Barbara (St John) Villiers (1592 - 1672)

Born 1592 in Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 16 Sep 1672 at about age 80 in London, England

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Biography

Heir of her uncle, Oliver St. John, 1st Viscount Grandison of Limerick.

Children of Barbara St. John and Sir Edward Villiers

1. Eleanor Villiers b. c 1590, d. c Jul 1685
2. Elizabeth Villiers b. 1610, d. b 15 Dec 1654
3. William Villiers, 2nd Viscount Grandison of Limerick b. 1614, d. 30 Sep 1643
4. John Villiers, 3rd Viscount Grandison of Limerick b. 1616, d. 9 Nov 1659
5. George Villiers, 4th Viscount Grandison of Limerick b. 1618, d. 16 Dec 1699
6. Christopher Villiers b. 8 Apr 1619
7. Sir Edward Villiers b. 15 Apr 1620, d. c Jul 1689
8. Barbara Villiers b. 1 Jun 1622, d. 13 Dec 1681

Excerpts from her husband Sir Edward Villiers' biography on The History of Parliament Online:

• Villiers arrived in Ireland [as President of Munster] with his family in mid-October 1625. Lacking an official residence, he moved into the college of Youghal, which he rented from the Earl of Cork. He soon found himself responsible for billeting and clothing some of the survivors of the ill-fated expedition to Cadiz,^[1] as a number of battered ships put into Youghal in December. As well as taxing the local population and borrowing £500 from the Mayor of Cork, Villiers dipped into his own pocket to help out several penniless officers. This proved disastrous to his finances, as he later claimed that he had ‘shipwrecked’ his credit ‘for the maintenance of these miserable fleet soldiers’.

• In April 1626, he persuaded King Charles to grant him the wardship of the son of one of the richest men in Munster [referring to Sir Gerald FitzGerald, Lord of Decies]. Villiers fell ill at Youghal college on 2 Sep 1626, perhaps a victim of the dysentery that had swept through the survivors of the Cadiz expedition. He died in the early hours of the 7th and was buried the following day in the new chapel which the Earl of Cork had built. In his will, drafted before he left England, Villiers entrusted his entire estate to his widow, who was required to settle his debts and maintain their children, all of whom were under age. His eldest son William inherited the Grandison title in 1630.

From the book Dromana: The Memoirs of an Irish Family:^[2]

• From the Earl of Cork's diary: "My noble friend, Sir Edward Villiers, sickened this day (Sept. 2nd, 1626) at Youghal and died on the 6th of the moneth about 4 of the clock in the morning and was buried in my new chapel the 7th in the evening, I attending his death and funerals." The New Chapel referred to is one of the side chapels in Youghal Church, now [1907] known as the Earl of Cork's Chapel. The tomb is in excellent preservation ... It is decorated with a carved bas relief, representing the kneeling figure of the Earl surrounded by his 2 wives and his 14 children.

• The Earl of Cork befriended Lady Villiers and her children after their bereavement, and he describes how he, and Lord Barry and Lord Digby rode to Youghal to bring "Lady Villiers a shipboard" when she finally left Ireland. The Earl is also much pleased when Lady Villiers, as a parting gift, bestows on his chapel 10 books of common prayer.

Barbara died in about 1672 in London. Her will passed probate on 26 September 1672.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ On 5 September 1625, the French had defeated a Huguenot fleet under the Duke of Soubise, one of King Charles I's godparents, and laid siege to La Rochelle. There began to rise in Charles the conviction, which over the next few years became almost an obsession, that he was in honour bound to help the Huguenots. The battered wrecks from Cadiz crept back to English harbours during the winter of 1625.
   • Pauline Gregg, King Charles I (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), Chapter 12: Charles Saves the Duke.
     • http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft9v19p2p6/
2. ↑ Dromana: The Memoirs of an Irish Family, by Therese Muir MacKenzie (Therese Villiers Stuart), published 1907 (Dublin: Sealy, Bryers & Walker), pp.90-91:
   • https://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/thrse-mackenzie/dromana--the-memoirs-of-an-irish-family-ala.shtml
3. ↑ Will: "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858"
   The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Series PROB 11; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 340
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry au Record 5111 #794233 (accessed 10 January 2023)
   Will of Barbara Villiers, granted probate on 26 Sep 1672. Died about 1672 in London.

• England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4W-ZM4M : 6 June 2018), Edward Villers and Barbara St John, 6 Oct 1610; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Marriage, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 11, citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

See also

• http://www.thepeerage.com/p10562.htm#i105612
• Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK1V-FJ6V : 10 September 2021), Barbara St John Villiers, ; Burial, Westminster, City of Westminster, Greater London, England, Westminster Abbey; citing record ID 148319803, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com. Find A Grave: Memorial #148319803