and placing the prince of Orange on the English throne. The prince's Declaration, if not framed by Somers, certainly had his previous approbation. He had obtained a seat in parliament, as representative of Worcester, in 1689. He was chairman of the second committee and member of the first which produced the famous Declaration of Right—a document which, with the Bill of Rights and Magna Charta, are the three solid pillars of the English constitution. Somers' first speech in parliament was in support of a "bill for declaring the convention a parliament." Six months after his return for Worcester he was made solicitor-general, and on the 2nd of May, 1692—three years later—attorney-general. Through his exertions the toleration act was passed, and to his genius England owes the happy settlement by which a proper allowance was made for the personal and household expenses of the king, and the revenue devoted to the public service. On the 23rd of March, 1693, the great seal was delivered to Sir John Somers as lord keeper. While presiding at the court of chancery, his judicial conduct elicited universal approbation. "All contemporary accounts," observes Lord Campbell, "concur in praising his industry, his patience, his courteousness, and the uniform serenity of his temper under every provocation of petulance and of dulness, which is still more trying." According to the testimony of Hargrave, "one of the most elaborate arguments ever delivered in Westminster hall" was the celebrated judgment of Lord Somers in the "bankers' case." (Howel's State Trials, vol. xiv., pp. 39-105.) The subject of that action was a claim by "the bankers" against the crown, founded on a grant by Charles XI. of certain perpetual annuities, which were charged on the hereditary excise in favour of "the bankers" by way of interest on their debts. The lord keeper, supported by Trely, chief justice of the common pleas, reversed the decision of the barons of the exchequer; but on appeal to the house of lords the original judgment was confirmed; a parliamentary grant of half the amount demanded was eventually accepted in discharge of the full claim. In 1697 Somers surrendered the great seal, but the king returned it to him with the title of chancellor, and created him in the same day Baron Somers of Evesham in the county of Worcester. Through the influence of Lord Somers Newton was about this time appointed warden of the mint, and Locke a lord of trade. When Bayle, overtaken by great poverty, was struggling to bring out the Historical and Critical Dictionary, Lord Somers, with a generosity worthy of his fame, intimated through a friend that "if Mr. Bayle would accept of his patronage for his dictionary he had one hundred and fifty guineas at his service." Lastly, the great talent of Addison had not escaped the lord chancellor's notice; with the concurrence of Montagu, chancellor of the exchequer, an annuity of £300 was granted to that accomplished author, for which posterity have received more than an equivalent in the Travels in Italy, the Dialogue on Medals, &c., &c. After the peace of Ryswick, 1697, a cloud passed over the popularity of Somers, while the tory party were gradually supplanting their political opponents. So obnoxious had Lord Somers become to the tories, that upon the general indignation consequent upon the charges preferred against him, William was compelled to issue a warrant for the surrender of the great seal. Attacks had been made upon the chancellor for having wrongfully dismissed the magistrates who had refused to sign the "association" for the king's safety, on the discovery of the "assassination plot." Even piracy on the high seas had been entered on the roll of his crimes. But the climax of their virulence was reached when the commons resolved to suspend Lord Somers for the share he had taken in the partition treaties, "and for other high crimes and misdemeanours." The substance of the main charge was this: William having resolved upon entering into a secret arrangement with Louis XII. for the partition of the Spanish dominions, requested his chancellor to send him the "full powers under the great seal, with the name in blank." This blank commission under the great seal (prepared in the closest secrecy) enabled the king to appoint any persons as commissioners to conclude a treaty upon any terms he might dictate. The proceeding was grossly unconstitutional; but owing to the jealousies and punctilios of both houses of parliament the impeachment fell through, and Lord Somers escaped scatheless. The great seal was, however, taken from him, and intrusted to Sergeant Wright as lord-keeper. Though holding no office, Somers threw the weight of his wisdom and authority into the deliberations which eventually resulted in the union of England and Scotland. He succeeded against the indignant opposition of the tory party and the bigotry of Oxford, in securing liberal concessions for the national Scotch church and presbyterian form of government. When the whig policy had been crowned by. the grand victories of Blenheim and Ramillies that party was once more in the ascendant; and Somers was appointed president of the council. His health, however, was now very much impaired. After the year 1713 that brilliant intellect which for upwards of twenty years had cast its lustre upon the throne, the senate, and the bench, began to burn more dimly. When George I. arrived in England, Somers was too infirm to preside at the council. Honoris causa he retained his place in the cabinet, but on the 26th of April, 1716, he expired in a fit of apoplexy at his villa in Hertfordshire. Somers lived and died a single man, though when solicitor-general he, for the first and last time, made a proposal of marriage. The title, therefore, died with him. The present Earl Somers is descended from the lord chancellor's eldest sister, Mrs. Cocks, the barony having been created in 1784, and the earldom in 1821.—G. H. P.
SOMERSET, an illustrious English family, which has made a conspicuous figure in history, and has long possessed the titles of Duke of Beaufort and Marquis and Earl of Worcester. It derives its origin from a branch of the royal house of Plantagenet, being lineally descended from John of Gaunt, son of Edward III., by Catherine Swynford. (See Lancaster, Duke of ) His eldest son was created Earl of Somerset in 1396, and subsequently Marquis of Dorset and Marquis of Somerset. The direct male line of John of Gaunt terminated on the death of Henry duke of Somerset, and his brother Edward his successor. The former was taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the battle of Hexham, and was beheaded in 1463; and the latter met with a similar fate in 1471. Henry left an illegitimate son, Charles Somerset, the direct ancestor of the present family. He was a person of great abilities and accomplishments, and was intrusted with several most important diplomatic missions. He was appointed by Henry VII. a member of the privy council, admiral of the fleet, vice-chamberlain of the household, and captain of the guards, and was sent ambassador, with the order of the garter, to the Emperor Maximilian. He accompanied Henry VIII. in his expedition to France, and as a reward for his gallant behaviour at the capture of Therrouenne and Tournay, was constituted lord chamberlain for life, and was created Earl of Worcester, 1513. The second and third earls were respectable and influential noblemen at the court of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. The latter lived to the great age of ninety-seven, and was succeeded in 1589 by his only son, Edward, fourth earl, one of the most accomplished gentlemen of his age. He was born in 1544, and was trained in all the chivalric and knightly exercises of his age. He was regarded as the best horseman and tilter of the times. He was held in high esteem by Elizabeth, notwithstanding of his steady adherence to the Roman catholic religion. "His mistress," Lloyd quaintly remarks, "excused his faith, which was popish, and honoured his faithfulness, which was Roman;" and, he adds, "it was her usual speech that my lord of Worcester had reconciled what she thought inconsistent, a stiff papist and a good subject." She appointed the earl a member of her privy council, sent him in 1591 ambassador to Scotland to congratulate James on his marriage, and in 1601 appointed him master of the horse. On the accession of James to the English throne the earl became one of his most trusted counsellors; and during that monarch's frequent intervals of absence from his capital, he managed the greater part of his majesty's confidential correspondence with his ministers. On his resignation of the office of master of the horse in 1615, he was created lord privy seal, with an unusually large salary. He was no less remarkable for his integrity, than for his sound judgment and accomplishments. "When years," says Sir Robert Naunton, "had abated his exercises of honour, he grew then to be a faithful and profound counsellor; and as I have placed him last, so he was the last born of all the servants of Queen Elizabeth's favour, and saw his renowned mistress and all of them laid in the places of their rest; and for himself, after a life of very noble and remarkable reputation, he died rich, and at a peaceable old age—a fate that I make the last, and none of the slightest observations, which befell not many of the rest.—Henry Somerset, fifth earl and first marquis of Worcester, was summoned in the lifetime of his father to the first parliament of James I., and was advanced to the rank of marquis in 1642. When the great civil war broke out the earl zealously
