His son, Lytton Edward Sothern (1856–1887), born 27 June 1856, appeared at Drury Lane for a benefit on 24 July 1872 as Captain Vernon in ‘Our American Cousin,’ and made his first professional appearance in 1874 at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, as Veaudoré in Selby's adaptation, ‘The Marble Heart.’ He played light comedy in that house for a year, accompanied his father on a trip through the United States, played for a season in Birmingham, and was in 1875 Bertie Thompson in a revival at the Haymarket of ‘Home.’ He subsequently played in Australia in his father's characters, Dundreary, and David Garrick; was at the Royalty and the Criterion in London, gave considerable promise, and died 4 March 1887. Another son, E. H. Sothern, played with Mr. John S. Clarke at the Strand, on 18 Nov. 1882, Henry Morland in the ‘Heir at Law,’ and has since been seen in America in his father's characters. A daughter, Eva, also made a brief appearance on the stage.
[Personal knowledge; Memoir by T. Edgar Pemberton, 1889, Pascoe's Dramatic List; Scott and Howard's Life of E. L. Blanchard; Westland Marston's Recollections of our Recent Actors; Dibdin's Edinburgh Stage; History of the Theatre Royal, Dublin; Morley's Journal of a London Playgoer; Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson; Men of the Reign.]
SOTHERON-ESTCOURT, THOMAS HENRY SUTTON (1801–1876), statesman. [See Estcourt.]
SOTHERTON, JOHN (1562–1631?), judge, born in 1562, was son of John Sotherton, who was from 16 June 1579 until his death, on 26 Oct. 1605, baron of the court of exchequer, by his second wife, Maria, daughter of Edward Woton, M.D., who was buried by the side of her husband in the church of St. Botolph, Aldersgate Street, London. The Sotherton family originally came from the village of Sotherton in Suffolk, and many members of it were mercers in London or Norwich. George Sotherton, master of Merchant Taylors' Company in 1589, was M.P. for London 1593–8. Nicholas Sotherton, sheriff of Norwich in 1572, was author of a history of John Kett's rebellion, preserved in Harl. MS. 1576, ff. 564 et seq. (cf. Russell, Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk, 1859, 4to).
John matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 20 Nov. 1580, graduated B.A. on 22 Jan. 1582–3, being in the same year incorporated at Cambridge, and proceeded M.A. April 1586. He was admitted in November 1587 a member of the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar in 1597, and elected a bencher in 1610. Appointed receiver-general for the counties of Bedford and Buckingham in July 1604, he was advanced to the post of cursitor baron of the exchequer on 29 Oct. 1610. He sat regularly as one of the commissioners of gaol delivery for the city of London, was joined with Sir Julius Cæsar, Sir Francis Bacon, and others in a commission of ways and means in August 1612, and at a later date was one of the assessors of compositions for defective titles and an inspector of nuisances for Middlesex (Rymer's Fœdera, ed. Sanderson, xvii. 388, 512, 540). He died, or retired, in 1631, his successor on the bench, James Pagitt, being appointed on 24 Oct. of that year (ib. xix. 34). By his wife Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Morgan of Chilworth, Surrey, he left an heir, who inherited the manor of Wadenhall, Kent, which he had purchased from the crown in 1600.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Inner Temple Books; Blomefield's Norfolk, 8vo, iii. 359, iv. 59, 198, x. 428; Dugdale's Orig. p. 149, Chron. Ser. pp. 100–8; Spedding's Life of Bacon, iv. 314; Lansd. MSS. 165, ff. 299–300, 166 ff. 235–8; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1598–1601 p. 383, 1603–10 pp. 138, 613, 639, 1611–18 p. 248, Addenda, 1580–1625 p. 461; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. App. p. 124; Hasted's Kent, ed. 1790, iii. 741; Stow's London, 6th edit. i. 617; Clode's Memorials and Early Hist. of the Guild of Merchant Taylors; Strype's Ann. fol. vol. iii. pt. i. p. 53; Manning and Bray's Surrey, ii. 118.]
SOULEMONT, SOLEMAN, or SOLME, THOMAS (d. 1541), French secretary to Henry VIII, a member of a prominent Guernsey and Jersey family (cf. Duncan, Hist. of Guernsey, p. 37), is said to have been born at Guernsey (Wood), but was more probably a native of Jersey (cf. Letters and Papers, ed. Gairdner, x. 226, g. 10, XIII. i. g. 190. 17). According to Wood he was educated at Oxford, and then entered the king's service. As a native of Jersey he was naturally a good French scholar, and before October 1532 he was appointed secretary of the French tongue to the king. In that month Nicholas Hawkins [q. v.] wished to take Soulemont with him on his embassy to Charles V, but Soulemont's services were required by Henry VIII in his interview with Francis at Calais. On 23 July 1534 he was collated to the prebend of Moreton Magna in Hereford Cathedral (Le Neve, i. 515, gives his name as ‘Colemount’), and on 25 April 1537 to the prebend of Knaresborough in York Cathedral. About the same time he became secretary to Cromwell, and in 1540
