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James Somervell
James Somervell (1845–1924) was Conservative MP for Ayr Burghs. He won a by-election in 1890,[1] but he lost his seat to William Birkmyre, the Liberal candidate, in the 1892 general election.[1] He had earlier contested the 1885 general election for the Conservatives, but lost to the Scottish Liberal Party candidate Archibald Corbett.[6] Somervell inherited Sorn Castle and its estate from his father Graham Somervell (born Graham Russell) in 1881, but sold it to the McIntyre family in 1907.[2][7] Somervell studied at Harrow School and University of Oxford and was called to the bar in 1870.[8] In 1884 he set up the company Sorn Dairy Supply which sold dairy products from the estate in Sorn through a number of premises in Glasgow.[9] The Glasgow International Exhibition (1901) included a working model dairy farm run by Somervell.[10] Somervell married Kathleen Emilie Maclaine in 1892 and they had four children (one died at a very young age), but after his wife discovered he was having an affair with the children's former nurse that produced a child, she sought a divorce that was granted in 1900.[3][11] In 1904 Somervell stood trial in the High Court in Edinburgh on a charge of assaulting and firing a gun at the accountant Francis More who administered the Sorn Castle estate. More claimed that Somervell threatened to shoot him and the gun went off during a subsequent struggle, while Somervell claimed that More "rushed" him after noticing the gun in his pocket and it was then discharged during the struggle. Somervell was acquitted by the jury.[12] References
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