Over the centuries the St.John family married into families across the United Kingdom and Ireland, creating a fascinating network of cousins and influencers who have written their own pages in history.
Our collection of castles, mansions, landscaped gardens and country estates gives a glimpse into this extended world of family spanning 800 years from the 12th to the 20th century.
Fonmon Castle is one of several featured castles in Wales alongside some of England’s great fortresses from Corfe Castle given to Margaret Beaufort by her son Henry VII in 1485 and the Tower of London where Sir John St.John’s sister Lucy (Apsley) was chatelaine in the run-up to the English Civil War. In Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, Sir John’s daughter Anne, Countess of Rochester, created a haven for Royalist espionage during a century of upheaval which is so intensely reflected in St. Mary’s Lydiard Tregoze.
In the 18th Century the magnificent Chateau of La Source in the Loire Valley provided the exiled Henry St.John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke with both domestic bliss with his second wife Marie-Claire de Marcilly and a place to study and share ideas with fellow philosophers Voltaire and the poet Alexander Pope.
Bolingbroke's later and less gifted successor, George Richard St.John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke can be found occupying one of America’s most treasured historic buildings, Liberty Hall in New Jersey, where his reputation somewhat tarnished the mansion’s gilded past.
And finally, you can discover Brownsover Hall in Warwickshire where Lydiard’s last lord, Vernon St.John, 6th Vsct. Bolingbroke retreated following his departure from the family’s ancestral home during World War II.
Many of these properties are open to the public and we hope you might be encouraged to visit a few. We are actively collecting and curating these connections, and welcome insights and discoveries to enhance the collection and our knowledge of patronage and marriage.
