30 SIR GEORGE SOMERS AND HIS FAMILY. 



land to tiU or live stock to care for, a squire of James I.'s reign 

 must surely have found time heavy on his hands. One can 

 imagine that the call of the sea came strongly at times, and 

 that it was with joy that the Lamb, longing to be a Lion again, 

 received in 1609 instructions to command another expedition 

 to Virginia an expedition from which, as fate ruled, he was 

 not to return. From the documents of the Chancery suit 

 before quoted, we get some idea of Sir George's preparations 

 for his voyage. He is seen mortgaging his Upwey property 

 to John Gould, of Dorchester, for a sum of 300, required 

 for the equipment of his ship, and later making his will, sorting 

 his papers in his study, calling his wife to come and see his 

 papers placed in separate boxes for each estate, and at last 

 locking the door of his study and riding off to his ship at 

 Lyme, accompanied by his brother John and Matthew Somers, 

 his nephew and shipmate. 



The locking of the study door seems to imply that Sir 

 George was content to leave his papers at the mercy of dust, 

 damp, or rats and mice, but feared their becoming the object 

 of feminine curiosity, and his precaution was justified. 

 Shortly after the expedition sailed came a report (false as it 

 turned out) that its commander was dead, and Lady Somers 

 broke open the door of the study and examined some of the 

 papers, a proceeding which afterwards caused her some 

 trouble. Not that she had any reason to fear her husband's 

 anger. It is hardly necessary to tell here how he died in the 

 Bermudas in 1610 " of a surfeit of hog " (the islands were over- 

 run by pigs, and other food was scarce), and how his body was 

 brought home and buried at Whitchurch Canonicorum, and 

 how his memory is now perpetuated by an inscription lately 

 placed in Whitchurch church. Matthew Somers was, under 

 his uncle's will, heir to the estates, but this at the outset was 

 of no great advantage to him. There were numerous debts 

 and legacies to be paid, the Upwey Estate was mortgaged, 

 and, worse still, Lady Somers had a jointure of 150 a year 

 and Berne farm for her life. In these circumstances, and 

 with a knowledge of Matthew's character, derived from after 



