Sir William Soame, 1st Baronet (also Soames) (c.1645–1686) was an English translator and diplomat.

Life

The Soame family was based in East Anglia, and in the commercial world of London, where Stephen Soame had been Lord Mayor. Soame was his great-grandson, second son of Stephen Soame of

Little Thurlow Little Thurlow is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England, located around a mile north-east of its sister village Great Thurlow, and four miles north of Haverhill. Little Thurlow is roughly east ...

; his mother was Mary Dynham, daughter of Sir John Dynham of Borstall, who had previously been married to Lawrence Banastre. He was admitted a fellow commoner of

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

in 1660. Soame was High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1672–3. The office brought him into conflict with

Sir Samuel Barnardiston, 1st Baronet Sir Samuel Barnardiston, 1st Baronet (1620–1707) was an English Whig Member of Parliament and deputy governor of the East India Company. He was the defendant in some high-profile legal cases and involved in a highly contentious parliamentary ...

over the handling of the by-election for caused by the suicide of

Sir Henry North, 1st Baronet Sir Henry North, 1st Baronet (c 1609 – 29 August 1671) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1656 and 1671. North was the son of Sir Roger North of Mildenhall and his wife, Elizabeth Gilbert, daughter ...

. Sir Samuel was a relation, being a grandson of Stephen Soame. He was also an opponent of the court, and Soame sent in a double electoral return when Sir Samuel stood as candidate, against Lionel Tollemache (courtesy title Lord Huntingtower), one return discounting many of his supporters. The matter was pursued vigorously through the courts, as a vendetta, by Sir Samuel Barnardiston, even after Soame's death against his widow. Soame was knighted in 1674. Soame was an envoy to the

Kingdom of Savoy The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

, around 1680. He was created a baronet by Charles II in 1685. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was allowed to retain his membership in that year, despite being in arrears with his subscription. Made Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Soame died on Malta in June 1686, having called at

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

and Tunis to renew treaty agreements. His appointment had been political, going back to the Oxford Parliament of 1681. James Brydges had been the choice of the

Levant Company The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, ...

, but Charles II took against his political sympathies, and imposed Soame by prerogative in 1684.

Works

Soame made a translation, ''The Art of Poetry'', of

Nicolas Boileau Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

's ''L'Art poétique''. According to

Jacob Tonson Jacob Tonson, sometimes referred to as Jacob Tonson the Elder (1655–1736), was an eighteenth-century English bookseller and publisher. Tonson published editions of John Dryden and John Milton, and is best known for having obtained a copyright ...

, it dated from 1680. It was later revised by John Dryden, and published in 1683. The Dryden revisions included substitutions, for example

Thomas Duffett Thomas Duffet (Floruit, fl. 1673 – 1676), or Duffett, was an Irish playwright and songwriter active in England in the 1670s. He is remembered for his popular songs and his burlesques of the serious plays of John Dryden, Thomas Shadwell, El ...

for

Charles Coypeau d'Assoucy Charles Coypeau (16 October 1605 Paris – 29 October 1677, Paris) was a French musician and burlesque poet. In the mid-1630s he began using the ''nom de plume'' D'Assouci or Dassoucy. Life From the time he was eight or nine, Charles Coypeau b ...

in speaking about

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

, and Samuel Butler for

Clément Marot Clément Marot (23 November 1496 – 12 September 1544) was a French Renaissance poet. Biography Youth Marot was born at Cahors, the capital of the province of Quercy, some time during the winter of 1496–1497. His father, Jean Marot (c.&n ...

; Ben Jonson replaces Molière. A derived work was published by John Ozell in 1712. Another version from Charles Gildon's ''The Complete Art of Poetry'' (1718) changed Thomas Randolph to Thomas D'Urfey to remain topical.

Family

Soame married Lady Beata Pope, daughter of Thomas Pope, 3rd Earl of Downe (connecting Soame with Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford who married another daughter); and then Mary Howe, daughter of Sir Gabriel Howe. He died without issue. His kinsman Peter Soame became 2nd Baronet, by special remainder. Little Thurlow went to his uncle Bartholomew Hunt, a patron of John Howe.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soame, William Year of birth missing 1686 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England English translators English diplomats Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge