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Authorised form of nameSt John; Henry (1678 - 1751); Viscount Bolingbroke
Other forms of nameHenry St
Other forms of surnameJohn
Dates1678 - 1751
NationalityBritish
Date of birth10 October 1678
Date of death12 December 1751
DatesAndPlacesBaptism:
Battersea (10 October 1678)
Burial:
Beside his wife in the family vault at Battersea, Surrey
ActivityEducation:
Eton College; ?Christ Church, Oxford; DCL (1702)
Career:
Travelled in France (1698-1699); MP for Wootton Bassett (1701-1708); MP for Berkshire (1710-1712); Secretary at War (1704-1708); Privy Councillor (1710-1714); Secretary of State for the North (1710-1713); Secretary of State for the South (1713-1714); Director of the South Sea Company (1711-1715); Lord Lieutenant of Essex (1712-1714); Ambassador to Paris (1712); virtually became Prime Minister shortly before the death of Queen Anne (1714), when he fled to France to escape impeachment; put under attainder (1715); hypothetically created Earl of Bolingbroke by the Old Pretender (1715); Secretary of State to the Old Pretender (1715-1716) when he was dismissed and rejected Jacobitism; pardoned and allowed to return to England, although still excluded from the House of Lords (1723); died of cancer of the face
Honours:
Baron St John of Lydiard Trevoze, Wiltshire, and Viscount Bolingbroke (1712)
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election29/01/1713
RelationshipsSon of Sir Henry St John, Bart, afterwards Viscount St John, of the Manor House, Battersea, and his wife, Mary, daughter of Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick.
Married: 1) Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Winchcombe, Bart, of Bucklebury, Berkshire, and his first wife, Elizabeth Hungerford; 2) Marie Claire, widow of Philippe le Valois, Marquess of Villette, and daughter of Amand des Champs, Seigneur de Marcilly, and his wife, Elisabeth Indroit, who was one of his mistresses during his first marriage
OtherInfoThe South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of the national debt. To generate income, in 1713 the company was granted a monopoly (the Asiento) to supply enslaved Africans to the islands in the 'South Seas' and South America. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its operations dealing in government debt, and peaked in 1720 before suddenly collapsing to little above its original flotation price. The notorious economic bubble thus created, which ruined thousands of investors, became known as the South Sea Bubble.
SourceSources:
DNB; GEC
Notes:
Confirmed the Society's privileges on behalf of Queen Anne (19 February 1713)
CodeNA7725
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
DM/5/46Endorsed 'Copy of a letter from Mr Henry St John to the Board of Ordnance 12th December 1710' 12 December 1710
DM/5/47Draft of a letter from Isaac Newton to the Board of Ordnance, giving the recommendations of the Visitors of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, as regards certain improvements needed therec.1710
LBO/15/1Copy letter from Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke to the Royal Society7 February 1712/1713
LBO/16/9Copy letter from Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke7 February 1713
EL/B2/76Letter, from [Henry Saint John, 1st Viscount] Bolingbroke [to the Royal Society], dated at Windsor19 October 1713
EL/B2/75Letter, from Bolingbroke [Henry St John] to the Royal Society, dated at Whitehall7 February 1712
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