Viscount Bolingbroke

Viscount Bolingbroke is a current title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1712 for Henry St John. He was simultaneously made Baron St John, of Lydiard Tregoze in the County of Wilts. Since 1751, the titles are merged with the titles of Viscount St John and Baron St John in the same peerage.

John St John (1585–1648) was the nephew of Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison (1559–1630), lord deputy governor of Ireland from 1616 to 1622, and distant cousin of the Barons St John of Bletsoe, later Earls of Bolingbroke.

John St John later represented Wiltshire in Parliament and was a strong royalist during the Civil War. On 22 May 1611, he was created a Baronet, of Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire, in the Baronetage of England.

The titles Baron St John, of Lydiard Tregoze in the County of Wilts, and Viscount Bolingbroke were created in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1712 for the politician and orator the Hon. Henry St John, the eldest son of Henry St John, 4th Baronet. The peerages were created with remainder to his father and his male heirs. Lord Bolingbroke died childless and was succeeded according to the special remainder by his nephew, who had already succeeded as third Viscount St John in 1749 (see below).

Henry St John, 4th Baronet was elected MP for Wiltshire and Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire. In 1716 he was created Baron St John, of Battersea in the County of Surrey, and Viscount St John, with remainder to his second son (who inherited) and in default third son, as his eldest son Henry St John had already been created Viscount Bolingbroke in 1712 (see above). The 2nd Viscount St John also represented Wootton Bassett in Parliament. In 1751 his son, the 3rd Viscount, succeeded his uncle as 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke and 2nd Baron St John according to a special remainder in the letters patent.

The titles have remained united since. The 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke was elected briefly for Cricklade, Wiltshire. As of 2014^[update] the titles are held by his descendant, the 8th Viscount Bolingbroke and 9th Viscount St John. He lives in New Zealand. As of 24 October 2025, he has not successfully proven his succession and is therefore not on the Official Roll of the Baronetage, with the baronetcy considered dormant since 1974.

An established family seat was, from 1420 until sale in 1943, Lydiard House, Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire.

From 1648 until 1765 the family had a house near to London, namely the forerunner to the wider Battersea Park area, Bolingbroke House, which was then in the county of Surrey. This became the de facto seat of the lord of the manor title inherited from the 1st Baronet from Viscount Grandison, buried there with great pomp in 1648. In 1742 the then Lord Bolingbroke, who, in spite of his attainder, had been enabled to inherit the estate by an act of Parliament, the Henry St John Bolingbroke Restitution Act 1724 (11 Geo. 1. c. 40), lent the manor house to his friend Hugh Hume, 3rd Earl of Marchmont. Later he settled there himself, either in 1743 or early in the following year and there spent the remainder of his life. He was buried in the family vault in Battersea Church in 1751. His nephew and heir Frederick, second Viscount Bolingbroke, sold the Battersea estate about 1763. It was purchased by John Viscount Spencer, created Earl Spencer in 1765.