Family and Education

b. c.1642, 3rd s. of John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham, Som., and bro. of William Wyndham. educ.M. Temple, entered 1659; Wadham, Oxf. 1660. m. 2 June 1664, Frances, da. of John Codrington of Codrington, Glos., 1s. 2da.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Som. 1673-80, 1689-90, recusants 1675, j.p. 1676-Feb. 1688, Oct. 1688-d., lt.-col. of militia by 1679, col. Nov. 1688-d., dep. lt. 1679-87, Oct. 1688-d.; recorder and capital burgess, Wells 1683-Feb. 1688; commr. for rebels’ estates, Som. 1686.2

Biography

Wyndham’s mother brought him the chief seat of the Hoptons as the eldest of the four coheirs. He was noted with approval as ‘a stout man’ in the militia list of 1680, and appointed recorder of Wells under the new charter of 1683. He was returned for the borough to James II’s Parliament, in which he seems to have been totally inactive, apart from petitioning against the bill to relieve the Earl of Cleveland’s creditors. He gave negative answers on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws, and was removed from local office. In the unmannerly scene at the Bruton quarter sessions on 10 Jan. 1688, Wyndham was the most violent of the Tories, threatening to cut the sheriff’s throat for arresting the town clerk of Wells. Together with his son he joined the Prince of Orange at Exeter. Although no longer recorder, he was again returned for Wells at the general election, and according to Ailesbury’s list he voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant. No committee work can be definitely attributed to him. He obtained leave to go into the country on 10 May 1689, and again, for a month, on 30 Nov. His purpose was to court the eldest daughter of (Sir) Henry Pollexfen; but she preferred Sir Francis Drake, 3rd Bt., and on 16 Dec. Wyndham shot himself with a blunderbuss. His son Hopton Wyndham regained the seat for the family interest at the general election of 1690.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Irene Cassidy

Notes

• 1. H. A. Wyndham, Fam. Hist. i. 302; Society of Genealogists, St. Gregory by St. Paul’s par. reg.; Misc. Gen. et Her. n.s. iv. 392; Som. Wills, vi. 107.
• 2. Q. Sess. Recs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxiv), p. xxi; PC44/66/311-12; CSP Dom. 1679-80, pp. 62, 321; Cal. Treas. Bks. viii. 545; PC2/72/628.
• 3. HMC 7th Rep. 416; Collinson, Som. ii. 235; CJ, ix. 733, Luttrell, i. 612; Portledge Pprs. 66; R. Morrice, Entering Bk. 3, p. 55.