George Richard St John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke and 4th Viscount St John (5 March 1761 – 11 December 1824), styled The Honourable George St John from birth until 1787, was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
peer and politician. He became famous in his own lifetime for embarking on an extra-marital relationship with his own half-sister, Mary Beauclerk (his mother's daughter by her second marriage), that produced four sons. The two lovers had to leave England and live on the continent for a time.
Background
He was the elder son of the famously unhappy marriage between
Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke
Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, 3rd Viscount St John (21 December 1732 – 5 May 1787), was a British Viscount and landowner. His father was John St John, 2nd Viscount St John, half-brother of Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke ...
and
Diana Spencer
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...
, daughter of
Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough
Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, (22 November 170620 October 1758), styled as The Honourable Charles Spencer between 1706 and 1729 and as The Earl of Sunderland between 1729 and 1733, was a British soldier, nobleman, and politician fr ...
. St John was educated at
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
in
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
and
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
, where he matriculated in 1777. He succeeded his father as viscount in 1787.
Career
St John entered the
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England.
The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...
for
Cricklade
Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire, England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester. It is the first downstream town on the Thames. The parish population at the 2011 census was 4,227.
History
Cricklade ...
in 1782, at the age of 21, representing the constituency as
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) until 1784.
Family
On 26 February 1783, he married firstly Charlotte Collins, daughter of his former tutor Thomas Collins. He had by her two sons and a daughter.
After the birth of these three children, George embarked on a sexual relationship with his younger half-sister Mary Beauclerk. Mary was a twin from their mother's second marriage to
Topham Beauclerk
Topham Beauclerk ( ; 22 December 1739 – 11 March 1780) was a celebrated wit and a friend of Dr Johnson and Horace Walpole.
Life
Topham Beauclerk was born on 22 December 1739, the only son of Lord Sidney Beauclerk and a great-grandson of King ...
, but born in 1766 before their marriage 1768. George and Mary's child was delivered in Paris but passed off at home as a child of George and Charlotte's for a time. Charlotte was anxious to save her marriage, and hoped by this ruse to preserve the family name from infamy and her marriage from ruin. However, Mary became pregnant for the second time by George in 1788, and delivered their second child, again in France.
In 1789 George abandoned his wife and legitimate children. He and Mary along with their two small children left Britain to live together on the Continent. They traveled under the name 'Barton' and left instructions to their families not to try to find them. The story quickly reached their circle of family and influential friends, and was reported in ''The Times'' (7 July 1789). Mary went on to bear him another two sons, all of whom lived to adulthood. By May 1794 George had abandoned Mary and the four boys for a Belgian noblewoman, Isabella Charlotte Antoinette Sophia Hompesch, Baroness von Hompesch. He persuaded her to marry him bigamously and then to live with him in obscurity first on the Continent, then in Britain, and finally in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Their eldest children were all illegitimate.
Mary later (1797) married an Anglo-German
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
n count Franz Jenison von Walworth, by whom she had legitimate issue and descendants. At least one of her sons by St John, Robert St John, called Bob St John, was still alive and much loved by the politician
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the arch-riv ...
and his mistress, later wife
Elizabeth Armistead
Elizabeth Bridget Armistead or Armitstead (11 July 1750 – 8 July 1842) was a courtesan and, later, the spouse of statesman and politician Charles James Fox. Her relationship with and marriage to Fox was one of the most famous and controvers ...
.
Charlotte died in 1803, and St John lawfully married Isabella Hompesch on 1 August 1804.
[ By his second wife, he had legitimate issue, two daughters and two sons.][ St John died, aged 63, at ]Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
in Italy on a journey to regain his daughter's health. He was succeeded in his titles by his oldest surviving son Henry St John, 4th Viscount Bolingbroke
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
,[ as the oldest son George had died in 1804 just before his mother.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolingbroke, George St John, 3rd Viscount
1761 births
1824 deaths
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
British MPs 1780–1784
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Cricklade
People educated at Eton College
Viscounts in the Peerage of Great Britain
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...