Nicholas St John MP (abt. 1526 - 1589)

Born about 1526 in Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 8 Nov 1589 at about age 63 in England [uncertain]

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Biography

Nicholas St John was a member of the aristocracy in England.

Nicholas St John was born about 1526 at Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire, England. He was the 1st son of John St John and Margaret Carew. Margaret, John St John's 1st wife, was the daughter of Sir Richard Carew of Beddington, Surrey. Nicholas St John was the half-brother of William. He married about 1548, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Blount of Mapledurham, Oxon. He had three sons, including Oliver III, and five daughters. Nicholas succeeded his father in April 1576. He passed away in 1589.

In 1560 St John was granted a court office with pension and exemption from daily attendance upon Queen Elizabeth. He seems to have confined his official duties to Wiltshire, where he was a justice of the peace and a commissioner to enforce training in archery. In Berkshire, where he sometimes resided on his estate at Purley Magna, near Pangbourne, he was appointed trustee of part of the lands of the Catholic exile, Sir Francis Englefiel.

St John was returned for Cricklade to the Parliament of 1563, In 1571 he sat for Great Bedwyn and in 1572 for Marlborough. Since St John was a country gentleman, he would not have been expected to claim payment for serving in Parliament, but in 1577, after the second session of the 1572 Parliament, he sued Marlborough in Chancery for his wages. St. John was quite active in his last two Parliaments, speaking on a number of issues. In 1576 he is not known to have spoken but he was appointed to eight committees. Again no recorded speeches in 1581, but several committees.

St John won an action for assault and battery against Giles, 3rd Lord Chandos, in 1563, and was accordingly owed money by him; he seems also to have had a dispute with the Webbs, the family into which one of his daughters married.

The executor of his will was his eldest son, John St John, and he appointed as supervisors his brother-in-law Michael Blount and William St John. Nicholas St John died 8 Nov 1589. His second son, Oliver, became lord deputy of Ireland, an English baron and an Irish viscount; one of his daughters married Richard St. George, later Clarenceux King of Arms; and Henry St John, Lord Bolingbroke, was his direct descendant.

Child of Nicholas St John

1. Jane St John, m. Robert Nicholas^[1]

Children of Nicholas St John and Elizabeth Blount^[2]

1. Sir John St John b. c 1552, d. 20 Sep 1594, m. Lucy Hungerford
2. Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison of Limerick b. c 1560, d. 30 Dec 1630
3. Richard St John
4. Elizabeth St John married Sir Richard St. George^[3]
5. Catherine St John, married Webb (see monument transcription below)
6. Eleanor St John married Sir Thomas Cave
7. Dorothea St John married Egiocke (see monument transcription below)

The monument of Nicholas and Elizabeth at prayer is the oldest in the collection of St John memorials in St Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze. It was erected by the couple’s son Sir John St John.

Here lie (good reader) buried in the hope of the blessed resurrection the bodies of Nicholas St John armiger, and of his wife, Elizabeth: he was for the reigns of King Edward, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth of the number of the chosen retinue (commonly called pensioners) and died while holding that rank with the sovereign. Elizabeth his wife was the daughter of Richard Blunt, Knight, and by her had three sons and five daughters: john, Oliver, Richard, Elizabeth, Catherine, Eleanor, Dorothea, and Jane. John his eldest son took to wife the daughter of Walter Hungerford, Knight. Oliver and Richard are still alive, unmarried. Elizabeth his eldest daughter married St George of the County of Cambridge, Catherine [married] Webb, Eleanor [married] Cave of the County of Northampton, Dorothea [married] Egiocke [of the County] of Warwick, Jane [married] Nicholas of the County of Wiltshire. Nicholas St John himself departed this life on the eighth day of November, 1589, and Elizabeth his wife departed this life on the eleventh day of August in the year of our Lord 1587, leaving a noteworthy trophy to those who followed her of unsullied repute and wholesome life. John St John their son set up this monument out of affection to those good parents who had served him so well. In the year of our Lord, 1592.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
2. ↑ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
3. ↑ Pedigree of the Molesworth Family, page 15, John, St. John of Lydiard, Trogog, married Margaret, dau. of Sir Richard Carew, and they had Nicholas St. John of Lydiard, Trogog, who married Elizabeth, dau. of Sir Richard Blount, and had Eizabeth St.John, who married Sir Richard St. George, (d.1635).(Portions of this book are supposed to be taken from Garter and Clarenceux, and so this section may originate from there, or other peerages.)
4. ↑ Good Gentlewoman : accessed 11 Feb 2018.

• Cokayne, George Edward, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant (London: St. Catherine Press, 1910.), 6:74.
• Stephen, Sir Leslie & Sir Sidney Lee (Editors), The Dictionary of National Biography: From the Earliest Times to 1900 (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1993.), 17:615.
• Marshall, George William, The Visitation of Wiltshire, 1623 (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1882. FHL BRITISH Film #97,424.), p. 36.
• St. George, Henry, Wiltshire Visitation Pedigrees, 1623 (London: Harleian Society, 1954.), p. 168.
• The Peerage - Nicholas St John : accessed 7 Feb 2018.
• The History of Pariliament - ST. JOHN, Nicholas (c.1526-89), of Lydiard Tregoze, Wilts. : accessed 7 Feb 2018
• British History Online, Lydiard Tregoze [1]
• Cokayne, George Edward (main author) and Vicary Gibbs (added author), The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant, New edition. 13 volumes in 14. London: St. Catherine Press,1910-, vol. 2 p. 206.
• Fortunatus Familia Elizabeth Blount and Nicholas St John.
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p3072.htm#i30716
• http://www.shieldsgenealogy.com/d0007/g0000094.html#I25366
• https://www.fabpedigree.com/s040/f513523.htm
• http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/grandison1621.htm?zoom_highlight=%22nicholas+st+john%22
• https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Nicholas+St.+John&uid=1575
• https://geneagraphie.com/getperson.php?personID=I151806&tree=1
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_St._John
• Whetehill, of Calais by WGDavies of Portland Maine USA - English Origins of New England Families

Acknowledgements

• Entered by Sara V Mosher Feb 7, 2018.