[Illustration] THIS great and ancient Family, though not connected with this county before the reign of Henry VIII., yet, having been for a considerable time seated at Melchbourne, may with propriety be included among the Bedfordshire families, and indeed stands alone as the only one of knightly rank.* Descended in the direct male line from Hugh de Port mentioned in Domesday, in the twelfth century William son of Adam de Port took the name of St.John from the heiress of that great Norman family. Basing in Hampshire, Stanton St.John in Oxfordshire, Bletshoe in the county of Northampton, and Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, both derived from the heiress of Beauchamp in the reign of Henry VI.--have successively been seats of the St.Johns, who have made themselves sufficiently remarkable both for their loyalty and disloyalty in the reign of Charles I., not to mention the ambition and ill-directed abilities of the great Lord Bolingbroke in that of Anne. _Younger Branch_. St.John of Lydiard Tregoze, Viscount Bolingbroke 1712. Baronet 1611. Descended from Oliver, second son of Sir Oliver St.John and the heiress of Beauchamp. See Leland's Itinerary, edition 1769, vol. vi. folio 27, p. 26. Brydges's Collins, vi. 42 and 741. For an account of Bletshoe, and the monuments there, see Gent. Mag. 1799, p. 745. For Lydiard Tregoze, and other monuments of the St.Johns, whose pedigree, by Sir R. St.George, is painted on folding-doors on the north side of the chancel, see the Topographer, i. 508. ARMS.--_Argent, on a chief gules two mullets pierced or_. William de St.John in the thirteenth century bore in his arms the addition of a bend gules, which was continued by his descendants till the reign of Elizabeth. (Gent. Mag. 1787, 681.) The present coat was borne by Sir John de St.John in the reign of Edward II.; at the same time other members of the family varied the field and charges thus: Sir Roger bore, _Ermine, on a chief gules two mullets or_; Sir Eymis, _Argent, crusilly sable, on a chief gules two mullets or_; Sir John de Layneham, _Argent, on a chief gules two mullets or, a border indented sable_. John, heir of John de St.John, differenced his arms with a label azure, according to the roll of Carlaverock. The roll of arms of the reign of Richard II. gives the _mullets of six points pierced azure_. Edward St.John at this period bore, _Argent, on a chief dancetté gules two mullets of six points or, pierced vert_. Rolls of the dates. Present Representative, St.Andrew Beauchamp St.John, 14th Baron St.John. * "Hungry Time hath made a glutton's meal on this Catalogue of Gentry (the List of Gentry of the reign of Henry VI,) and hath left but a very little morsel for manners remaining." Fuller, Worthies of Bedfordshire. +Gentle.+ POLHILL OF HOWBURY, IN THE PARISH OF RENHOLD.