The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 2 (of 7)

Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.
LONDON:
CHARLES KNIGHT, 22, LUDGATE-STREET, AND 13, PALL-MALL EAST.
1833.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES,
Duke-Street, Lambeth.
Engraved by T. A. Dean. LORD CHANCELLOR SOMERS. From a Picture by Sir G. Kneller, in the possession of the Royal Society. Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East.
GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.
John Somers was born at Worcester, in an ancient house called the White Ladies, which, as its name seems to import, had formerly been part of a monastery or convent. The exact date of his birth cannot be ascertained, as the parish registers at Worcester, during the civil wars between Charles I. and his Parliament, were either wholly lost, or so inaccurately kept as not to furnish any authentic information. It appears probable, however, from several concurring accounts, that he was born about the year 1650. The family of Somers was respectable, though not wealthy, and had for several generations been possessed of an estate at Clifton, in the parish of Severnstoke, in Gloucestershire. Admiral Sir George Somers, who in the reign of James I. was shipwrecked on the Bermudas, and afterwards died there, leaving his name to that cluster of islands, is said by Horace Walpole, in his ‘Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors,’ to have been a member of the same family. The father of Somers was an attorney, in respectable practice at Worcester; who, in the civil wars, became a zealous Parliamentarian, and commanded a troop in Cromwell’s army.