Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Saint-George, Richard
SAINT-GEORGE, Sir RICHARD (d. 1635), Clarenceux king-of-arms, belonged to an ancient family which traced its descent from Baldwin Saint-George, who is said to have fought at Hastings under the banner of William the Conqueror. He was the second son of Thomas Saint-George of Hatley Saint-George, Cambridgeshire, by Rose, daughter of Thomas Hutton of Dry Drayton in that county. He was appointed Berwick pursuivant-extraordinary in 1602; afterwards he held for a brief period the office of Windsor herald, and in 1603 he was created Norroy king-of-arms in succession to Sir William Segar [q. v.] During his tenure of the latter office he held heraldic visitations in the counties of Derby, York, Chester, Lancaster, Stafford, Cumberland, Durham, Northumberland, and Westmorland. He was knighted at Hampton Court, 28 Sept. 1616 (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 168; Addit. MS. 32102, f. 179 b). He obtained a patent on 17 Sept. 1623 for the post of Clarenceux king-of-arms, and was created at Arundel House on 23 Dec. following, in succession to William Camden [q. v.] Subsequently he received a commission, jointly with Sir John Borough, Norroy king-of-arms, to institute visitations in any part of England. They accordingly visited, either personally or by deputies, London, Sussex, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Middlesex, and Rutland. Saint-George died on 17 May 1635, and was buried in the chancel of St. Andrew's Church, Holborn.
He married, in 1575, Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Saint John of Lidiard-Tregoz, ancestor of the Viscounts Saint John and Bolingbroke [see under Saint-John, Oliver, first Earl of Bolingbroke]. By her he had issue William and John, who were both slain in Ireland; Sir Henry Saint-George [q. v.], Garter king-of-arms; and Sir George Saint-George, who settled at Carrick-Drumrusk, co. Leitrim.
He was the friend and companion of Sir Robert Cotton, Spelman, Camden, Weever, and other eminent antiquaries. His ‘Collectanea Historica et Genealogica,’ written in 1606, are in Addit. MS. 10108, and three other volumes of similar collections by him are in the Landsdowne MSS. 861, 862, 863. He also compiled ‘Pedigrees, Evidences, and other Matters relating to Nottinghamshire’ (Lansdowne MS. 871). Transcripts of many of the visitations held by him are also in the British Museum, and the following have been printed: Durham (1615), printed at Sunderland [1816?]; Westmoreland (1615), London, 1853, 8vo; Lancashire (1613), edited by F. R. Raines for the Chetham Society, 1871; Cumberland (1615), edited by J. Fetherston for the Harleian Society, 1872; Yorkshire (1612), edited by Joseph Foster, 1875; Northumberland (1615), edited by G. W. Marshall, London, 1878, 8vo; Hertfordshire (1634), edited by Walter C. Metcalfe for the Harleian Society, 1886.
In the British Museum there is a copy of Guillim's ‘Display of Heraldrie,’ 1638, with manuscript additions by Saint George.
[Burke's Landed Gentry (1868), p. 1319; Howard's Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, new ser. iii. 78; Le Neve's Pedigrees of Knights, p. 223; Noble's College of Arms; West's Symboleography, part ii. (1627), p. 334.]