Saint John, Oliver, Viscount Grandison (1559 -1630)

Oliver St John was the second son of Nicholas St John, of Lydiard Tregoze Wiltshire, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Blount of Mapledurham in Oxfordshire. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, where he matriculated December 1577, and graduated B.A. 26 June 1578. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1580, but killed George Best the navigator in a duel and was compelled to leave the country. He served as a soldier abroad and was a Captain in Essex's Horse at the Siege of Rouen. Returning in 1592 he was elected Member of Parliament for Cirencester 1593. In 1601 he accompanied Mountjoy to Ireland, and was knighted by him at Dublin, and employed against Tyrone's rebellion. He sat as Member of Parliament for Portsmouth 1604 1607. On 12 December 1605, he was made Master of the Ordnance in Ireland, and sworn of the Irish Privy Council, a Commissioner for the Plantation of Ulster in 1608, and in 1613 became a Member of the Irish Parliament, sitting for Roscommon. In December 1614 he resigned the post of Master of the Ordnance and returned to England. On 2 July 1616 he was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland. He was recalled in 1621, and was created Viscount Grandison of Limerick in the peerage of Ireland, 23 June 1623, and Baron Tregoz of Highworth in Wiltshire in the peerage of England, 20 May 1626. He married Joan, daughter and heir of John Roydon of Battersea, and widow of Sir William Holcroft or Rycroft, but died sine prole. The Barony of Tregoz became extinct, and the Viscountcy passed through a special remainder to his grand nephew William Villiers.