[Illustration] THIS great and ancient Family, though not connected
with this county before the reign of Henry VIII., yet, having been
for a considerable time seated at Melchbourne, may with propriety be
included among the Bedfordshire families, and indeed stands alone as
the only one of knightly rank.* Descended in the direct male line
from Hugh de Port mentioned in Domesday, in the twelfth century
William son of Adam de Port took the name of St.John from the
heiress of that great Norman family. Basing in Hampshire, Stanton
St.John in Oxfordshire, Bletshoe in the county of Northampton,
and Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, both derived from the heiress of
Beauchamp in the reign of Henry VI.--have successively been seats of
the St.Johns, who have made themselves sufficiently remarkable both
for their loyalty and disloyalty in the reign of Charles I., not to
mention the ambition and ill-directed abilities of the great Lord
Bolingbroke in that of Anne.
_Younger Branch_. St.John of Lydiard Tregoze, Viscount Bolingbroke
1712. Baronet 1611. Descended from Oliver, second son of Sir Oliver
St.John and the heiress of Beauchamp.
See Leland's Itinerary, edition 1769, vol. vi. folio 27, p. 26.
Brydges's Collins, vi. 42 and 741. For an account of Bletshoe, and
the monuments there, see Gent. Mag. 1799, p. 745. For Lydiard
Tregoze, and other monuments of the St.Johns, whose pedigree, by Sir
R. St.George, is painted on folding-doors on the north side of the
chancel, see the Topographer, i. 508.
ARMS.--_Argent, on a chief gules two mullets pierced or_. William de
St.John in the thirteenth century bore in his arms the addition of a
bend gules, which was continued by his descendants till the reign of
Elizabeth. (Gent. Mag. 1787, 681.) The present coat was borne by Sir
John de St.John in the reign of Edward II.; at the same time other
members of the family varied the field and charges thus: Sir Roger
bore, _Ermine, on a chief gules two mullets or_; Sir Eymis, _Argent,
crusilly sable, on a chief gules two mullets or_; Sir John de
Layneham, _Argent, on a chief gules two mullets or, a border
indented sable_. John, heir of John de St.John, differenced his arms
with a label azure, according to the roll of Carlaverock. The roll
of arms of the reign of Richard II. gives the _mullets of six points
pierced azure_. Edward St.John at this period bore, _Argent, on a
chief dancetté gules two mullets of six points or, pierced vert_.
Rolls of the dates.
Present Representative, St.Andrew Beauchamp St.John, 14th Baron
St.John.
* "Hungry Time hath made a glutton's meal on this Catalogue of
Gentry (the List of Gentry of the reign of Henry VI,) and hath
left but a very little morsel for manners remaining." Fuller,
Worthies of Bedfordshire.
+Gentle.+