Author: Somerville, William
Biography:
SOMERVILLE, William C. (1790-1826: ancestry.com)
William Clarke Somerville was born in St. Mary's MD, the son of the wealthy plantation owners Elizabeth (Hebb) and William Somerville. He later purchased an estate in Virginia and made his home there. Like his father he joined the Maryland militia. He fought in the War of 1812: some sources give him the rank of Major but newspaper reports at his death identified him as Colonel. In 1817-18 he travelled in Europe, establishing some valuable contacts and friendships. When he published Letters from Paris, on the Causes and Consequences of the French Revolution (1822) he sent copies to Madison, Jefferson, and Adams (the elder), all of whom wrote back. His friend John Quincy Adams (q.v.), by then President, appointed Somerville as the American Chargé d'affaires to the Court of Sweden in 1826, but he was already ill from what the newspapers describe as the "rupture of a blood vessel in the lungs." When he eventually undertook the voyage, in company with Lafayette, it was with the intention of spending some time in the south of France to convalesce before taking up his post, but he died near Paris and at his own request was buried in the grounds of Lafayette's Chateau La Grange, near Courpalay. Somerville had not yet married. He was first engaged to a woman who died in the Richmond fire of 1811; at the time of his premature death his fiancée was Cora Livingston (1806-73). His will made provision for the eventual manumission of all his slaves. (ancestry.com 5 Oct. 2020; Appleton; National Journal [Washington DC] 16 Mar. 1826; Baltimore Patriot 23 Mar. 1826; Wikipedia 5 Oct. 2020) HJ