Roger, and William, and Robert de St. John, his predecessors, Lords of Halnac, had given them. 7 The said William de St. John enjoyed the BARONY OF BASING, and likewise gave to the aforesaid Monks of Boxgrave eleven virgates of land in the town of Walborneton, and pasture for twelve oxen, and as many cows, &c. and in the town of Concone two virgates of land, and pasture for sheep, part also of his wood near Boxgrave; and likewise a virgate in Halnac to the church of Boxgrave, for the souls of William, and Robert de St. John, and Adam de Port his father, and Mabel his mother; witnessed y by Geffery Peverell, Roger Hay, and Geffery de St. John, under the seal of his arms, on a chief two mullets, as now borne by his descendants. To this William de St. John, Lord of Basing, by Godchild (or Godchelda) his wife, daughter of Paganel, succeeded Robert de St. John, his son and heir; but he had other children, Jeffery, Adam, and Thomas; who wrote himself Thomas de Port, aliter St. John; he was living in 1256. The said ROBERT DE ST. JOHN, Lord of Basing, in 1254, 38 Hen. III.a obtained a charter of free warren in all his demesne lands at Warnford and Chauton, in com. Southampton, Westreet, Hampton, Godenwood, Walferton, and Bernham, in com. Sussex; as also at Schisford, in com. Berks: and in 42 Henry III. had summons, b among divers other great men, to be at Chester upon Monday next after the feast of St. John Baptist, well accoutred with horse and arms, to oppose the incursions of the Welsh. Likewise in 45 Hen. III. he obtained licence to fix a pale upon the bank of his moat at Basing; as also to continue it so fortified during the King's pleasure: and in 50 Hen. III. was constituted governor of the castle of Porchester, but died the next year, or before; for then had JOHN, his son and heir (by Agnes, daughter of William de Cantelupe) livery of his lands, doing his homage, from whom descended the Lords St. John of Basing; and by female heirship, the Marquises of Winchester and Dukes of Bolton. The brother of which John was WILLIAM ST. JOHN, whose posterity bore for arms, till the time of Queen Elizabeth, Argent, on a chief, gules, the two mullets, over all a bend of the second, as a note of cadency. This William before-mentioned f had the castle of Faumont (or Funmon, as sometime wrote) in Glamorganshire, by the gift of his father Robert, the second Lord St. John, of Basing. He lived in the reign of Edward I. about which time, I find Isabel was his wife, who was daughter and coheir to William Combmartin; and it is evident that he had two sons; Henry, who died without issue; and SIR JOHN ST. JOHN, who, by Beatrix his wife, had issue another SIR JOHN ST. JOHN, of Faumont, his son and heir; who married Elizabeth, daughter and coheir to Sir Henry Umfreville, of Penmark; by whom he had an only son and heir, SIR JOHN ST. JOHN, who by Isabel his wife, daughter and coheir of Sir John Paveley, of Paulers Pury, in Northamptonshire, Knight, was father to SIR OLIVER ST. JOHN, who married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir John Delabere, Knight, and had issue an only son and heir, SIR JOHN ST. JOHN, who was found cousin and heir to Sir John Delabere; and in 1395, 18 Richard II. by deed intailed the manors of Shynebrook, Thurlygh, Eaton, Radwell, Felmingham, Roxton, Bareford, Chauston, Ryseley, Cold-Newton, Byddenham, Kaysho, called the Berrysted, in Kaysho, and Stoughton-parva, and Pasture, called Coldham, parcel of the priory of Chicksand; and Granges of Bulnehurst, and Standford-Bury, all in the county of Bedford; the manor of Ashmer, in Dorsetshire; the manors of Ripton-Abbots, alias St. John-Ripton, with the park there,. Houghton, and Witton, in the county of Huntington; the manor and scite of Turk's-deane, parcel of the monastery at Lantony, in Gloucestershire; half the manor of Penmark, and advowson of the church; the manor of Barrey, and manor and castle of Funmon, in Glamorganshire; and manor of Lanthill, in South Wales. All which manors and lands, with appurtenances, so entailed, lineally descended to Oliver Lord St. John, of Bletsoe, who died possessed thereof, on April 21st, 1582, leaving John Lord St. John, of Bletsoe, his son and heir, thirty-eight years, seven weeks, and five days old, on June 9th, next following, as set forth in the f Seger's Baronage, MS. Cole's Escheat lib 1, Not 61, A. 12, p. 452, 453, in Bibl. Harley. inquisition taken at Bedford that day. This Sir John St. John was mayor of Burdeaux, from 1414 to 1421. h Sir John had issue, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Pawlett, ..... .... SIR OLIVER ST. JOHN, who came first to possess the lordship of Bletshoe, in the reign of Henry VI. by taking to wife Margaret, daughter to Sir John de Beauchamp, and sister and sole heir to John Lord Beauchamp, of Bletshoe, in com. Northamp. Knt. a junior line of the Beauchamps of Powick, which branched from the Earls of Warwick; by which Lydiard Tregoze also came into this family of St. John, possessed by the Beauchamps ever since the marriage of Roger, Baron Beauchamp, of Bletshoe, chamberlain to Edward III. with Sibil, eldest daughter and heir of Sir John de Patishul, Lord of Bletshoe, by his wife Mabel, only daughter and heir of William Lord Grandison. i This Sir Oliver died in 1437, and was buried in the church of the Jacobins, at Roan, in Normandy, leaving (by the said Margaret his wife) five daughters, and two sons; the former were Edith, married to Sir Geoffry Poole, Knight; Elizabeth, married first to Henry Lord Zouch, of Codnor, secondly to John Lord Scrope; Mary, wife of Sir Richard Frogenhall, of Frogenhall; Margaret, lady abbess of Salisbury, who died 1492; and Agnes, wife to David Malpas, of Cheshire. The sons were, First, Sir John St. John, Knight; and, Second, Oliver St. John, Esq. ancestor to the present Viscount Bolingbroke. From Sir John St. John, of Bletshoe, the eldest, descended the Earls of Bolingbroke, and the present Lord St. John, of Bletshoe. The aforesaid Margaret Beauchamp (mother of the said Sir John, and Oliver St. John) was afterwards wife of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, Knight of the Garter; who had issue by her only a daughter, Margaret, wife of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and by him mother to Henry VII. King of England. The said Margaret Beauchamp was also the third wife of Lionel Lord Welles, and by him mother to John Viscount Welles, Knight of the Garter, who married Cecily, second daughter to Edward IV. Rymer's Fœdera. v. 4, pt. 2, p. 187, and v. 4, pt. 3, p. 197. but died February 9th, 1498, leaving issue one sole daughter, Anne, k OLIVER St. JOHN, her second son, had the lordship of Lidiard Tregoze, part of his mother's inheritance, and was, as Leland writes, in his Itinerary, a stout black man, and died at Fonterabia in Spain. His last will and testament is as follows: Ex Registr' vocat Horn in Cur' Prærog' Cant.' In the name of God, Amen. This is the laste will of me Olyver Seynt John, Esquyer, sonne to the excellent Dutchesse of Somersett. First, I bequeath my sowle to Almighty God, and to our Lady Seynt Mary, and to the Saynts of heven; and my body to be buried in the quier afore Saynt Andrew, in the parish church of Stoke. Also I will, that my wife have, duryng her life, all my lands and tenements in Legeard Tregoes, and Polton, with the manor of Borwode and Whatfild-hall, which is myne by the resonne and gift of my Lady my modre, with a place which I purchased in the lordshippe of Hacksmore, called Hillisthing, in Dorsetshire. Also I will, that my wife have all suche landes as be myne, by the reason and gift of the Kynge's grace, at Hatfeld Peverall, with the ternyns and wayes south, with Depford and Depford Strond, otherwise called West Greenwich. Also I will, that she have the lordeship of Garseynton; and that after her decease all the forsaid lordshippes, landes, and tenements returne unto my sonne John, and to his heirs. Also I will, that my wife have the lordeship of Lollam, the which I purchased to give and sell, as in fee simple. Moreover I will, that Rauf Rochford have all such landes and tenements as I purchased within the lordeship of Sowth Stoke, and North Stoke. Also I will, that my wife have all my goodes, moveable and unmoveable, and that she occupie as myne executor, sole by herself, and to dispose all my goodes for the helth of my sowle, as she thinks best. Thees being witnesses, Master Richard Bullock, John Writh, Henry Bigote, and Rauf Rocheford, with other yeomen; and made the seconde day of Marche, in the year of oure Lord God MCCCCLXXXXVI. The probate is dated on April 10th, 1497. The inquisition, taken after his decease, sets forth, that he left John his son and k Dugdale's Baronage, vol.. ii, p. 13. 1 Cole's Esc. lib. i. præd. p. 203, 211, 213, 217. heir, aged eight years; and that he had two other sons, Henry, and Oliver, and a daughter Margaret. He was in the inquisition denominated of Ewell, in com. Surr. and died seized of the manors of Lydiard Tregose, in Wiltshire; the manors of Warrington, in Oxfordshire; the manors of Hatfield-Peverel, and Cermynis, in Essex; and manor of Deptford, called West-Greenwich, in Kent. This Oliver's wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Scroope, and widow of Bygod, or Bigot, as appears from her tomb-stone, in the parish church of Stoke Rochford, in Lincolnshire; whereon is this inscription, viz. "Pray for the soll of Mayster Oliver Seynt John, Esq. and of Dame Elizabeth Bygod his wyffe, who departed this transitory life the 12th day of June, in the year of our Lord God 1503." By her he left an only son and heir, John, and three daughters; Elizabeth, married to Gerald Fitz-Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildaré; Eleanor, to Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset; and Margaret, lady abbess of Shafton, or Shaftesbury in Dorsetshire. Which JOHN, his only son and heir, was knighted by King Henry VII. having, in 1487, brought forces to the aid of the King against the Earl of Lincoln, Lambert Simnel, and their adherents in the battle of Stoke, near Newark upon Trent, on June 16th, when they were defeated, and the Earl of Lincoln slain. And Margaret, Countess of Richmond, that monarch's mother, who died on June 29th, in the first year of the reign of her grandson, King Henry VIII, by her last will, dated on June 6th, 1508, styling herself Margaret Countess of Richmond and Derby, and mother to King Henry the Seventh, constitutes this Sir John St. John, who was then her chamberlain, one of her three exe cutors; and the King her son, supervisor, desiring him To shew his special favour, help, and assistance, to her said executors, and to every of them.' She was foundress of Christ's and St. John's colleges in Cambridge, having left the issues and profits of her estate for that purpose, which was wisely applied by the executors, who were (as our historians relate) true to the trust and confidence reposed in them, in doing their part, by pursuing the foundress's intention. This Sir John St. John died in parts beyond the seas, on September 1st, 1512, leaving by Johanna his wife, daughter and 1 Polydore Virgil, p. 573. N. 20. * Ex Regist. Bennet, Qu. 31, in Cur. Prærog. Cantaur. VOL. VI. |