Johanna St.John (1631-1705), wife of Sir Walter St.John, 3rd Baronet

This portrait is one of four of Lady Johanna St.John that hang in Lydiard House. History describes Johanna as pious and sombre, yet this portrait shows perhaps a more frivolous young woman at odds with the impression we have of her.

Johanna was born in 1631 the third child and eldest daughter of Oliver St. John, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and his first wife Johanna Altham. Johanna was descended from the senior Bletsoe branch of the St. John family when in 1649 she married a distant cousin, Walter St. John, who descended from the junior branch at Lydiard Tregoze.

Medium - oil on canvas

Measurements - H 71 x W 60 cm

Purchased in 1965 from Vernon St.John, 6th Viscount Bolingbroke