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Wikipedia
| Oliver St John | |
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| Born | c. 1598 |
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| Died | 1673 |
| Spouse | Johanna Altham, Elizabeth Cromwell |
| Profession | Politician |
| Religion | Independent |
Oliver St John (c. 1598 - 31 December 1673), was an English statesman and judge.
The son of another Oliver St John, he belonged to the senior branch of an ancient family. There were two branches: the St Johns of Bletso in Bedfordshire, and the St Johns of Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, both descendants of the St Johns of Staunton 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, being killed at the Battle of Edgehill.
Oliver was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1626. He 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.
St John was member for Totnes in both the Short and the Long Parliament, where 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 office in 1643. On the outbreak of the Civil War, he 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 throughout this period he enjoyed Cromwell's confidence.
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 Pride's Purge, nor 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; but in the same year he successfully conducted a similar negotiation with Scotland. After the Restoration he 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 went to live abroad.
By his first wife St John had two sons and two daughters. His daughter Johanna married Sir Walter St John of Lydiard Tregoze and was the grandmother of Viscount Bolingbroke, By his second wife he had two children, and after her death he married, in 1645, Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Oxenbridge.
[edit] References
- 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
- Dictionary of National Biography
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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.