Sir John St Aubyn, 3rd Baronet

Sir John St Aubyn, 3rd Baronet (1696–1744) was an English politician, an opponent of the Whig ascendancy.

Life

He was born on 27 September 1696, the son and heir of Sir John St. Aubyn, 2nd Baronet (died 20 June 1714), who married, in 1695, Mary, daughter and coheiress of Peter de la Hay of Westminster. He was entered as gentleman-commoner at Exeter College, Oxford, on 10 June 1718, and created M.A. on 19 July 1721. In May 1722 he was returned to parliament for Cornwall, and sat for it until his death.[1]

In the House of Commons St. Aubyn spoke infrequently. Joining the opposition against Robert Walpole, he was hostile to the Septennial Act, and the employment of Hanoverian troops with the standing army. On 9 March 1742, after Walpole's fall from power, he seconded Lord Limerick's motion for a committee to inquire into the transactions of the previous two decades, which was defeated by 244 votes to 242. A fortnight later he seconded a motion by Limerick for a secret committee of 21 to examine Walpole's official acts during the last ten years, and it was carried by 252 votes to 245. In the polling for the committee he led with 518 votes, but declined to preside. He is said to have also declined a seat on the Board of Admiralty.[1]

St. Aubyn was on close terms with William Borlase, and was a friend and correspondent of Alexander Pope.[1] Jacobite sympathies were at one remove: he briefed Thomas Carte on parliamentary debates, for the benefit of the Old Pretender, who gained an exaggerated view of St. Aubyn's effective support.[2] He died of fever at Pencarrow, Egloshayle, Cornwall, on 15 August 1744, and was buried in a granite vault in Crowan church on 23 August.[1]

Family

St. Aubyn married at St. James's, Westminster, on 3 October 1725, Catherine, daughter and coheiress of Sir Nicholas Morice. The match brought him £10,000 in cash and the manor of Stoke-Damerel, including Devonport. She died at Clowance in Crowan on 16 June 1740, and was buried in the same vault. They had five children.[1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "St. Aubyn, John (1696-1744)". Dictionary of National Biography. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ↑ Kilburn, Matthew. "St Aubyn, Sir John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24480. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "St. Aubyn, John (1696-1744)". Dictionary of National Biography. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

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