Mr. Simpkins is a resident of Somerset county, and he and the Governor, also a Somerset countian, have been friends since Mr. Simpkins was a child.

A notorious murder scandal, the Overbury case, threw up two imperfect anagrams that were aided by typically loose spelling and were recorded by Simonds D ' Ewes: ' Francis Howard ' ( for Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset, her maiden name spelled in a variant ) became Car findes a whore, with the letters E hardly counted, and the victim Thomas Overbury, as ' Thomas Overburie ', was written as O!

From his fort at Athelney, an island in the marshes near North Petherton, Alfred was able to mount an effective resistance movement, rallying the local militias from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire.

A popular legend, originating from 12th century chronicles, tells how when he first fled to the Somerset Levels, Alfred was given shelter by a peasant woman who, unaware of his identity, left him to watch some cakes she had left cooking on the fire.

In the seventh week after Easter May 878, around Whitsuntide, Alfred rode to ‘ Egbert's Stone ’ east of Selwood, where he was met by " all the people of Somerset and of Wiltshire and of that part of Hampshire which is on this side of the sea is, west of Southampton Water, and they rejoiced to see him ".

A Parliamentarian attempt to send a relieving force under Lieutenant General Middleton was defeated at Bridgwater in Somerset.

In the Royal Navy the battle has been commemorated by the ship names HMS Aboukir and HMS Nile and in 1998 the 200th anniversary of the battle was commemorated by a visit to Aboukir Bay by the modern frigate HMS Somerset, whose crew laid wreaths in memory of those who lost their lives in the battle.

Cheddar Lawn Tennis Club, was formed in 1924, and play in the North Somerset League and also has social tennis and coaching.

Central to the modernisation and standardisation of Cheddar cheese was the nineteenth century Somerset dairyman Joseph Harding.

The ideal quality of the original Somerset Cheddar was described by Joseph Harding in 1864 as " close and firm in texture, yet mellow in character or quality ; it is rich with a tendency to melt in the mouth, the flavour full and fine, approaching to that of a hazelnut ".

The factory at Somerset West was in operation in 1903 and by 1907 it was already producing 340, 000 cases kilograms ( 50 pounds ) each annually.

* A group of villages in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, United States, was named in Jenner's honor by early 19th century English settlers, including Jenners, Jenner Township, Jenner Crossroads, and Jennerstown, Pennsylvania

In 1585, Drake married Elizabeth Sydenham — born circa 1562, the only child of Sir George Sydenham, of Combe Sydenham, who was the High Sheriff of Somerset.

Somerset, disliked by the Regency Council for his autocratic methods, was removed from power by John Dudley, who is known as Lord President Northumberland.

Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the Roman Baths ( Bath ), Bath, Somerset before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial.

By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.

Locke was born on 29 August 1632, in a small thatched cottage by the church in Wrington, Somerset, about twelve miles from Bristol.

John was made Count of Mortain, was married to the wealthy Isabel of Gloucester, and was given valuable lands in Lancaster and the counties of Cornwall, Derby, Devon, Dorset, Nottingham and Somerset, all with the aim of buying his loyalty to Richard whilst the king was on crusade.

The earliest longbow known from England, found at Ashcott Heath, Somerset, is dated to 2665 BC, but no longbows survive from the period when the longbow was dominant ( c. 1250 – 1450 AD ), probably because bows became weaker, broke and were replaced, rather than being handed down through generations.

They played their first-ever County Championship match there in 1921, competing there every season ( except while first-class cricket was suspended during the Second World War ), their last match being against Somerset County Cricket Club in August 1966.

He only spent about two years in formal schooling, first at King's College School in London ( then located in Somerset House ) and then, for a few months, at Warwick Grammar School ( now Warwick School ).

Examples are Ashenden or: the British Agent ( 1928 ) by W. Somerset Maugham, about counter-revolutionary British espionage against Bolshevik Russia, and The Mystery of Tunnel 51 ( 1928 ) by Alexander Wilson whose novels conveyed an uncanny portrait of the first head of the Secret Intelligence Service, Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the original ' C '.

The first prize was publication by Harper and Hughes garnered widespread critical acclaim with the book's release in September 1957, winning a Somerset Maugham Award.

After forcibly removing Edward VI to Windsor Castle, with the intention of keeping him hostage, Somerset was removed from power by members of the council, led by his chief rival, John Dudley, the first Earl of Warwick, who created himself Duke of Northumberland shortly after his rise.

His earliest American ancestor was John Rockwell ( 1588 – 1662 ), from Somerset, England, who immigrated to America probably in 1635 aboard the ship Hopewell and became one of the first settlers of Windsor, Connecticut.

The first Carthusian monastery or ' Charterhouse ' in England was founded by Henry II in Witham Friary, Somerset as penance for the murder of St Thomas Becket.

Jones, a gifted architect steeped in the latest European taste, also designed the Queen's House at Greenwich for Anne, one of the first true Palladian buildings in England ; and the Dutch inventor Salomon de Caus laid out her gardens at Greenwich and Somerset House.

After more than 20 film roles, the role of the vicious and slatternly Mildred Rogers in the RKO Radio production of Of Human Bondage ( 1934 ), a film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, earned Davis her first major critical acclaim.

For spring training in 2009, the Somerset Patriots became the first Atlantic League team to hold its spring training in its own locale, at the Jack Cust Baseball Academy in nearby Flemington, instead of the traditional site in Lakeland, Florida.

The first station, called Shepton Mallet ( High Street ) in British Railways days, was on the East Somerset Railway branch line from Witham and opened in 1859.

Liza of Lambeth ( 1897 ) was W. Somerset Maugham's first novel, which he wrote while working as a doctor at a hospital in Lambeth, then a working class district of London.

John Beaufort, 1st Marquess of Somerset and 1st Marquess of Dorset, later only 1st Earl of Somerset, KG ( 1373 – 16 March 1410 ) was the first of the four legitimized children of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and his mistress Katherine Swynford, later his wife.

In December 1680, a prominent member of the county and professed Anglican, William Stevens of Rehoboth settlement, sent a request to the Presbytery of Laggan in northern Ireland to consider sending a Presbyterian minister to Somerset county ; and the first Presbyterian minister, Reverend Francis Makemie, arrived in early 1683, quickly followed by a growing list of additional Irish Presbyterian ministers and missionaries.

The first blood was shed at Wincanton, in Somerset.

In July 1549, Paget wrote to Somerset: " Every man of the council have misliked your proceedings ... would to God, that, at the first stir you had followed the matter hotly, and caused justice to be ministered in solemn fashion to the terror of others ...".

The Hertford / Somerset line of Edward and Anne died out with the seventh Duke of Somerset in 1750 ; the descendents of Edward Seymour by his first wife, Catherine Fillol, then inherited the Somerset dukedom in accordance with the original letters of patent.

Although Margaret of Anjou had now taken the place formerly held by Suffolk or Somerset, her position, at least at first, was not as dominant.

The festival organiser Michael Eavis, a farmer in a Somerset valley stated that he decided to host the first festival, then called Pilton Festival, after seeing an open air Led Zeppelin concert at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music 1970.

His first novel The Rachel Papers ( 1973 ) won the Somerset Maugham Award.

Margaret's first cousin, also named Margaret Beaufort ( 1443 – 1509 ) was the mother of Henry VII, the latter Margaret being the daughter of 1st Duke of Somerset.

In 1799 Smith produced the first large scale geologic map of the area around Bath, Somerset.