To this account John Dee[1550] adds the date 1360, and calls the friar a ‘Franciscan of Lynn’; Hakluyt (among other details) gives the name as ‘Nicholas de Lynna a Franciscan Friar.’ Nicholas of Lynn was a Carmelite[1551]. On the other hand, supposing that the story has a good foundation, it is more likely that the adventurous Friar was a native of some seaport on the East coast than of a Western town like Bridgwater.
Tertium opusculum Kalendarii (A. D. 1387-1462), composed
‘ad instantiam nobilissime Domine, Domine Johanne Principisse Wallie, ... ac matris ... Ricardi secundi ..., ad meridiem tamen Universitatis Oxonie, ex precepto reverendi Patris, fratris Thome Kyngesburi, Ministri Anglie, ... a fratre Johanne Somur (or Semour) ordinis minorum, A. D. 1380.’
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 2 B viii. (sec. xiv). Cotton Faustina A II, f. 1-12; and Cotton Vesp. E VII. f. 4-22.
Bodl.: Digby 5, f. 73 (sec. xiv).
Cronica quaedam brevis fratris Johannis Somour ordinis sancti Francisci de conventu ville Briggewater.
MS. British Museum; Cott. Domit. A II, f. 1-6b.
The framework of the annals may be by John Somer: the entries are short and scattered—some being later than the middle of the 15th century—and in different hands. Several refer to Bridgwater, e.g. ad annos 1241, 1411. Ad. an. 1433 is the entry: ‘E(clipsis) solis universalis 17 die Junii in festo S. Botulphi secundum fratrem som.’
His astronomical and astrological writings are frequently quoted:
Bodl. Laud. Misc. 674 (sec. xv), fol. 24; Regulae ad sciendum nati vitam secundum Jo. Somer, Ord. Minorum; fol. 24b: ‘Hoc receptum inveni scriptum de propria manu J. Somour de ordine Minorum.’