28 SIR GEORGE SOMERS AND HIS FAMILY. 



his wife, one brazen candlestick apiece in token of my good 

 will," and nothing else. There was, indeed, little else that the 

 yeoman could leave, for his personal estate was valued at 

 under 24, and he had to provide for his widow. It is 

 probable, indeed, that Joan received some portion from her 

 father when she married, and it may be suggested that this 

 portion consisted of three houses in Lyme, concerning which 

 a fine was levied in 1583, Phillip Hey wood and George 

 " Sommer " and their wives being deforciants. 



Though Somers neither inherited nor married money, he 

 became a considerable landowner when only thirty-three 

 years of age, and it is easy to guess the source of his riches. 

 Some residue of prize money and prize goods seems to be 

 involved in a bill filed in the Court of Requests in 1596 by 

 " George Summers of Whitchurch, gentleman," for the 

 recovery of 42, which in 1588 had been held for the com- 

 plainant by Mr. Lee of Dartmouth, and of a dial and watch 

 (worth together 11), similarly held by the Secretary of the 

 Lord High Admiral. And a more definite statement may be 

 found in Vol. 143 of the Lansdowne MS. (British Museum), 

 where an account shows that a ship named " The Flibcote," 

 commanded by Capt. George Somers, and three accompanying 

 ships, in 1589 brought into Dartmouth two Spanish prizes, on 

 which the treasure alone was valued at 8,000. Again, 

 considerably later, in the years 1597 and 1604, there are 

 references in the Acts of the Privy Council to suits between 

 Capt. George Somers and William Morcombe, a merchant of 

 Barnstaple, concerning a partition of prize goods. In his 

 early days of prize-taking, the sailor showed considerable 

 wisdom in investing his Spanish gold in the soil of his native 

 county. From the Feet of Fines it may be seen that in 1587 

 he bought 106 acres in Whitchurch and Marshwood. and in 

 the papers of the Chancery suit, " Somers v. Ryman " (which 

 will be referred to again) it is recorded that in the same year 

 he spent 600 on a lease, for the lives of himself and his wife, 

 of a farm of 200 acres at Berne, in Whitchurch. Two years 

 later, in 1589, came the investment of " The Flibcote's " gold, 



