Christopher St Lawrence, 2nd Baron Howth

Christopher St Lawrence, 2nd Baron Howth ( died 1462 or 1465 ) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman. He was a key figure in fifteenth-century Irish politics, and one of the strongest supporters in Ireland of the House of York. His tomb can still be seen in the family chapel in St. Mary's Church, Howth.

He was the son of Christopher (or Stephen) St Lawrence, 1st Baron Howth, and his wife Eleanor, daughter of Sir Robert Holywood of Artane. As is often the case with Anglo-Irish titles, the date of creation of the title Baron Howth is difficult to determine, since a "lordship" or Irish feudal barony did not necessarily imply the creation of a peerage, nor the right to sit in the Irish House of Lords. It is generally thought that the Crown recognised the elder Christopher as a hereditary baron around 1425, but Elrington Ball suggests that it was the younger Christopher who was recognised as the first hereditary Baron Howth about 1461.

He succeeded to his father's estates and title in 1430, or according to some accounts in 1435, and did homage to the English Crown for his lands in 1437.

He was a man of strong and decided character, and from the start of his career showed a determination to assert his power over the peninsula of Howth, and to maintain all those rights and privileges which traditionally belonged to the St Lawrence family. When a twelve-foot grampus (Risso's Dolphin) was stranded at Howth the Crown claimed it as royal fish, a key royal prerogative, but Howth resisted, claiming that since time immemorial every grampus and porpoise found on the peninsula of Howth was the property of the Lord of Howth.

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