Baron St John of Bletso - History

History

Oliver St John of Fonmon Castle, Glamorgan, was one of the legendary Twelve Knights of Glamorgan who effected the Norman conquest of Glamorgan c.1090 under Robert Fitzhamon (d.1107). Oliver St John, the 1st Baron was the great-great-grandson of Sir John St John (d. c. 1482), eldest son of Sir John Oliver St John of Bletso (d. 1437), the husband of Margaret, great-great-granddaughter of Roger de Beauchamp (d. 1380), who was summoned to Parliament as Baron Beauchamp of Bletso from 1363 to 1379. Since then that title had not been assumed although Oliver St John was considered to be the line of heir. He was succeeded by his son, the second Baron. He was one of the peers who sat during the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. He died without male heirs and the claim to the barony of Beauchamp of Bletshoe passed to his daughter Anne, the wife of William Howard, Lord Howard Effingham, eldest son and heir of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham.

He was succeeded in the barony of St John of Bletsoe by his younger brother, the third Baron. The latter's son, the fourth Baron, was created Earl of Bolingbroke in 1624. His eldest son and heir apparent, Oliver St John, was in 1641 summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title of Baron St John of Bletsoe. However, he predeceased his father (killed at the Battle of Edgehill in 1642) but due to the writ of acceleration issued he is known as the fifth Baron St John of Bletsoe. The Earl was succeeded by his grandson, the second Earl. He was the son of Sir Paulet St John, younger son of the first Earl. He died childless and was succeeded by his younger brother, the third Earl, who represented Bedford in the House of Commons. He never married and on his death in 1711 the earldom became extinct.

The barony was inherited by his second cousin once removed, Sir Paulet St Andrew St John, 5th Baronet, who became the eighth Baron. He was the great-great-grandson of the Hon. Sir Rowland St John, fourth son of the third Baron (see below for more information on the baronetcy). His cousin's son, the fourteenth Baron, sat as a Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire. His grandson, the seventeenth Baron, served as Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire from 1905 to 1912. As of 2010 the titles are held by the latter's great-grandson, the twenty-second Baron, who succeeded his father in 1978. He is one of the ninety elected hereditary peers that remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999, and sits as a cross-bencher.

The St John Baronetcy, of Northwood in the County of Northampton, was created in the Baronetage of England in 1660 for Oliver St John. He was the son of the Hon. Sir Rowland St John, fourth son of the third Baron St John of Bletsoe. His son, the second Baronet, represented Northamptonshire in the House of Commons. The latter's grandson, the fifth Baronet, succeeded as eighth Baron St John of Bletsoe in 1711 (see above for later history of the titles).

Oliver St John (d. c. 1497), younger brother of the aforementioned Sir John St John (d. c. 1482), was the ancestor of the Viscounts Grandison and the Viscounts Bolingbroke and St John.