WYNDHAM, Thomas I (c.1628-1713), of Tale, Payhembury, Devon and Greencloth Yard, Whitehall.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

17 Feb. 1673
Oct. 1679

Family and Education

b. c.1628, 3rd but 1st surv. s. of (Sir) Edmund Wyndham, and bro. of Sir Charles Wyndham and Sir Hugh Wyndham. m. (1) with £2,000, his cos. Elizabeth (d.1671), da. of Roger Warne of Hestercombe, Som., 2s. 1da., (2) bef. 14 July 1673, Winifred, da. of Gilbert Welles of Brambridge, Hants, 2s. suc. nephew Edmund in Kentsford estate 1698.1

Offices Held

Gent. usher 1649; equerry 1650, 1662-73; groom of the bedchamber 1673-85; sub-gov. R. Fisheries. 1677; commr. of the stables 1679-82.2

Commr. for assessment, Westminster 1663-4; freeman, Portsmouth 1675.3

Biography

Wyndham accompanied Charles II from Jersey to Scotland in 1650, and was captured after the battle of Worcester, but released on the intervention of Charles Fleetwood. Meanwhile his future wife, who was his first cousin and had been brought up by their grandmother, Lady Wyndham, at Trent, was attending on the royal fugitive. He is said to have been involved in Penruddock’s rising in 1655. After the Restoration, he served as equerry with a pension (when he could get it) of £200 p.a.4

On 1 Jan. 1673 the Duke of York wrote to Sir Thomas Bridges to ask for his interest on Wyndham’s behalf at Minehead, which had been represented by his brother Hugh till his death in 1671. He was duly returned, and became a moderately active Member of the Cavalier Parliament. Presumably there was a strong family likeness to his brother, because for several sessions the clerk wrote him down as ‘Sir Hugh’. His second marriage was to a maid of honour from a leading Roman Catholic family and of a yielding disposition. She became dresser to the Queen, and earned him promotion to groom of the bedchamber at a salary of £500 p.a. Wyndham was named to only 19 committees, but acted as teller in ten divisions. He was in favour of omitting the reference to ‘extraordinary occasions’ in the supply bill of 1675, and was included in the list of officials in Parliament. He appears to have been rather a simple-minded man; while he was in attendance on the King at Newmarket in the autumn of 1676, Secretary Williamson addressed the dispatch-boxes to him, eliciting the enthusiastic reply:

You cannot believe the advantage I have already received by the trust of conveying your papers; besides the looking as a man of business, it has gained me a more than ordinary respect, so that I do not despair in a short time to become somebody of consideration.

Perhaps his ambition was satisfied on the formation of the Royal Fishery in the following year, when he was nominated sub-governor to the Duke of York. He was marked ‘thrice vile’ by Shaftesbury in 1677, and appears as a government supporter on both lists of 1678. On 1 Feb. he presented a petition against the fraudulent letter of protection granted by Thomas Wancklyn. ‘Very kind and respectful’ towards Lauderdale at this time, he was teller for the Government on naval expenditure on 14 Feb. and in two divisions on the address for the removal of counsellors. On 17 June he acted as teller in favour of the ordnance accounts. Even in the last session, he could be relied on, opposing the inclusion of the Duchess of York’s maidservants in an anti-papal bill and the fourth article of Danby’s impeachment.5

It is not known whether Wyndham stood again at the general election, but he was returned to the second Exclusion Parliament for the government borough of Yarmouth. He was again moderately active, serving on the committees for the better regulation of elections, for the erection of a Middlesex court of conscience (which would have severely affected his father’s income as knight marshal), and for the discovery of bequests for superstitious uses. At the 1681 election his seat was required for a more important official, but he was again returned in 1685, although his court appointments seem to have lapsed with the new reign. He was inactive in James II’s Parliament, his only committee being for the disbandment accounts. On 16 June he was teller for the second reading of the Lindsey level bill, another family interest. He cannot have welcomed the Revolution, for he obtained a pass to France on 23 Feb. 1689. The date of his return is unknown, but after succeeding to Kentsford he was compelled to sell it, and retired to Homington, a Wiltshire estate which had belonged to his first wife. His mind gave way ‘through age and through the misfortunes that had ruined his estate and beggared his family’. He died in May 1713 and was buried at St. Decuman’s, aged 86. His grandson Thomas sat for Poole as a government supporter from 1732 to 1741.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Irene Cassidy

Notes

  • 1. PCC 151 Goare; Hutchins, Dorset, i. 668; Som. Wills, ii. 43; H. A. Wyndham, Fam. Hist. ii. 5; Survey of London, xvi. 186; Williamson Letters (Cam. Soc. n.s. viii), 104.
  • 2. Wyndham, i. 239; Cal. Treas. Bks. i. 450; vi. 2; CSP Dom. 1673, p. 591; 1679-80, p. 263.
  • 3. R. East, Portsmouth Recs. 361.
  • 4. S. E. Hoskins, Chas. II in the Channel Is. 315; Whitelock Mems. iii. 112; PCC 25 Coventry; CSP Dom. 1651-2, p. 551; 1661-2, p. 439; 1668-9, p. 55; 1676-7, p. 361; Eg. 3348, f. 17.
  • 5. Adm. 2/1746, f. 131; A. Hamilton, Mems. of Grammont, 217; CJ, ix. 340, 477, 479, 548, 562; Lauderdale Pprs. (Cam. Soc. n.s. xxxviii), 141; Grey, v. 48.
  • 6. CSP Dom. 1689-90, p. 7; Wyndham, ii. 5; Le Neve, Mon. Angl. 1700-15, p. 276.