Sir John St John (c.1585-1648), aged 17 (later 1st Bt)

This portrait of a dashing John St John, dressed in a sumptuous silk suit and wearing a pearl earring, would have caused the fluttering of a few young hearts no doubt, but John was already spoken for. He was about 17 years old when this portrait was painted in 1603, the year before his marriage.

Following the death of his father in 1594 and his mother in 1598 John became first the ward of Sir John St. John, 2^nd Baron St. John of Bletsoe and then his uncle Sir Oliver St. John, Viscount Grandison. The heir to the St. John fortune was John’s elder brother Walter who sadly died in a bathing accident in 1597. Then aged about 11 years old, John St. John became the ward of Sir Thomas Leighton, whose wife was Elizabeth Knollys, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, and who was ‘minded to match him to their daughter.’

John matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford in 1601 and was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1604. Still a ward of court, he married Sir Thomas Leighton’s daughter Anne at St John's Church, Hackney, close to her London home, on July 9, 1604. He was about 19 years old and she was just 13.

Medium - oil on canvas

Measurements - H 124 x W 100 cm

Purchased - 1965