Somers, John, Baron Somers (1651 -1716)

John Somers was the son of John Somers, an attorney who inherited the family estate of Clifton on Severn in Worcestershire, and Catherine, youngest daughter of John Severne, of Powyck in Worcestershire. He was educated at Worcester Cathedral School and Trinity College Oxford, where he matriculated on 23 May 1667. On 24 May 1669 he was admitted to the Middle Temple of which he became a Bencher in 1689, and was called to the Bar 5 May 1676. He was Solicitor General in 1688, when he also was knighted, and was Member of Parliament for Worcester. He was a member of the Privy Council in 1693, and shortly afterwards Lord Privy Seal, Speaker of the House of Commons, and in 1697 Lord Chancellor and raised to the peerage as Baron Somers of Evesham. In 1701, an unsuccessful attempt was made to impeach him. He never married, and his library must have passed to his sisters, Mary, who married Charles Cocks, and Elizabeth, who married Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the Rolls. Part of his library was sold at Mr Motteaux's auction room on 6 May 1717, other books in Sir Joseph Jekyll's sale at Paul's Coffee House on 20 February 1739, and manuscripts from his library were sold by T. King on 23 February 1801.