WYNN, Richard (1656-1719), of Bedwell Park, Herts. and Charterhouse Yard, Mdx.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1698 - 1700
1705 - 26 Oct. 1719

Family and Education

bap. 19 Mar. 1656, s. and h. of Richard Wynn, Haberdasher, of St. Lawrence Jewry, London, by w. Joyce.  educ. St. Paul’s; Christ’s, Camb. 1673; I. Temple 1676.  m. (1) 24 Aug. 1676, Dorothy, da. of George Weldon of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, 1da. d.v.p.; (2) 7 May 1696, Sarah, da. of Richard Young, merchant, of London, wid. of William Barrington, merchant, of London, 3s. (1 d.v.p.) ?3da. (?1 d.v.p.).  suc. fa. 1689.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Boston, 1695–d.2

?Commr. Greenwich Hosp. 1695.3

Biography

Wynn should not be confused with another Richard Wynn, also educated at the Inner Temple, who became a serjeant-at-law in June 1705, was knighted in April 1719 and who died in 1742, aged 90. Either man may have been the ‘Richard Wynn’ who made government loans of £1,000 in 1689 and £1,600 in 1690. The Member for Boston was certainly prosperous: by 1692 he had bought the manors of Folkingham and Threckingham in Lincolnshire from Edward Clinton, 5th Earl of Lincoln, for £24,491, and held a mortgage for £12,200 on some of the Earl’s other properties. His estates in the county, and the fact that his sister had married Sir William Massingberd, 2nd Bt., of Bratoft Hall, head of one of the leading Tory families in Lincolnshire, explain his interest in standing for Boston. Furthermore, his admission as a freeman a few days before the 1695 election suggests that he may at that point have considered contesting the seat. But it was not until 1698 that he was returned for Boston. He was shortly afterwards classed as a member of the Country party and was forecast in October as likely to oppose a standing army. Early in 1700 he acted as a teller three times: on 10 Jan. against a proposed amendment to the bill for restoring Blackwell Hall to the clothiers; on 29 Feb. for a clause to prevent the export of English coin; and on 21 Mar. against a clause to be added to the bill for applying forfeited Irish estates to the public use. Wynn did not stand in either of the 1701 elections, but seems to have occupied himself with business affairs, such as the purchase of Bedwell Park.4

Queen Anne’s reign began well for Wynn, who was appointed a deputy-lieutenant for Lincolnshire in July 1702 and he may have been the ‘Richard Wynn’ appointed to the London lieutenancy commission in 1704, holding this position until at least 1716. He defeated Peregrine Bertie II* in the 1705 election for Boston, being afterwards classed as a ‘Churchman’ and his election noted as a ‘loss’ for the Whigs by Lord Sunderland (Charles, Lord Spencer*). Historians have incorrectly seen his vote against John Smith I in the contest for Speaker on 25 Oct. 1705 as an example of a placeman rebelling against the Court, a consequence, in fact, of his mis-identification as a Welsh judge (in error for Marmaduke Gwynne).5

Wynn appears to have taken little part, if any, in the 1705 Parliament. He was classed as a Tory in an analysis of the Union Parliament early in 1708, and after his re-election was appointed to a committee for drafting a bill for the repair of Boston church (11 Jan. 1709). He opposed the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell early in 1710. Returned for Boston again in 1710, Wynn was wrongly classed as a Whig in the ‘Hanover list’ of the new Parliament, but his name appeared on lists of ‘Tory patriots’ who opposed the war and of ‘worthy patriots’ who helped to detect the mismanagements of the previous administration. Apart from these party issues, Wynn’s significant actions in Parliament remained few and far between, an important exception being a bill for improving the supply of fresh water to Boston, a matter of considerable local interest, which he managed through all its stages. The presence by this time of two other Wynns in the House hampers identification of any other possible activity. In the same year a bill was passed, enabling him and his wife’s kinsman, John Barrington, to divide the manor of Cottingham, Yorkshire, between them. Wynn was again classed as a Tory in the Worsley list and two other lists analysing the 1713 and 1715 Parliaments.

After 1715 Wynn continued to represent Boston, dying on 26 Oct. 1719, the bulk of his estate passing o his eldest son, Richard.6

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Authors: Paula Watson / Sonya Wynne

Notes

  • 1. Clutterbuck, Herts. ii. 136; IGI, London; PCC 116 Ent, 224 Browning.
  • 2. Boston Corp. Mins. ed. Bailey, iv. 427.
  • 3. Add. 10120, ff. 232–6.
  • 4. J. H. Baker, Serjeants at Law, 205, 546; Cal. Treas. Bks. ix. 1979, 2005; HMC Lords, n.s. ii. 262; Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. li), 659; VCH Herts. iii. 460.
  • 5. CSP. Dom. 1702–3, p. 392; Bull. IHR, xxxvii. 25, 30, 42; W. R. Williams, Gt. Sess. Wales, 22.
  • 6. HMC Lords, n.s. x. 311–12; Hist. Reg. Chron. 1719, p. 40; PCC 224 Browning.