John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, PC, FRS (4 March 1651–26 April 1716) was Lord High Chancellor of England under King William III.
John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, PC, FRS (4 March 1651–26 April 1716) was Lord High Chancellor of England under King William III. 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 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 appears, in addition to his legal studies, to have written several poems and pamphlets. He soon became intimate with the leaders of the country party especially with 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 the History of the Succession of the Crown of England, collected out of Records, &c., and was reputed to have written the Just and Modest Vindication of the Two Last Parliaments, which was put forward as the answer to Charles II’s famous declaration of his reasons for dissolving them. This, however, was by Sidney, though probably Somers was responsible for the final draft. When the grand jury of Middlesex threw out the bill against Shaftesbury, and were vehemently attacked for so doing, Somers wrote in defence of the rights of grand juries. In 1683 he was counsel for the sheriffs Pilkington and Shute before the court of King’s Bench, and secured a reputation which continually increased until the trial of the seven bishops, in which he was junior counsel. "Somers rose last. He spoke little more than five minutes, but every word was full of weighty matter; and when he sat down his reputation as an orator and a constitutional lawyer was established." In the secret councils of those who were planning the revolution Somers took a leading part, and in the Convention Parliament was elected a member for his native town
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