Lydiard Park, home of the St. John Family.

Lydiard Park in Wiltshire is a handsome Palladian house built for the St. John family, Viscounts Bolingbroke, in the early eighteenth century. It has a little-known connection with Elizabeth Craven, because her youngest daughter, Arabella, married into the St. John family and is buried in St Mary's Church on the estate.

There is a portrait in one of the bedrooms of the house of General Frederick St. John who was Elizabeth Craven's son-in-law. He married Arabella Craven in 1793 and they had at least ten children, of whom not all survived. She must have often have visited Lydiard Park which was the property of her husband's elder brother George, Lord Bolingbroke. 

The library at Lydiard House. The 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was a writer, politician and  Jacobite supporter, for which he went into exile. He doggedly opposed the government of King George I and Robert Walpole. His successors were somewhat notorious for their flamboyant lifestyles.

The dining-room walls are hung with many family portraits. The room must have often been crowded as Frederick's elder brother had two children by his first wife, eight by his second and four by his mistress Mary Beauclerk, who also happened to be his step-sister.

The St Johns had an illustrious ancestry and were very proud of their descent from the House of Lancaster, hence their choice of the title Viscount Bolingbroke.

Lady Diana Spencer, wife of the second Viscount Bolingbroke, was an artist. Her life story has many similarities to that of Elizabeth Craven. After an unhappy marriage, she parted from her husband and went to live with Topham Beauclerk, who eventually became her second husband. Thus she is sometimes known as Lady Bolingbroke and sometimes as Lady Diana Beauclerk. She was a painter and designer whose designs for the Wedgwood company became classics. 

St. Mary's church which is just beside the house is full of well-preserved monuments to the many generations of St. Johns who lived on the estate from the 14th century onwards. 

This effigy commemorates one of the St. Johns who died in the Civil War, fighting for King Charles I. 

It is here, in the family vault beneath the church, that Arabella Craven St. John was buried in 1819. Her mother Elizabeth Craven had by then left England and settled in Naples.

The house and estate are now owned by Swindon local authority and the church is in the process of being restored, a very worthwhile project since it is outstanding in every way.

https://www.stmaryslydiardtregoze.org.uk/heritage/st-john-family-monuments/

https://goodgentlewoman.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/the-three-wives-of-general-frederick-st-john/

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/general-the-honourable-frederick-st-john-17631844-brother-to-the-3rd-viscount-bolingbroke-65270  painted by John Hoppner.