Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, appointed him master of the grammar school at Bury St Edmunds and just five years later he was named as a governor of a proposed joint college of medicine and surgery in London.
Somerset worked on the college with Thomas Morstede and Gilbert Kymer until its plans collapsed in November 1424.
In 1427 he was found a place in the royal household as physician and tutor to the young Henry VI.
In 1442 he became the first medical man to sit in parliament, as a knight of the shire for Middlesex.
After 1450 he was out of favour, with Parliament demanding his removal from court as an undesirable influence.