To this account John Dee[1550] adds the date 1360, and calls the friar a ‘Franciscan of Lynn’; Hakluyt (among other details) gives the name as ‘Nicholas de Lynna a Franciscan Friar.’ Nicholas of Lynn was a Carmelite[1551]. On the other hand, supposing that the story has a good foundation, it is more likely that the adventurous Friar was a native of some seaport on the East coast than of a Western town like Bridgwater.
_Tertium opusculum Kalendarii_ (A. D. 1387-1462), composed
‘ad instantiam nobilissime Domine, Domine Johanne Principisse Wallie, ... ac matris ... Ricardi secundi ..., ad meridiem tamen Universitatis Oxonie, ex precepto reverendi Patris, fratris Thome Kyngesburi, Ministri Anglie, ... a fratre Johanne Somur (_or_ Semour) ordinis minorum, A. D. 1380.’
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 2 B viii. (sec. xiv). Cotton Faustina A II, f. 1-12; and Cotton Vesp. E VII. f. 4-22.
_Cronica quaedam brevis fratris Johannis Somour ordinis sancti Francisci de conventu ville Briggewater._
MS. British Museum; Cott. Domit. A II, f. 1-6{ b}.
The framework of the annals may be by John Somer: the entries are short and scattered--some being later than the middle of the 15{ th} century--and in different hands. Several refer to Bridgwater, e. g. _ad annos_ 1241, 1411. _Ad. an._ 1433 is the entry: ‘E(clipsis) solis universalis 17 die Junii in festo S. Botulphi secundum fratrem som.’
His astronomical and astrological writings are frequently quoted:
Bodl. Laud. Misc. 674 (sec. xv), fol. 24; _Regulae ad sciendum nati vitam secundum Jo. Somer, Ord. Minorum_; fol. 24{ b}: ‘Hoc receptum inveni scriptum de propria manu J. Somour de ordine Minorum.’
See also fol. 42{ b}, ... and fol. 99{ b} of the same MS.
Bodl. Digby 88 (sec. xv), ‘An extracte of freer John Somerys Kalender, of ille days in the yere,’ fol. 62{ b}.
=Hugh Karlelle= (Carlisle) and =Thomas Bernewell=, Oxford Minorites, were among the Doctors of Theology who condemned Wiclif’s twenty-four conclusions at the council held at Blackfriars, London, on May 21st, 1382[1552].
=William Woodford= or =Widford= was one of the most determined opponents of the Wicliffites. Wadding’s desire[1553] to claim this ‘extirpator of heretics’ as a fellow-countryman has led him to identify William Woodford with the comparatively unknown Friar William of Waterford. There is no ground for this identification, and dates make it almost impossible[1554]. In his earlier days at Oxford, probably when he was B.D., Woodford was on friendly or even intimate terms with Wiclif. When the two were lecturing on the Sentences, they carried on a courteous interchange of arguments and opinions on Transubstantiation[1555].