Family and Education

b. c.1669, 2nd s. of Thomas, 1st Earl of Plymouth (d.1687), being 1st s. by 2nd w. Ursula, da. and coh. of Sir Thomas Widdrington of Cheeseburn Grange, Northumb.; bro. of Dixie Windsor^† m. 28 Aug. 1703, aged 33, Lady Charlotte Herbert (d. 17 Nov. 1733), da. of Philip, 7th Earl of Pembroke, wid. of John, 2nd Baron Jeffreys of Wem, 2s. (1 d.v.p.). cr. Visct. Windsor of Blackcastle [I] 19 June 1699, Baron Mountjoy of the Isle of Wight 1 Jan. 1712.

Offices Held

Page of honour 1685-Dec. 1688; groom of the bedchamber 1692-1702.1

Cornet, Lord Plymouth’s Horse (later 3 Dgn. Gds. 1685), capt. regt. of Sir John Fenwick 1687, lt.-col. regt. of Viscount Colchester ( Richard Savage) 1690-4; col. of horse 1694-7, 1702-7, 1711-12, 3 Dgn. Gds. 1712-17; brig. 1702; maj.-gen. 1704; lt.-gen. 1710.

Freeman, Worcester 1685; steward, manor of Reigate 1695-7.2

Biography

Windsor’s father, the second cousin of Sir William Hickman, changed his name on succeeding to the Windsor estates in 1641. A Royalist in the Civil War, he was second-in-command to Samuel Sandys I, and fought at Naseby, compounding at one-sixth for his delinquency with a fine of £1,100. At the Restoration the Windsor peerage was called out of abeyance in his favour, and he became lord lieutenant of Worcestershire, governor of Jamaica (1661-4), and master of the horse to the Duke of York. Windsor himself was given a post in the royal stables with a salary of £156 p.a. when the duke succeeded to the throne, and was returned for Droitwich a few months later at the age of 16 as a Tory. His absurdly juvenile appearance helped to keep Peter Legh in countenance, but Lord Willoughby (Robert Bertie II) wanted them both expelled the House as minors, and he took no part in its proceedings. On the Duke of Monmouth’s invasion he was commissioned cornet to his father, and continued as a successful soldier under all the succeeding sovereigns till after the Hanoverian succession. He did not return to the Commons till 1705, and seven years later he was one of the twelve peers created to secure a Tory majority in the Lords. He died on 8 June 1738 and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. His son had represented Cardiff as a Tory before succeeding to the peerage.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Edward Rowlands

Notes

• 1. Cal. Treas. Bks. ix. 1546; xvii. 979.
• 2. Worcester chamber order bk. 1679-1721, f. 128; Cal. Treas. Bks. x. 1069.
• 3. Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. li), 493-5; VCH Worcs. iii. 225; CSP Dom. 1685, p. 23; E. C. Legh, Lady Newton, House of Lyme, 331; Pol. State, x. 98.