Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    J
  • Title
    St John of Bletsoe
  • Date free text
    c1200 - 1901
  • Production date
    From: 1200 To: 1901
  • Admin/biog history
    The Bedfordshire branch or the family descends from Sir Oliver St John, Lord of Funmon in Glamorganshire (d1407), who was the first husband of Margaret, daughter and heir of Sir John Beauchamp of Bletsoe. She afterwards married John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and thus became the grandmother of Henry VII. By her first marriage the Beauchamp estates passed to her St John descendants. Her great-grandson, Sir Oliver St John was created 1st Baron St John of Bletsoe by Queen Elizabeth in 1559, and his grandson, Oliver, 4th Baron St John, was made Earl of Bolingbroke in 1624. On the failure of the direct line with the death in 1711 of Paulet, 3rd Earl of Bolingbroke and 6th Baron St John, the earldom became extinct, and the barony passed to the Northamptonshire branch, the descendants of Rowland St John KB of Woodford (d1655), a younger son of Oliver, 3rd Baron St John. Sir Rowland's son Oliver was made a baronet in 1660. In 1711 their direct descendant, Paule St Andrew St John, succeeded to the barony, but he died three years later while still in infancy, and the barony passed in succession to his unmarried uncles William and Rowland. On the latter's death in 1722 it passed to another brother, John, who had heirs, and thence it descends direct from father to son, or from brother in the case of the failure of male heirs, to John Moubray Russell, 19th Baron St John. The estates were built up through marriage. - Sir Oliver St John to Margaret Beauchamp left the manors of Bletsoe and Keysoe Bury to their son John. Keysoe Bury passed to Edward Lord Harley before 1715. - Oliver Earl of Bolingbroke (d1646) to Elizabeth, daughter and heir of William Paulet or Poulet, a descendant of the Poulets of Nether Wallop, Hampshire. This marriage accounts for the deeds relating to the Buckinhamshire estates of John Hampden as William Paulet's father had married a daughter of Barbara Hampden. Elizabeth conveyed her rights in Chilton, Bucks to Sir John Croke in 1608. The manor of Yeldon was also part of the Hampden inheritance. It remained in the family until about 1720 when it was alienated to Sir Jeremiah Vanaker Sambrook, bart. Hampshire deeeds and Paulet material also came from Elizabeth's family. - Sir Beauchamp St John (d1631) to Rebecca, daughter of William Hawkins of Tilbrook. Hawkins died in 1625 and bequeathed his three Tilbrook manors (Tilbrook, Hardwick and Porter's fee) to his son-in-law and daughter, and Tilbrook has reamined St John property. A mortgage and a series of admissions for Kimbolton (Hunts) also relate to the Hawkins inheritance. - Sir Oliver St John of Woodford, 1st Baronet 9d1661) to Barbara daught of John St Andrew, whose estates in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire passed to St John. - John St John, 11th Baron (1725-67), to Susanna Louisa, daughter of Peter Simond. Simond was a London merchant and the owner of West Indian sugar plantations, of which Lady St John, as co-heiress, inherited a 1/3 share. Her mother, Susanna Simond nee Grossteste was a Frenchwoman. Susanna Louisa's marriage portion was as much as £20,000, but after it there is evidence of many debts. this marriage accounts for the presence in the collection of certain wills and military commissions as well as accounts, receipts and letters of the Dowage Lady St John. She survived her husband by nearly forty years and died in 1805. Other estates came to the family by purchase. - Melchbourne. Edward, Earl of Bedford, conveyed the manor to Oliver St John in 1608, and it has remained St John property. The house in Melchbourne park has on the lead rain-water heads the date 1741, but the hearth tax returnes 1671 show 33 hearths and Powlet St John occupied it in 1706. The Cottage, Melchbourne, was the dower house of the family. - Nether Dean. St John held the manor in 1706. - Riseley. Sir Edward seymour alienated the manor of Lawrence, Riseley, to Sir John St John in 1532, and it has remained in the family. - Shelton. William Bendish alienated Shelton manor to Sir Paulet St John and his brothers, the sons of Oliver 2nd Earl of Bolingbroke, and it has remained in the family.
  • Scope and Content
    The collection consists of: - deeds from Elizabeth I to the early 19th century. The Bedfordshire deeds relate only to smaller properties in Bletsoe and Melchbourne, together with a crown lease of the tithes of Thurleigh rectory, 1566, a conveyance for one turn of the presentation to Riseley, 1808, and a bond for the repayment of a mortgage on Yelden manor, 1701. - miscellaneous papers these include items relating to political and social matters, including Parliamentary speeches and proceedings, taxation and civil war, together with other items relating to county affairs, mainly Northamptonshire. In cataloguing it proved impossible to divide these papers further according to subject, and therefore they have been arranged as far as possible in chronological order. The more interesting papers are those of Sir Rowland St John of Woodford (d1655). RSJ was created a Knight of the Bath in 1616, was an active JP in Northamptonshire and became Deputy Lieutenant for that county in about 1626. During the Civil War he was keen Parliamentarian and was frequently nominated to County Committees of Parliament, though he never sat in the house. His two brothers, Sir Alexander and Sir Rowland were successively members of Parliament for the town of Bedford, and his nephew Lord St John sat for the county. Lord St John commanded a regiment in the Earl of Essex's army and was killed at the battle of Edgehill in 1642.
  • Archival history
    In about 1902/03 the archives of the St John family, which was already probably in a very neglected state, had been tied up in bundles by the Rev Rorie McCleod, a family friend and vicar and rural dean of Morpeth (died c1930). He had attempted to append a note of its contents to each paper, unfortunately using steel wire clips which left deep rust marks. In 1936 the trustees of the 19th Lord St John deposited material at Bedfordshire Record Office and Dr Fowler wrote a report on the mateial for the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Dr Fowler explained that the collection had suffered very badly from damp, vermin and careless handling. He produced a list of the documents and began to catalogue them. Many were also repaired at this time. Dr Fowler died in 1940 and Lord St John, now of age, withdrew the collection and subsequently much of it was dispersed. In 1945 miscellaneous deeds and papers, which appeared to be the residue of the archive, came on the market, and were bought from a bookseller by Mr F J Manning of Luton, who then deposited them a the Bedfordshire Record Office. The collection was so incomplete that it was difficult to arrange. (Accessions 1694, 1705) A second collection of St John material, consisting of late estate deeds but also some of the papers listed by Dr Fowler in 1936-40, was deposited in Northamptonshire record office in 1956. The material deposited at Northampton came into the ownership of a sister of Lord St John and with her permission the collection transferred to Bedfordshire in 1984 under the reference SJ. It should be possible, using both the 'J' and the 'SJ' catalogues and compaing them as far as possible with Dr Fowler's summary list made for the Historical Manuscripts Commission, to work out approximately what has been lost out of the family archive since 1940. The collection of the senior branch, Barons of Bletsoe and Earls of Bolingbroke, have become mixed with those of the Northamptonshire St Johns who took over the barony in 1711 and it was impossible to separate these two threads in the collection.
  • Reference
  • Level of description
    fonds
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