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Sir Oliver St John (pronounced "Sinjin") (c. 1598–31 December 1673), was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1653. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.
[edit] Early life
St John was the son of Oliver St John of Cayshoe and his wife Sarah Bulkeley, daughter of Edward Bulkeley of Odell, Bedfordshire. His sister, Elizabeth St John, married Reverend Samuel Whiting and immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts in 1636. [1] He matriculated from Queens' College, Cambridge at Lent 1616, and was admitted at Lincoln's Inn on 22 April 1619. He was called to the bar in 1626.[2]
St John appears to have got into trouble with the court in connection with a seditious publication, and to have associated himself with the future popular leaders John Pym and Lord Saye. In 1638 he defended John Hampden on his refusal to pay Ship Money, on which occasion he made a notable speech. In the same year he married, as his second wife, Elizabeth Cromwell, a cousin of Oliver Cromwell, to whom his first wife also had been distantly related. The marriage led to an intimate friendship with Cromwell.
[edit] Political career
In April 1640, St John was elected Member of Parliament for Totnes in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Totnes for the Long Parliament in November 1640.[3] He acted in close alliance with Hampden and Pym, especially in opposition to the impost of Ship Money. In 1641, with a view of securing his support, the king appointed St John solicitor-general. This did not prevent him taking an active role in the impeachment of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, and in preparing the bills brought forward by the popular party in the House of Commons. As a result, he was dismissed from the office of Solicitor General in 1643.
On the outbreak of the Civil War, St John became recognized as one of the parliamentary leaders. In the quarrel between the parliament and the army in 1647 he sided with the latter, and was not excluded under Pride's Purge in 1649. Throughout this period he enjoyed Cromwell's confidence.
[edit] Judicial and other activities
In 1648 St John was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and from then on he devoted himself to his judicial duties. He refused to act as one of the commissioners for the trial of King Charles I, and had no hand in the constitution of the Commonwealth. In 1651 he went to The Hague as one of the envoys to negotiate a union between England and the Dutch Republic, a mission in which he entirely failed, leading to the First Anglo-Dutch War. In the same year he successfully conducted a similar negotiation with Scotland. He became Chancellor of Cambridge University in 1651 and retained the post until 1660.[2]
St John built Thorpe Hall at Longthorpe in Peterborough between 1653 and 1656. He was a member of the Council of State from 1659 to 1660.
[edit] Apolgia and exile
After the Restoration St John published an account of his past conduct (The Case of Oliver St John, 1660), and this apologia enabled him to escape any worse retribution than exclusion from public office. He retired to his country house in Northamptonshire till 1662, when he left England and went to Basel, Switzerland and afterwards to Augsburg, Germany.
[edit] Family
St John married firstly Johanna Altham, only daughter of Sir John Altham of Latton, Essex, and by her had two sons and two daughters. In 1638 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Cromwell, with whom he had two children. After her death he married, in 1645, Elizabeth Oxenbridge, daughter of Daniel Oxenbridge.[1] His son Francis was MP for Peterborough. His daughter Johanna married Sir Walter St John of Lydiard Tregoze[4] and was the grandmother of Viscount Bolingbroke. His third daughter, Elizabeth, married Sir John Bernard, 2nd Baronet and their daughter Johanna Bernard married Richard Bentley.[5]
St John belonged to the senior branch of an ancient family. There were two branches: the St Johns of Bletsoe in Bedfordshire, and the St Johns of Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, both descendants of the St Johns of Stanton St John in Oxfordshire. Oliver St John was the great-grandson of Oliver St John, who had been created Baron St John of Bletso in 1559, and a distant cousin of the 4th Baron who was created earl of Bolingbroke in 1624, and who took an active part on the parliamentary side of the English Civil War, his son, the 5th Baron St. John, being killed at the Battle of Edgehill.
[edit] References
- ^ a b A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies ... By John Burke, John Bernard Burke
- ^ a b Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). "St John, Oliver". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Browne Willis Notitia parliamentaria, or, An history of the counties, cities, and boroughs in England and Wales: ... The whole extracted from mss. and printed evidences 1750 pp229-239
- ^ Johanna St John thepeerage.com
- ^ Arthur Collins The English baronetage: containing a genealogical and historical account
- See the above-mentioned Case of Oliver St John (London, 1660), and St John's Speech to the Lords, Jan. 7th, 1640, concerning Ship-money (London, 1640). See also:
- Mark Noble, Memoirs of the Protectoral House of Cromwell, vol. ii. (2 vols, London, 178-7)
- Anthony à Wood, Fasti Oxoniensis, edited by P. Bliss (4 vols., London, 1813)
- Edward Foss, The Judges of England, yol.vi. (9 vols., London, 1848)
- SR Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War (3 vols, London, 1886 1891), and History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate (3 vols., London, 1894-1901)
- Lord Clarendon, History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (7 vols, Oxford, 1839)
- Thurloe State Papers (7 vols, London, 1742)
- Edmund Ludlow, Memoirs, edited by CH Firth (2 vols, Oxford, 1894)
- Thomas Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches
"St. John, Oliver (1598?-1673)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Parliament suspended since 1629 | Member of Parliament for Totnes 1640-1653 With: John Maynard | Succeeded by Not represented in Barebones Parliament |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by Sir John Bankes | Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1660–1667 | Succeeded by Sir Ordlando Bridgeman |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Saint John, Oliver |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | 1673 |
| Place of death | |
Annotations
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Wheatley footnote (7-Feb-1660):
Oliver St. John born about 1598; called to the Bar as a member of Lincoln’s Inn, 1626; M.P. for Totnes, 1640; Solicitor-General, January 1640-1; Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1648, and afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the Upper Bench. He died December 31st, 1673. His first wife, Johanna Altham, was aunt to Oliver Cromwell and to John Hampden. His second wife was Elizabeth Cromwell, first cousin to Oliver. -
Oliver St. John 6th Baron St. John Of Bletso And 2nd Earl Of Bolingbroke 1634/1687
another source
http://www.swindonweb.com/leis/placlydi0.htm
Sir John St John (1585-1648) he lost 3 sons fighting for charles 1
Seems to be a lot of St. Johns around with titles
Ironically, Sir John’s sixth son, Walter, was a Puritan and was found to be “backward in kissing the king’s hand” when the Stuarts were restored to the throne in 1660. He sat on the family seat at Battersea and used Lydiard as a holiday home.
Wheatley footnote best source -googling up just confuses: -
from L&M Companion
(?1597-1673). Lawyer and politician; related by marriage to Oliver Cromwell; ‘my Lord’ by virtue of his judicial office and membership of the Council of State in 1659-60. He had been a leading protagonist of the parliamentary cause against Charles I, but on becoming Chief Justice of Common Pleas in 1648 ceased to be closely involved in politics, using his judicial position and his ill health to distance himself from them. He refused to sit on the tribunal which tried the King and although accepting office from Cromwell as Councillor of State and Treasury Commissioner took little part in their proceedings. He was reputedly a ‘Proctectorian’ in 1659-60 but was secretly in favour of a restoration of monarchy. He was declared incapable of office in 1661, and retired into private life. In Nov. 1662—shortly after Pepys saw him at church—he went into exile in Germany. -
Warrington also says this: [] he was properly called, after the Restoration ‘My “late” Lord’
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From the Columbia Enyclopedia (6th ed.):
“St. John, Oliver — (sn-jn), 1598?-1673, English politician. He married (1638) a cousin of Oliver Cromwell. In 1637-38 he was, by his brilliant defense of John Hampden in the ship money case, drawn into the opposition to Charles I. Although Charles appointed (1641) him solicitor general, St. John remained a conspicuous opposition leader in the Long Parliament, taking a leading part in the attainder (1641) of Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford. He supported Cromwell and the army against Parliament in 1647 and was made (1648) chief justice of common pleas. He refused to take part in the trial (1649) of Charles I. St. John was one of the commissioners who negotiated (1652) the union with Scotland. His friendship with Cromwell cooled during the Protectorate, and he cooperated with Gen. George Monck in effecting the Restoration (1660) of the monarchy. In his Case of Oliver St. John (1660) he denied complicity in the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth. He was punished only with exclusion from holding office. He lived abroad after 1662.”
There is a very long and interesting article on St. John in the Oxford DNB. In the “ship money case” that built his reputation, he defended the exclusive right of Parliament to levy taxes, against an effort by Charles I to impose a tax to support the Navy.