Somers, JOHN, LORD

Somers, JOHN, LORD, Whig statesman, was born at Worcester, an attorney's son, on 4th March 1652, and in 1667 entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1669 the Middle Temple, being called to the bar in 1676. Associated with the 'Country party,' he was one of the counsel for the Seven Bishops (1688), and from the Revolution onwards took a prominent part in politics, being returned for Worcester to the Convention parliament, and successively made Solicitor-general, Attorney-general, and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, until in 1697 he became Lord Chancellor, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Somers of Evesham. He was William's most trusted minister, and as such was the object of frequent attacks, one of which in 1700 resulted in his being deprived of the seal, and another in 1701 in an impeachment by the Commons, rejected, however, by the House of Lords. He returned for two years to power as President of the Council (1708-10), and died of apoplexy, 26th April 1716. The Somers Tracts (16 vols. 1748), a valuable collection of state papers from his library, were re-edited by Sir Walter Scott (13 vols. 1809-15).