Baron St John of Basing

The family of St John of Basing in Hampshire and of Halnaker in Sussex was descended in the male line from the Norman Hugh de Port (d.1091) lord of the manor of Port-en-Bessin in Normandy who took part in the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, and was subsequently granted 53 manors in Hampshire.

Following his decease his son was never summoned nor was his grandson, Edmund de St John, 3rd Baron St John (1333-1347) of Basing, who died in Calais aged 14 a few days after the Siege of Calais.

At the death of Thomas Poynings, 5th Baron St John in 1428/9, the barony fell into abeyance again among his grand-daughters and their heirs.

He was later created Earl of Wiltshire and Marquess of Winchester, into which titles the new barony merged.

[4] By Writ of Summons dated 29 December 1299, 28 Edward I: An unsuccessful claim to the barony was made by Francis William Forester in 1914–15, the St John Peerage Case [1915] AC 282.