Mr. James (Jimmy Gelly) Augustus St.John —

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James Augustus St J. Long biography in New DNB. Had 8 surviving children, see Eliza C Agar for list. Nickname Jimmy Gelly as his father was Gelly John. Born James John,Sep24. 1795. he came from a Laugharne family, mainly blacksmiths, which can be traced in detail back to about 1680. He had radical opinions and had to leave Laugharne when he wrote a seditious pamphlet, to escape arrest. When he married, Dec 22, 1819, he changed his name to James Augustus St John, to avoid recognition.

Eliza Caroline Agar Hansard, born ca 1797 Bristol, = James Augustus.

They had ten children, two of whom died unnamed. The eight survivors were:

1. Percy Bolingbroke,b.Mar 4,, 1821, chr.Aug 5, 1821, Plymouth
2. Frederick Bayle,b.Aug19,1833, chr,Aug 22, 1824, KentishTown
3. Elizabeth Ann b.Jul3,1824, chr.Aug 22, Kentish Town
4. Spenser Buckingham b. Dec22,1826, St John'sWood
5. James Augustus II,. b.Jun 26, and chr. July 26,1829, Kentish Town.
6. Horace Stebbibg Roscoe, b. Jul 3, 1830,Caen, Normandy.
7. Helen Cornelia, b. 1831, Dijon.
8. Vane Ireton Shaftesbury, b.Aug 9,1838, Hampstead.

Records of burials are notoriously difficult to find, and it is fortunate that the grave of James Augustus is known. He was buried in Highgate Cemetery and the headstone is easily legible. It can be found by starting up the main steps in the older part, until a vast tomb of Sir Loftus Otway is seen, James' grave is some 10 yards beyond, to the left, behind a memorial to the Lee family. The inscription reads 'In affectionate memory of James Augustus St John, who died Sept 22nd, 1875, aged 79. Also of Horace Stebbing Roscoe St John, born 1830, died Feb 29, 1888. Also of Percy Bolingbroke St John, born 1821, died Mar 15, 1889.'

The St John family in the 1881 census.

Of James Augustus’ family, Bayle, James Augustus Jnr, Elizabeth, and Helen, had died, and Spenser was overseas, so only Percy, Horace and Vane and their families were alive, and have surfaced, plus Oliver Cromwell and his family. Only Vane I. Hampton, Vane’s eldest son, is unaccounted for.

13, Park Place, Milton in Gravesend, Kent

Percy B. St John, 60, born 1821, Plymouth, Author, Journalist, Head Violet St John, 20, born 1861, Brompton Kent. niece, died 1942,Rockdale, NSW.

Frances St John, 47, born 1834, Greenwich, Kent, wife Ethel St John, 18, born 1863, Marylebone, niece, died Mar 9, 1885, QLD.

Alice St John, 24, born 1857, Brompton, Kent, authoress, daughter Florence St John,17, b,1864, Hampstead St John (sic) niece Percy B. St John, 22, born 1859, Paris (BS), author, son Sophia Deane, 50, born Greenwich, Kent, sister-in-law. Appears in 1901., aged 70.

Although the census information is confidential for 100 years, it is now clear that Frances’age is not correct: she was born in Kent in 1831/2. So Frances, née Deane,was indeed 21 when she married Percy in 1852, as she stated, which is confirmed by the age of 39,shown in the 1871 census. In fact, Percy Jnr was born Apr 13, 1857 in Paris, the informant being Sophia, née Deane, Frances’ sister.The various censuses imply a range of dates of birth for Alice,from 1854 to 1863. Her record of birth has now been found: she was born in Chelsea in the Sep Q.1854 ref. 1a 117, The three nieces were Vane’s daughters by his first wife.

It would appear likely that Sophia Deane married James Deane in Sept Q.1872, Chelmsford, ref. 4c/279

11, Sydenham Park, Lewisham, Kent

Horace St John, born 1833, born 1831,France, Author, Journalist, Head Rosetta A Jolly, 23, born 1858, Charlton Kent, Servant Jane E. St John,48, born 1833, Kentish Town, Middlesex, Author, wife

Upper Gordon Road, Enfield, Middlesex

Vane I. St John, 42, born 1839, Hampstead, Middlesex, novelist, Head Rupert E. B. St John, 4, born 1877,Camberwell, Surrey, son

Margaret St John, 23, born 1858, Lambeth, Surrey, wife Beatrice M.O.C. St John (sic), 11 m, born 1880, E. Dulwich. Surrey, dau. Edwin C. St John, 13, born 1868, Clerkenwell, Middlesex, son

Harold E. St John, 11, born 1870,Holborn, Middlesex, son

7, Victoria Road, Wanstead, Essex

Henry St John,14, born 1867, Stratford Essex, Office boy, lodger with Ann Barnes, 60, Dressmaker, Head

Clarence P. de B. St John, 2, born 1879, Stratford, Essex., lodger - two more of Vane’s children

25, Middle Street, Camberwell, Surrey

Vivian C. St John, 5, .born 1876, Holborn Middlesex,(Vane’s no. 8) nephew of Robert Kirkham, 31, Head, born 1850. Bath, carpenter, casemaker.. with his wife Frances Charlotte, born 1851, Holloway, Mddx, Jessie, 1878, Alfred,1879., and Beatrice, 3 months. Francis C., née Chilcott, was Vane’s sister-in-law. She signed Eliza St John’s death certificate, as reporting her death, in `1874, less than a year before Vane married Margaret Chilcott.

5, Craven St, Strand, Middlesex

Oliver C. St John, 36, born 1845, Bath, Somerset, Foreign Service, Boarder

Blanche St John, 35, born 1846, Montacute, Somerset, wife, Boarder

Alexandra Road, Millbrook, Hants

Frances St John, 7, born 1874, Sarawak, (BS), Head, daughter Helen Archibald, 42, born 1839, Dublin, visitor

Arthur G. St John, 6, born 1875, Weymouth, son Jane Gamblin,17, born 1874, Landport, Hants, servant

Harold St John, 5, born 1876, Southhampton, son

Blanche St John, 2, born 1879, Sarawak, (BS) daughter

25, St Stephen’s Square, London, Middlesex Frederick A. St John ,8, born 1873, Sarawak. Visitor to Alfred Jackson, 58, born Bristol, merchant, Head, with his wife and seven children, born in Australia. He married Eliza Agar Hansard,( b.1836, dau of Nestor and Harriet Hansard) in Bathurst, Aus. in 1857. So, Frederick, “Uncle Agar”, was their cousin..

 

No image of James Augustus St.John has been traced, but there is a description of him included in a book of recollections^[1] of the celebrated drug addict, Thomas De Quincey. (There is also a mention of Percy B St John). See ‘Singen, my dear sir, singen”

James rates his own page on Wikipedia, evidently copied from the 1911 version of Encyclopædia Britannica. The Dictionary of National Biography has pages of detail about James and five of his sons, and both of these sources are a must for anyone who is interested in James.

Michael Middleton has written an extensive Biography and a pictorial essay of his life in St John's Wood, London (830KB pdf).

From 'Lippencots' 1908 (page 133):

Saint John, (JAMES AUGUSTUS,) a distinguished writer and traveller, born in Caermarthenshire, in Wales, about the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was for a time associated with J. S. Buckingham as editor of the "Oriental Herald," for which he wrote a history of British dominion in India. Having visited Egypt. Malta, and Italy, he published in 1834 a "Description of Egypt and Nubia." He wrote several other works, including "History of the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Greeks," (3 vols., 1842,) and two novels. Died in 1875.

J.A.St JOHN - COMMITTEE MAN?

James Augustus St John Esq had been member of the provisional committee for a share flotation for the building of a railway line. His address is given as 9, North Bank, Regent’s Park (From an advertisements on the front page of ‘The Times’ on Saturday, October 25, 1845.)

“GREENWICH and BLACKWALL RAILWAYS Extension to Gravesendl:the river line (Provisionally Registered, persuant of the 7th and 8th Vct,c110) Capital £700,000, in 28,000 shares of £25 each, Deposit £2 12s d Per share.”

James Augustus St John did live at 76 Upper Seymour Street in 1827. The road has changed its name to Eversholt Road and most of the lower part has been demolished for Euston Station. But fragments of the top of the road still exist along with fragments of the, presumably, Georgian Terraces? No 76 had been on the west side and there is still part of a terrace there. 76 is first number of a terrace on the for side of a cross road and is opposite a small resident's park. The building is really at far north end of the road just before Camden High Street begins. It is an area of London called Somers Town and is just to the north of Bloomsbury,