SIR GEORGE SOMERS AND HIS FAMILY. 31 



events, it is not surprising to find him accusing his uncle's 

 widow of having, when she forced a way into the study, 

 appropriated a deed by which Berne should have passed 

 directly to the heir. Perhaps Matthew's first intention was 

 merely to frighten the widow into making some compromise ; 

 but not long after Sir George's death Lady Somers found a 

 new protector in the person of a second husband, Mr. William 

 Ryman, of Appledrome, Sussex, and the Chancery suit, 

 " Somers v. Ryman," was duly instituted. In the course of 

 the suit, Sir George's dealings with his property came under 

 review, and the information thus afforded has been largely 

 used in the preparation of this paper. The proceedings in 

 Chancery seem to have been cut short about 1618 by Mrs. 

 Ry man's death, an event which, one would think, left the 

 remaining parties little to fight about. 



And so Matthew came into full possession of his inheritance, 

 but his life proved to be merely a record of lost opportunities. 

 He married first Joan, daughter of Nicholas Roope, of Dart- 

 mouth, whose dowry was 1,200, and by whom he had a 

 daughter named Elizabeth, and secondly Dorothy, daughter 

 of Thomas Hayne, who brought her husband 1,000. But 

 Matthew was no more fitted for prolonged life ashore than his 

 distinguished uncle, and he did not possess his uncle's great 

 qualities. According to deponents in the Chancery suit 

 " Beare v. Hayne," he formed an intimate acquaintance with 

 all the alehouses near Berne, and in the words of one of these 

 deponents " by reason of his riotous and disorderly course of 

 living became so weak in his understanding as it was easy 

 to abuse or deceive him, and for a pott of ale to drawe him to 

 seale or do anything." The farm at Berne, which probably 

 now included the land at Orchard, was mortgaged to Mr. 

 William Floyer for 1,800, and eventually sold to the same 

 gentleman. The Upwey Estate was conveyed, no doubt 

 under pressure of debt in some way or other, to the Hayne 

 family, and the poor broken wretch spent many of the latter 

 years of his life in a debtor's prison, and died in the King's 

 Bench prison at South wark in 1625. His wife Dorothy had 



