Biography of John Somers 1st Baron Somers 1651-1716

On 04 Mar 1651 John Somers 1st Baron Somers was born to John Somers.

Evelyn's Diary. 19 Mar 1693. A new Secretary of State, Sir John Trenchard (age 43); the Attorney-General, Somers (age 42), made Lord-Keeper, a young lawyer of extraordinary merit. King William (age 42) goes toward Flanders; but returns, the wind being contrary.

In 1697 John Somers 1st Baron Somers (age 45) was created 1st Baron Somers.

In 1698 John Somers 1st Baron Somers (age 46) was elected President of the Royal Society.

Evelyn's Diary. 07 Dec 1698. Being one of the Council of the Royal Society, I was named to be of the committee to wait on our new President (age 47), the Lord Chancellor, our Secretary, Dr. Sloane, and Sir R. Southwell (age 62), last Vice-President, carrying our book of statutes; the office of the President being read, his Lordship (age 47) subscribed his name, and took the oaths according to our statutes as a Corporation for the improvement of natural knowledge. Then his Lordship (age 47) made a short compliment concerning the honor the Society had done him, and how ready he would be to promote so noble a design, and come himself among us, as often as the attendance on the public would permit; and so we took our leave.

Evelyn's Diary. 24 Apr 1700. This week there was a great change of State officers. The Duke of Shrewsbury (age 39) resigned his Lord Chamberlainship to the Earl of Jersey (age 44), the Duke's indisposition requiring his retreat. Mr. Vernon (age 54), Secretary of State, was put out. The Seal was taken from the Lord Chancellor Somers (age 49), though he had been acquitted by a great majority of votes for what was charged against him in the House of Commons. This being in term time, put some stop to business, many eminent lawyers refusing to accept the office, considering the uncertainty of things in this fluctuating conjuncture. It is certain that this Chancellor was a most excellent lawyer, very learned in all polite literature, a superior pen, master of a handsome style, and of easy conversation; but he is said to make too much haste to be rich, as his predecessor, and most in place in this age did, to a more prodigious excess than was ever known. But the Commons had now so mortified the Court party, and property and liberty were so much invaded in all the neighboring kingdoms, that their jealousy made them cautious, and every day strengthened the law which protected the people from tyranny.

Evelyn's Diary. 30 Nov 1700. At the Royal Society, Lord Somers (age 49), the late Chancellor, was continued President.

In 1701 Andrew Fountaine (age 68), as a consequence of financial difficulties, compelled him to sell his Hertfordshire estates including his newly built house at Bell Bar to John Somers 1st Baron Somers (age 49).

Evelyn's Diary. 20 Jun 1701. The Commons demanded a conference with the Lords on the trial of Lord Somers (age 50), which the Lords refused, and proceeding on the trial, the Commons would not attend, and he was acquitted.

In 1710. John James Baker. Known as "Whig Junto". From www.tate.org ... This is a portrait of a political group named the Whig Junto and a Black servant, whose identity is unknown. It is the only known portrait of the Junto, which was an ideologically close-knit group of political peers who formed the leadership of the Whig party in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The members of the group are shown gathered together on a grand terrace, while a vista onto a garden is revealed by the Black servant, who holds back a heavy velvet curtain. The grand architectural setting is imagined, and is deliberately evocative of power and status. The picture was commissioned by Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford (age 57), who stands on the right, as if welcoming the company. It is not known if Orford (age 57) had a Black servant in his household or whether the individual was included to emphasise Orford's (age 57) wealth and social standing. At the time, Britain was profiting heavily from the trade of enslaved people from West Africa. The presence of Black servants, many of whom were enslaved, in both aristocratic and merchant households had come to symbolise property and wealth. This reflected the dehumanising view of enslaved Black people held by the British elite.

The scene conjures one of the Junto's country house meetings where, in between parliamentary sessions, policy and party strategy were formulated. From left to right the sitters round the table can be identified as Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (age 34); Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton (age 61); John Somers, 1st Baron Somers (1C 1697) (age 58); Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (age 48); and William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire (age 38). The lavish surroundings probably represent Orford's (age 57) house, Chippenham, where Junto meetings sometimes took place. It was also ideally located for the nearby Newmarket horse races, which the members of the Junto frequently attended when parliament was not sitting.

The portrait is dated 1710, before the crushing electoral defeat of the Whigs in October of that year. It shows the political allies while in power, when Sunderland (age 34) was Secretary of State, Wharton (age 61) Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Somers Lord President of the Privy Council, Devonshire (age 38) Lord Steward and a member of the Privy Council, and Orford (age 57) First Lord of the Admiralty. On the surface the portrait shows a relaxed gathering of fellow connoisseurs, seated round a table consulting antique medals and books of prints. Fittingly, Somers and Halifax (age 48) sit at the centre of the company, holding a book and handling a medal respectively. Both were known collectors and antiquarians - Somers was one of the founders of the Whig Kit-Cat Club, a convivial drinking and dining club, but which also had a political propagandist agenda; he had also purchased the Resta collection of drawings from Italy in 1709. Halifax (age 48) had a celebrated library and a collection of antique medals (sold in 1740), to which those being consulted presumably allude. Behind this exterior of cultural appreciation, however, the portrait advertises Whig policy in 1709-10, which supported the continuation of war against France in opposition to Tory calls for peace. The two visible prints are friezes from Trajan's column showing episodes from the Dacian wars, with the Roman army crossing the Danube. The viewer is invited to make parallels between the valour and victories of the Roman emperors and the current military greatness achieved for Britain by the Duke of Marlborough's campaigns. The globe, showing the Pacific, presumably alludes to Whig foreign policy ambitions beyond Europe. By defeating France in Europe, they aimed to gain commercial access to Spanish American trade routes. It reflects the competitive European colonial pursuit of new markets, including the selling of enslaved West African people to Spanish territories overseas.

John James Baker (or Backer, or Bakker) is thought to have been Flemish, from Antwerp. He was Godfrey Kneller's (age 63) (1646-1723) long-time studio assistant and drapery painter, and this is his largest, most ambitious and complex work. The symbolic programme was presumably devised by Orford in discussion with Baker. The Duke of Devonshire was not a regular member of the Junto, although an increasingly important Whig peer, but his inclusion here is presumably because of his kinship relationship with Orford. The picture is thus a demonstration of Orford's private as well as professional networks, and also his pride and ambition. It would have been displayed at Chippenham in the newly appointed, fashionable interiors, alongside other works that Orford commissioned to advertise his public achievement and the private and professional networks that sustained his power and influence.

On 26 Apr 1716 John Somers 1st Baron Somers (age 65) died unmarried and without issue. His great nephew Charles Cocks 1st Baron Somers became 1st Baron Somers of the second creation in 1784.

Before 1723 Godfrey Kneller (age 76). Portrait of John Somers 1st Baron Somers.

On 17 May 1784 Charles Cocks 1st Baron Somers (age 58) was created 1st Baron Somers. His great-uncle was John Somers 1st Baron Somers.