Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/186

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St. Paul
174
St. Quintin

fice with it. He was appointed, with two other officers, to guard the great seal from 13 Jan. to 17 Feb. 1334 during the absence of John de Stratford, the chancellor (Rot. Claus. 7 Edward III, p. 2. m. 4). On 18 Oct. 1336 he was made a prebendary of Brightling in Chichester Cathedral, and on 6 Dec. 1337, prebendary of Penkridge (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1334–8, pp. 328, 557). On 28 April 1337 he was created master of the rolls (Rot. Claus. 11 Edward III, p. 1. m. 13), and two years later received a grant of the house of converts in Chancery Lane for life. While he was master of the rolls the great seal was twice temporarily deposited with him and the other clerks, and from 16 Feb. to 28 April he was appointed sole lord-keeper (Rymer, Fœdera, Record ed., II. ii. 1140 et seq.; Cal. Rot. Pat. in Turri Lond. pp. 132, 134, 137, 146). In 1339 he was rector of Sutton in the diocese of Salisbury, and in the same year he acted as counsel for the priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, which gave him a yearly pension of sixty shillings in recognition of his services (Literæ Cantuar. ii. 204–5).

In 1340 the indignation of Edward III was aroused by the malversations of his officials, and, returning hastily from the siege of Tournai, he removed several from their posts; John de St. Paul was cast into prison (Murimuth., Contin., Rolls Ser., p. 117). He was able, however, to obtain his release as a priest through the intervention of Archbishop Stratford. Although the mastership of the rolls had been taken from him, he was allowed in a short time to resume his position as a master of chancery. In 1346 he was archdeacon of Cornwall (Le Neve, Fasti, i. 398), and shortly after prebendary of Dunnington in the see of York (ib. iii. 181). In 1349 he was advanced by a papal provision to the archbishopric of Dublin, having previously been a canon of the see. In 1351 he received a commission from Clement VI to proceed against certain heretics who had fled from the persecution of Richard Lederede [q. v.], bishop of Ossory, and had been protected by Alexander Bicknor [q. v.], the previous archbishop of Dublin. John found himself involved at his accession in the controversy concerning the primacy which was then raging between the archbishops of Dublin and Richard Fitzralph [q. v.], archbishop of Armagh. He succeeded in inducing Edward III to revoke his letters in favour of Armagh, and in 1353 the cause was removed for trial to Rome, where it was not decided for many years.

In 1350 John de St. Paul was appointed chancellor of Ireland, and, save for a brief period at the end of 1354, held the post for six years. In 1358 he was appointed a member of the privy council, and the lord-deputy was enjoined to pay great deference to his advice (Rymer, Fœdera, iii. 432–4). In 1360 he was placed on a commission of three to explore for mines of gold and silver, and to direct their management when discovered (ib. p. 482). In 1361 he received a special summons to a great council held in Dublin. On its assembly he laboured to win the government to a more conciliatory policy, and especially to obtain a general amnesty for the English and Irish rebels. He died on 9 Sept. 1362, and was buried in Christ Church, Dublin (Chart. of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, ii. 282). During his episcopate he obtained many privileges for his see. He also much enlarged and beautified the church of the Holy Trinity.

[Walsingham's Hist. Anglicana, i. 224, 236, (Rolls Ser.); Cal. Patent and Close Rolls passim; Calend. Inquis. post mortem, ii. 255; Foss's Judges of England, iii. 487; Ware's Bishops of Ireland, pp. 76, 332; D'Alton's Archbishops of Dublin, p. 134; Wadding's Annales Minorum, viii. 49; Barnes's Edward III, p. 217.]

E. I. C.


ST. QUINTIN, Sir WILLIAM (1660?–1723), politician, born about 1660 at Harpham in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was the eldest son of William St. Quintin, who died in the lifetime of his father, by Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Sir William Strickland, bart., of Boynton, Yorkshire. Having succeeded his grandfather, Sir Henry St. Quintin, second baronet of Harpham, some time before 1698, he entered the House of Commons at the general election of 1695 as representative of the borough of Kingston-upon-Hull, for which he served in eleven successive parliaments until his death (Parliamentary Returns; Luttrell, Brief Relation). On 24 Dec. 1700 Sir William lay ‘dangerously ill of a feavour’ (ib.). He was a commissioner of customs with a salary of 1,000l. a year from 22 Nov. 1698 to 18 Dec. 1701 (Haydn, Book of Dignities), when, in consequence of a clause in an act of parliament passed the preceding session for disabling the commissioners from sitting in parliament, he resigned his office. From 1706 he was a commissioner of revenue in Ireland with the same salary until 4 Feb. 1713, shortly after which (1714–17) he acted as a lord of the treasury in England. In July 1717 he became a commissioner of the alienation office, and on 16 June 1720 was appointed to the lucrative office of joint vice-treasurer, receiver-general, and pay-