Family and Education

b. c.1630, 1st s. of William Wynne of Melai by Barbara, da. of Evan Lloyd of Dulassau, Penmachno, Caern.; bro. of Owen Wynne. educ. Overton g.s. Flints.; St. John’s, Camb. 1649. m. 16 Apr. 1651, Dorothy, da. of Owen Salusbury of Rûg, Merion., 1s. 2da. suc. fa. 1643.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Denbigh 1653, common councilman 1676-d., ‘alderman’ 1678-9; commr. for assessment Denb. 1657, Aug. 1660-80, militia, N. Wales Mar. 1660; j.p. Denb. Mar. 1660-Apr. 1688, Oct. 1688-d., dep. lt. 1661-Feb. 1688, Oct. 1688-d.; steward, lordship of Denbigh 1678-85; commr. for encroachments, Denb. 1684.2

Biography

Wynne’s ancestors had resided at Melai since the second half of the 14th century, but none had previously entered Parliament. His father ‘strenuously asserted the cause of the King against rebellious subjects, with two regiments of horse and foot, which he raised at his own cost’, until he was killed in action at Wem. Wynne was proposed for the order of the Royal Oak at the Restoration, with an estate valued at £600. But he would not have entered Parliament as knight of the shire, probably unopposed, had not Sir Thomas Myddleton, 2nd Bt. been under age when the vacancy occurred in 1663-4. From his correspondence with his kinsman Sir Richard Wynn he seems to have attended the Cavalier Parliament regularly, though he was named as a defaulter on a call of the House in 1668. As a committeeman, he was less than moderately active, with under 50 committees, none of them of outstanding political importance. Either he or Henry Wynn was appointed to the committee on the bill for regulating juries in 1670. By 1675 he had been granted an excise pension of £200 p.a. In May he was among those appointed to consider the explanatory bill against the growth of Popery sent down from the Lords, while in the autumn session he helped to draw up the address for wearing English manufactures. His name appears on the working lists and on the list of court supporters drawn up by Sir Richard Wiseman. In 1677 he was among those ordered to consider an explanatory bill about the import of Irish cattle, and he acted as teller against the bill for the better repair of churches. Shaftesbury marked him ‘doubly vile’, and he appears on both lists of the court party in 1678.3

At the general election Wynne stood down in Myddleton’s favour, and he was active in the Chirk Castle interest. He gave negative answers to the two first questions on the repeal of the Test Act and the Penal Laws, commenting that if he answered otherwise ‘he could not persuade ten men to vote with him’. He was removed from all his offices, and died on 25 Feb. 1689, aged 58, and was buried at Llanfair Talhaearn. His grandson sat for Denbigh Boroughs as a Tory from 1713 to 1715.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: A. M. Mimardière

Notes

• 1. J. E. Griffith, Peds. Anglesey and Caern Fams. 376.
• 2. J. Williams, Recs. of Denbigh, 134, 138, 142; Cal. Treas. Bks. v. 392; vii. 1073, 1132; viii. 177; CSP Dom. 1685, p. 47; 1689-90, p. 31.
• 3. Denb. Hist. Soc. Trans. v. 74, 76.
• 4. N. and Q. (ser. 4), v. 284; CSP Dom. 1680-1, pp. 476-7.