page_title: John Somers, 1st Baron Somers
section_title: Ministerial career
hierarchical_section_title: John Somers, 1st Baron Somers / Ministerial career
caption_attribution_description: English: "Their Excellencies the Lords Justices of England, for the administration of the Government during the absence of the King": William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire (1640-1707) Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (1638-1706) Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1645-1712) Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke (1656-1733) Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury (1660-1718) John Somers, Baron Somers (1651-1716) Thomas Tenison (1636-1715)
context_page_description: John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, PC, PRS 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.
context_section_description: In May 1689 Somers was made Solicitor General for England and Wales. He now became William III's most confidential adviser. In the controversy which arose between the Houses on the question of the legality of the decision of the Court of King's Bench regarding Titus Oates, and of the action of the Lords in sustaining this decision, Somers was again the leading manager for the Commons, and has left a clear and interesting account of the debates. He was next employed in January 1690 as chairman of the select committee of the House of Commons on the Corporation Bill, by which those corporations which had surrendered their charters to the Crown during the last two reigns were restored to their rights; but he refused to associate himself with the violent measures of retaliation which the Whigs on that occasion endeavoured to include in the bill.
  Re-elected as MP for Worcester in March 1690, he gave a speech in April which carried through the lower house, without opposition, the bill which declared all the laws passed by the Convention Parliament (1689) to be valid. As Solicitor-General he had to conduct the prosecution of Lord Preston and John Ashton in 1691, and did so with a moderation and humanity which were in marked contrast to the customs of the former reigns. He was soon after appointed Attorney General for England and Wales and in that capacity strongly opposed the Bill for the regulation of trials in cases of high treason. In December 1692 Somers introduced into the Commons a Bill "for the preservation of their Majesties' persons and government". The two main provisions of the Bill were severe penalties for anyone who spoke or printed asserted or implied that William and Mary were monarchs only "in fact" and not "of right", and a new oath for all who held offices of profit under the Crown in which they had to swear to defend the government against the exiled King James and his adherents. However the Bill was defeated by 200 to 175.
  On 23 March 1693, the Great Seal of the Realm having meanwhile been in commission, Somers was appointed Lord Keeper, with a pension of £2000 a year from the day on which he should quit his office, and at the same time was made a privy councillor. He had previously been knighted. Somers now became the most prominent member of the Whig Junto, the small council which comprised the chief members of the Whig party. When William left in May 1695 to take command of the army in the Netherlands, Somers was made one of the seven Lords Justices to whom the administration of the kingdom during his absence was entrusted; and he was instrumental in bringing about a reconciliation between William and the Princess Anne.
  In 1696 he delivered perhaps his best known judgement in the Bankers case, a claim for compensation by several bankers who had suffered severe loss due to the Great Stop of the Exchequer of 1672 whereby the Crown had simply refused to pay its debts. The Court of Exchequer Chamber, after litigation of almost unprecedented length, found for the bankers; but Somers reversed the judgement on the technical point that the claim should have been brought by way of petition of right. Although his judgement was noted for erudition, it was much criticised for the result, in that the plaintiffs, after almost 25 years, were denied justice on a technicality. The House of Lords in turn reversed Somers's judgement in 1700.
caption: Somers was one of the Lords Justices who William appointed to govern whilst he was abroad in 1695.
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