Sir John Somers

The Right Honourable The Lord Somers PC
Lord President of the Council
In office 25 November 1708 – 21 September 1710
Preceded by	The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery
Succeeded by	The Earl of Rochester
Lord Chancellor
In office 1697–1700
Succeeded by	Sir Nathan Wright
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England
In office 1693–1697
Succeeded by	Sir Nathan Wright
Personal details
Born	4 March 1651 Claines, England
Died	26 April 1716 North Mymms, England
Political party	Whig
Alma mater	Trinity College, Oxford
Occupation	Lawyer, politician

John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, PC, PRS (4 March 1651 – 26 April 1716) was an English Whig jurist and statesman. Somers first came to national attention in the trial of the Seven Bishops where he was on their defence counsel. He published tracts on political topics such as the succession to the crown, where he elaborated his Whig principles in support of the Exclusionists. He played a leading part in shaping the Revolution settlement. He was Lord High Chancellor of England under King William III and was a chief architect of the union between England and Scotland achieved in 1707 and the Protestant succession achieved in 1714. He was a leading Whig during the twenty-five years after 1688; with four colleagues he formed the Whig Junto.

He was born at Claines, near Worcester, the eldest son of John Somers, an attorney in large practice in that town, who had formerly fought on the side of the Parliament, and of Catherine Ceaverne of Shropshire. After being at school at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, and The King's School, Worcester he was entered as a gentleman commoner at Trinity College, Oxford, and afterwards studied law under Sir Francis Winnington, who became solicitor-general, and joined the Middle Temple.

He soon became intimate with the leaders of the country party especially with Lord Essex, William Russell, and Algernon Sidney but never entered into their plans so far as to commit himself beyond recall. He was the author of a pamphlet supporting the Exclusion Bill, A Brief History of the Succession, Collected out of the Records and the Most Authentical Historians (1680). Somers showed that Parliament had for centuries regulated the succession of the English crown against the arguments of those who believed that Parliament had no right to alter the succession. Before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the Anglo-Saxon kings had been elected, and even after it Parliament had deposed kings and kings in turn had confirmed their title by Act of Parliament. Somers concluded:

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