Background
He was born in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales, the son of Gelly John, a shoemaker.
He was born in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales, the son of Gelly John, a shoemaker.
He recorded that he received instruction from a local clergyman, eventually mastering the classics, and acquiring proficiency in French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic and Persian. Under the name of Julian Augustus Street John he went to London, where he obtained the post of deputy editor of Richard Carlile"s radical newspaper The Republican. In 1819, shortly after the Peterloo Massacre, Carlile was imprisoned and Saint John briefly took over his role as editors
He obtained a connection with a Plymouth-based newspaper, and when, in 1824, James Silk Buckingham started the Oriental Herald, Saint John became assistant editors
He lived for some years on the Continent and went in 1832 to Egypt and Nubia, travelling mostly on foot. The results of his journey were published under the titles Egypt and Mohammed Ali, or Travels in the Valley of the Nile (2 vols, 1834), Egypt and Nubia (1844), and Isis, an Egyptian Pilgrimage (2 vols, 1853).
On his return he settled in London, and for many years wrote political leaders for the Daily Telegraph and, under the pseudonym of Greville Booke, a column in the Sunday Times. In 1868 he published a of Sir Walter Raleigh, based on researches in the archives at Madrid and elsewhere.
He died in London in 1875.
All became journalists and authors of some literary distinction, particularly Bayle Saint John, who began contributing to periodicals when only thirteen, and went on to be a prolific travel writer and biographer. James had eight children in all. In addition to those named above are: Elizabeth Ann Street.John (1824 - ?) John (1829 - 1880) Helen Cornelia Street.John(1831 - 1858) Vane Ireton Shaftesbury Street.John (1838 - 1911).
As James John, his baptismal name, he became involved in radical politics. In 1827, together with Doctorate. L. Richardson, he founded the London Weekly Review, subsequently purchased by Colburn and transformed into the Court Journal.