ST JEAN D'ANGELY, a town of France, the chef-lieu of an arrondissement in the department of Charente-Infdrieure, on the right bank of the Boutonne (a right-hand affluent of the Charente) and on the railway from Taillebourg (12 miles south-west) to Niort (30 miles north). The town, which is badly planned and built, contains the remains of a Benedictine abbey, destroyed in 1568; the existing church corresponds to but a part of the large old abbey church erected in the 13th century. The harbour admits vessels of 30 to 40 tons burden, and wine and brandy are exported. The population was 6538 in 1881 (7279 in the commune).

St Jean owes its origin to a castle of the 7th century, which the dukes of Aquitaine used as a lodge for boar-hunting in tho neighbouring forest of Angeri. Pippin, son of Louis le Debonnaire, turned it into a monastery, where he deposited the head of John Baptist. This relic attracted hosts of pilgrims ; a town grew up, took the name St Jean d'Angeri, afterwards d'Angely, was fortified in 1131, and in 1204 received from Philip Augustus a communal charter. The possession of the place was disputed between French and English in the Hundred Years' War, and between Catholics and Protestants at a later date. Louis XIII. took it from the Protestants in 1629 and deprived it of its fortifications, its privileges, and its very name, which ho wished to change into Bourg-Louis.