trusts’ case, Mr Dew, for William’s parents and siblings, said that since 2018, he had done “many things which on any basis would make the trustees cautious in their dealings with him”.