John Somers or Somer or Sommers (died 1585) was an English diplomat, courtier, and cryptographer. He served as joint keeper of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Tutbury Castle with Ralph Sadler. Somers is said to have been Sadler's son-in-law.
Diplomat
As a diplomat, Somers worked as a secretary for Nicholas Wotton in Paris in 1554, and was available to tutor Wotton's guests in the French language. Wotton sent Somers to report to Mary I of England in March 1557 and ask for funds. Somers worked for the English commissioners of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, and in March 1559 returned to bring Elizabeth I a summary of the ongoing negotiations. Somers worked with Robert Jones and Henry Middlemore for Nicholas Throckmorton, the ambassador in France in 1559. Somers had discussions with the Duke of Guise and Cardinal of Lorraine, an uncle of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was Queen of France at this time. Somers looked after Thomas Cecil, eldest son of William Cecil and a student of Gray's Inn, on his first visit to France in June 1559 and taught him some French. Somers also bought books for William Cecil including, in February 1561, a gardening manual, possibly for his new works at Cecil House on the Strand. While Francis II was hunting at houses and estates belonging to the Duke of Guise in September 1559, Throckmorton, Somers, and Henry Killigrew toured Lorraine, visiting Toul, Metz, Thionville, Nancy, Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, and Saint-Dizier. In April 1560, Throckmorton sent John Somers and Robert Jones to meet Jane Dormer and the Count of Feria as they were travelling to the Château d'Amboise to meet Francis II of France and Mary, Queen of Scots. In the summer of 1560, Somers tried to meet Mary, Queen of Scots, in France, and obtain her ratification of the Treaty of Edinburgh. In September 1561, Somers wished to retire from his work with Throckmorton. Elizabeth had granted him a relatively modesty annuity of £20 in August 1560. Throckmorton recommended that Somers have the office of Clerk of the Signet. Somers gained the office of a Clerk of the Signet as a successor to Gregory Railton (died 1561). Railton, a Marian exile, was a decipherer of coded letters, and a correspondent of John Knox. He was involved in negotiations with the Duke of Châtellerault and his son the Earl of Arran, Protestant leaders in Scotland in 1559. Railton was for many years Ralph Sadler's servant and "inward man". These were all colleagues and acquaintances, Robert Jones wrote a friendly joking letter to a friend at the English court in October 1560, mentioning his colleague Somers as a fellow player of the cithern, and listing their mutual friends including Railton. In England, Somers showed some antique medals and coins to Cecil and Elizabeth I on approval, and Elizabeth (who was in St James's Park) was disinclined to hear Somers relate news of the Colloquy of Poissy, a conference intended to heal the religious divide in France. Elizabeth showed more interest in the coins, some were thought to be made from an alloy known as "aes Corinthium". They were presented in a gilt box lined with red velvet. Somers noted that Peter Meutas had been sent to Scotland. Meutas, like Somers, was given the fruitless task of requesting a ratification of the Treaty of Edinburgh. Elizabeth decided not to buy the medals. Somers and Jones met Carlo Ubertino Solaro, Count of Moretta, the ambassador from Savoy in November 1561. In July 1578, as a depute to Francis Walsingham, he went to Mons to see the Duke of Alençon, and in August was involved with William Davison in arrangements to borrow money for the English crown from Benedict Spinola and Horatio Palavicino, in connection with the Second Union of Brussels. In July 1580, he congratulated Henry III of France on making peace with the Huguenots, and in 1581 he was involved in the Anjou courtship. Somers was sent to the Low countries in March and April 1583, but declined Walsingham's invitation to join him in an embassy to Scotland in August 1583 due to illness, and in the same month he wrote a will. The historian and genealogist Edmund Lodge (1756–1839) was unable to discover details of Somers' family, and more recent writers have not yet traced his early career. His will mentions that he was born around the year 1525 and his father was Thomas Somers of Halstow, Kent. Agnes Strickland characterised him as an "honest-hearted country gentleman" as much concerned with the repair of Rochester Bridge as affairs of state. Natalie Mears identifies him as a member of closely-knit second tier or "outer ring" of diplomats and advisers trusted to give counsel to Elizabeth I.
Cipher keys and codework
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