(1726 - 69), e. s. of Sir John St Leger of Grangemullen, Co. Kildare; m. 1754 Mary Butler; MP [I] 1769.
c.1747 - 9 Turin (c.1747 - 8), Florence (May 1748 - Jan. 1749), Rome (Jan. - Mar.), Naples (Apr. - Jun.), Rome (by Jul. - Dec.)
By November 1748 St Leger had established an unenviable reputation through his flagrant disrespect towards the ladies of Turin, with whom he had been intimately familiar 'within this last two or three years'.1 Generally known as Jack St Leger, he had been the wild companion of Lord Charlemont's youth in Dublin and they met again in Italy, probably in Rome early in 1749, when St Leger was staying in the Porta Pinciana ('Monsu Sanlaxe Ingles.eret.23').2 He had arrived with a recommendation from Horace Mann to Cardinal Albani. Mann mistakenly believed him to be Lord Doneraile's heir.3 In an undated letter, Richard Marlay wrote to Charlemont from Dublin 'I am told Mr St Leger is a great favourite with the Pope. My Lady St Leger (Lavinia) says they often drink a jolly bottle together' toasting the Church and the cardinals with crude ribaldry and added 'but there are many here rude enough to doubt the lady's veracity'.4
In March 1749 there was a dispute with his French servant over wages. The man took his grievance to the courts with the backing of the French ambassador. Advised by Mann to make himself scarce, St Leger went to Naples, leaving some belongings with the Dutch consul Mr Born. Born, whose associate Mark Parker had been banished by the Inquisition, was terrified when the sbirri descended on him to seize St Leger's goods, and Mann and Albani were very uneasy that their involvement with Born should be discovered.
St Leger, unabashed, continued to try to make use of Mann and wrote reminding him of a letter of introduction to be got from Prince Craon to his daughter, wife of M. de Mirepoix, ambassador to England. The Prince in haste included him in a letter introducing Horace Walpole, which was despatched after being surreptitiously opened by Mann on 23 May.5 Walpole wrote on 4 June that he had no mind to deliver it: 'one hates to be coupled with a romping greyhound puppy ... I did not want to be introduced to Madame de Mierpoix's asemblies, but to be acquainted with her. By thrusting St Leger into the letter with me ... I shall not wonder if she takes me for his bearleader, his travelling governor'.6 By July St Leger was again in Rome and this time there was a quarrel with a Roman knight who was arrested, and St Leger, being well satisfied in this affair, stayed on until December.
Mrs Bellamy, the actress, described him on his arrival back in England as having 'a good understanding, a fine figure and a handsome face, he had in his manner a good deal of the coxcomb, which had received no little addition for his having made the grand tour ... He had on a white surtout, with a crimson cope, a French waistcoat, his hair en papillote, a feather in his hat, a couteau de chasse by his side, with a small cane hanging to his button, and attended by two Italian greyhounds.7
1. Hanbury Williams MSS, 73:255 (E. Digby, 11 Nov. 1748). 2. AVR sa, S.Andrea delle Fratte. 3. See Lewis 1961, 145 - 7 (where mistaken for Hayes St Leger). 4. Charlemont MSS,
12.r.21. 5. Wal.Corr., 20:55, 77. 6. Ibid., 64. 7. G.A. Bellamy, An Apology for life of..., [2nd ed.], 1:137, 2:66.
C. O'C.