Henry St George, the younger


Henry St George, the younger, was an English Officer of arms. He was a younger son of the herald Henry St George.

Life

He was born in July 1625 in St Andrew's parish, Hertford. Nothing is known of his life before 1660. He was appointed Richmond Herald at the Restoration by patent dated 18 June 1660, some weeks before his elder brother Thomas was appointed a herald, and was consequently senior to him. As deputy to Sir Edward Walker, Garter Principal King of Arms, he went on a mission to Stockholm and on 29 July 1669 invested the king of Sweden with the Order of the Garter. He succeeded William Dugdale as Norroy King of Arms in 1677 and was knighted. He worked closely with Dugdale, for whom he acted as deputy when the latter was in Warwickshire. He was promoted to be Clarenceux King of Arms in 1680, after the death of Edward Bysshe. In the last years of Dugdale's life he was displaced as deputy by John Dugdale, which led him and his brother to quarrel with father and son. He was responsible for the visitation of twelve counties in his province between 1681 and 1700 and gave the profits of six as a contribution towards rebuilding the College of Arms, which had been burnt in the Great Fire. Following his elder brother's death, he was appointed Garter King of Arms in 1703. He died at the College of Arms on 12 August 1715 and was buried in St Benet Paul's Wharf, London, on 18 August. He married at an unknown date Elizabeth Wingfield, but had no children. His large collection of books and manuscripts was dispersed after his death, although a portion has since been acquired by the College of Arms. John Anstis, his successor as Garter, described St George as ‘a timorous animal, governed by every creature, minding only his iron chest and the contents of it’.

Arms