John Somerville (1560–1583) was the son of John Somerville (d. in or after 1579), of Edstone,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, and Elizabeth Corbett of Lee,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. Somerville publicly exclaimed his desire and intention to assassinate

Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

. However, it is likely that he was of unsound mind, and had neither the inclination nor capacity to carry out his threat. Nevertheless, the deeply suspicious Elizabethan security services took him seriously; perhaps as a precaution or to make an example, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and tortured. He was alleged to have hanged himself in jail before he could be executed. Somerville's outburst had dire consequences for his kin. His father-in-law,

Edward Arden Edward Arden (c. 1542–1583) was an English nobleman and head of the Arden family, who became a Catholic martyr. Arden lived in Park Hall, Castle Bromwich, an estate near modern-day Birmingham. He was a recusant Catholic and kept a priest, Hugh ...

was also arrested, tortured, tried and found guilty of treason by Christopher Wray. He was executed at Smithfield on 20 December 1583. His wife and daughter were also imprisoned in the Tower but later spared. While it is possible that the Somerville and Arden case was dealt with maliciously by Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Warwickshire was a stronghold of Catholic recusancy. Moreover, a number of well established, and inter-linked, families of the county, such as the Throckmortons, Catesbys and Treshams were all variously implicated in real conspiracies – including the

Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sough ...

Marriage and issue

Somerville married Margaret Arden, the daughter of Sir Edward Arden of Park Hall by Mary Throckmorton (d.1603), the daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton and his first wife, Muriel Berkeley, by whom he had two daughters, Elizabeth and Alice.

Notes

References

* * * 1560 births 1583 deaths 16th-century English people People who committed suicide in prison custody 16th-century suicides {{UK-crime-bio-stub