Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison
Encyclopedia
Sir Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison (1559 – 1630) was an English soldier who became Lord Deputy of Ireland
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and later the Kingdom of Ireland...

.

Early years

He was the second son of Nicholas St John (ca. 1526 - 8 November 1589) of Lydiard Park in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

 and Purley Park in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, by his wife Elizabeth (bef. 1542 - 1587), daughter of Sir Richard Blount of Mapledurham House
Mapledurham House
Mapledurham House is an Elizabethan stately home located in the civil parish of Mapledurham in the English county of Oxfordshire.-History and architecture:...

 in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, and Elizabeth Lister. His mother was distantly related to Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, and on his father's side he was descended through a female line from the Grandisons, and was related to the St Johns, Barons of Bletso
Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso
Margaret Beauchamp, of Bletso, Bedfordshire, Spelsbury, Oxfordshire and Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire was the daughter of John Beauchamp, of Bletso and Edith Stourton...

. He seems to have grown up mostly at Purley
Purley-on-Thames
Purley on Thames or simply Purley, is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It forms part of the Reading urban area, but remains outside the borough, in West Berkshire. The village is situated about north-west of Reading, and east of Pangbourne...

, was educated at Oxford, matriculating from Trinity College
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...

 on 20 December 1577, and graduating B.A. on 26 June 1578. In 1580 he was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

. But about March 1584 he killed George Best
George Best (chronicler)
George Best was a member of the second and third Martin Frobisher voyages in positions of importance; as Frobisher's lieutenant on the second and as captain of the Anne Francis on the third...

 in a duel, and was compelled to flee the country.

Career

St John now sought his fortunes as a soldier abroad, and served in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 and in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Before 1591 he had attained the rank of captain, and in the autumn of that year commanded Essex's
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599...

 horse at the siege of Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...

. In 1592 he returned to England, and was elected member for Cirencester
Cirencester (UK Parliament constituency)
Cirencester was a parliamentary constituency in Gloucestershire. From 1571 until 1885, it was a parliamentary borough, which returned two Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1868, and one member between 1868 and 1885...

 in the parliament summoned to meet on 19 February 1593. In March he was placed on a commission for the relief of maimed soldiers and mariners, and made several speeches during the session; but parliament was dissolved in April, and soon afterwards Essex recommended St John to Robert Cecil
Robert Cecil
Robert Cecil may refer to:*Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury , statesman, spymaster and minister to Elizabeth I of England and James I of England...

 as a cavalryman. He again sought service in the Netherlands, and was present at the battle of Nieuport on 2 July 1600.

Tyrone's rebellion took experienced English soldiers to Ireland, and St John accompanied Mountjoy there in February 1601; he was knighted by Mountjoy at Dublin on 28 February, and was given command of two hundred men. He took a prominent part in the siege of Kinsale
Siege of Kinsale
The Siege or Battle of Kinsale was the ultimate battle in England's conquest of Gaelic Ireland. It took place during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, at the climax of the Nine Years War - a campaign by Aodh Mór Ó Néill, Aodh Rua Ó Dónaill and other Irish clan leaders against English rule...

 in the autumn, repulsing a night attack of the Spanish on 2 December, when he was wounded. On 13 December he left the camp to carry despatches to Queen Elizabeth. In November 1602 he was back in Ireland commanding twenty-five horse and 150 foot in Connaught
Connacht
Connacht , formerly anglicised as Connaught, is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for...

, under Sir George Carew
George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes
George Carew, 1st Earl of Totnes , known as Sir George Carew between 1586 and 1605 and as The Lord Carew between 1605 and 1626, served under Queen Elizabeth I during the Tudor conquest of Ireland and was appointed President of Munster. -Early career:Carew was the son of Dr...

, and in the same year he was recommended by Cecil for the office of vice-president of that province (but the arrangement does not seem to have been carried out). From 1604 to 1607 he sat in the English parliament as member for Portsmouth
Portsmouth (UK Parliament constituency)
Portsmouth was a borough constituency based upon the borough of Portsmouth in Hampshire. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.- History :...

. On 12 December 1605 he was made master of the ordnance in Ireland, and sworn of the Irish privy council.

From this time St. John was Sir Arthur Chichester
Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester
Arthur Chichester, 1st Baron Chichester , known between 1596 and 1613 as Sir Arthur Chichester, was an English administrator and soldier, best known as the Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1604 to 1615.- Early life :...

's most trusted adviser. Early in 1608 he was named a commissioner for the plantation of Ulster
Plantation of Ulster
The Plantation of Ulster was the organised colonisation of Ulster—a province of Ireland—by people from Great Britain. Private plantation by wealthy landowners began in 1606, while official plantation controlled by King James I of England and VI of Scotland began in 1609...

. He drew up a scheme for the plantation of the province, and accompanied Chichester in his progress through Ulster in 1609. As an undertaker he had grants of fifteen hundred acres in Ballymore
Ballymore
Ballymore may refer to:*Ballymore , an Irish property company*Ballymore, County Cork, village on Great Island, Cork Harbour, Ireland*Ballymore, County Donegal, Ireland*Ballymore, County Westmeath, Ireland*Ballymore, County Wexford, Ireland...

, co. Armagh, and a thousand acres (4 km²) in 'Keernan.' He advised that no grants of the lands of the banished earls should be made, but that they should be let to natives at a high rent. Early in 1609 Chichester sent him to England, and he drew up a report of the commissioners' proceedings for Salisbury's benefit. In 1613 he was elected member of the Irish parliament for co. Roscommon, and took an important part in the dispute about the speakership. Speaking from his experience of the English House of Commons, he urged that the first business of the house was to elect a speaker, and that the proper method of voting was to leave the house and be counted in a lobby. Everard's supporters, however, placed Everard in the chair, from which he was forcibly ejected by the majority. St John was one of the members sent to lay the matter before James I. In December 1614 he resigned the mastership of the ordnance; he was in England during October 1615, when the Earl of Somerset
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, , was a politician, and favourite of King James I of England.-Background:Robert Kerr was born in Wrington, Somerset, England the younger son of Sir Thomas Kerr of Ferniehurst, Scotland by his second wife, Janet, sister of Walter Scott of Buccleuch...

 was committed to his custody.

On 2 July 1616 St John was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland; he received the sword of state on 30 August. His appointment was partly due to his connection with George Villiers
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...

, and his administration was marked by persecution of recusants. He banished, by proclamation, all monks and friars educated abroad. He also pushed on the colonisation of Ulster, and the plantation of co. Longford in 1618 was followed next year by that of co. Leitrim. His severity against the recusants created enemies, and the fact that he owed his appointment to Villiers made him unpopular with many of his council. Early in 1621 they urged his recall; and, though James commended him and protested against involving him in disgrace, he was finally commanded to deliver up the sword of state to Loftus on 18 April 1622. He left Ireland on 4 May.

St John still remained in favour at court. On 28 June 1622 he was sworn of the English privy council, on 23 June 1623 he was created Viscount Grandison of Limerick in the peerage of Ireland
Peerage of Ireland
The Peerage of Ireland is the term used for those titles of nobility created by the English and later British monarchs of Ireland in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl,...

, on 16 August 1625 he was made lord high treasurer of Ireland, and on 20 May 1626 was raised to the English peerage as Baron Tregoz of Highworth, Wiltshire. In 1624 he was placed on the council of war, and served on other commissions. He also interested himself in foreign and colonial affairs, frequently corresponding with his nephew, Sir Thomas Roe. In 1627 he bought the manors of Wandsworth
Wandsworth
Wandsworth is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-Toponymy:...

 and Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...

, where he had had a house since 1600. His health failing, he sought the advice of Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne. After a visit to Ireland in 1630 to settle his estates there, he returned to Battersea, where he died on 30 December in the same year, being buried there on 12 January 1631.

Family

St John married Joan, daughter and heiress of John Roydon of Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...

, and widow of Sir William Holcroft; she was buried at Battersea on 10 March 1631; by her he had no issue. The barony of Tregoz became extinct. Grandison's manors, Wandsworth
Wandsworth
Wandsworth is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-Toponymy:...

 and Battersea, passed to his nephew Sir John St John. The viscounty of Grandison passed to his grand-nephew, William Villiers, son of Sir Edward Villiers, by his wife Barbara, younger daughter of Sir John St John, Grandison's elder brother.
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