The Wynns, who traced their ancestry to the twelfth century Prince Owain Gwynedd, originally settled in Eifionydd, but in the reign of Henry VII they moved to Gwydir, on the eastern slopes of Snowdon, where they built a stone manor house and rapidly expanded their estates.
As a second son, Richard Wynn was expected to support himself, and in 1607, while he was studying at Lincoln’s Inn, his father was advised that he had grown into ‘a very handsome and honest gentleman’ and should seek preferment at Court. He joined the household of the lord chamberlain, Thomas, 1st earl of Suffolk, and quickly rendered himself useful to his father by handling purchases of Crown lands and procuring grants of local office for allies of the Gwydir interest.
In 1615 Wynn’s elder brother, the apple of his father’s eye, died in Italy. While Wynn now stood to inherit, he resented the fact that his father was less indulgent towards him, as became clear during four years of negotiations for his marriage. The first prospect, a daughter of Sir Richard Molyneux I*, was far too young, but after his brother’s death Wynn came under pressure to make a swift match. Sir John held that ‘a Welsh woman is fittest for this country’, but conceded that ‘you shall be welcome where so you make suit’, while hinting that ‘a good woman is as soon found having a great estate as a small’. He was subsequently alarmed by reports that Wynn was courting one of the countess of Suffolk’s gentlewomen: ‘deal plainly with me as you respect my favour’. Wynn angrily denied these rumours, but asked that he might have ‘some time to settle my mind to that course of life’. Sir John, however, approached Sir Thomas Myddelton I*, Sir Edward Lewis, Sir John Trevor I* and Sir Henry Bayntun*, but broke off with the last two because they offered inadequate dowries. This upset Wynn, who noted gossip among London Welshmen ‘that you would sell me in the market for who gave most’; yet he in turn rejected Myddelton’s daughter as socially inferior, and Lady Suffolk’s niece as temperamentally unsuitable.
When another Parliament was summoned in November 1620, Wynn, by then a member of Prince Charles’s Household, proposed to seek re-election for Caernarvonshire. He first approached (Sir) William Jones I, who declined to stand and offered his ‘goodwill and assent’. He then urged his father to ascertain whether Sir William Maurice* wished to represent the shire again, in which case he proposed to settle for the borough seat. Maurice, almost 80 years old, had no such ambition, but Wynn quickly learned that another London Welshman, John Griffith III*, a member of the Llŷn faction, proposed to stand against him. While their supporters canvassed energetically in the provinces, the rival candidates jockeyed for advantage in the metropolis: Wynn’s letters to Wales were intercepted; while both sides lobbied lord chancellor St. Alban (Sir Francis Bacon*) for custody of the writ, in order to gain control of the timing and venue of the election. John Williams, dean of Westminster (a family friend) assured Sir John Wynn that his son ‘hath omitted no understanding course beseeming a gentleman of his rank (whom tricks and gambles do no way become) in the managing of this business’. However, amid the tumult Wynn forgot to countermand earlier arrangements to excuse his brother-in-law, Sir John Bodvel, from nomination as sheriff, an appointment which went instead to a supporter of the Llŷn faction; Wynn could only delay the appointment, ensuring that the election was supervised by the outgoing sheriff, Robert Wynn of Glascoed, whom he believed would be impartial.
At the election on 27 Dec. panic among Wynn’s supporters led to the abandonment of his candidacy altogether, but by then, clearly contemplating defeat, he had made overtures to Prince Charles for a borough seat. Duchy of Cornwall patronage had already been settled, but the enfranchisement of several boroughs at the start of the session gave Wynn fresh hopes. At the end of March 1621 he approached Sir Thomas Wentworth* for a nomination at Pontefract.
While the Caernarvonshire fiasco provoked several acrimonious exchanges between Wynn and his father, relations improved after the Ilchester election. In a newsletter, Wynn discussed the impeachment proceedings against Bacon and Sir John Bennet*, and foreign affairs:
The king and queen of Bohemia are now come into the Low Countries where they mean to abide until the king mediate their business for the restoration of the Palatinate (which I fear will not be in haste) ... the princes of the Union have all made their peace with the emperor. The States since their truce was out have as yet done nothing.
Wynn left little trace on the parliamentary record, being named to a single committee, preparing for a conference with the Lords about the Sabbath bill and the bill to restrict the use of writs of certiorari. (24 May). Moreover, while he assisted his father’s plans to bring a lawsuit against the Llŷn faction for its conduct at the Caernarvonshire election, the action was largely promoted by his brother Owen.
Wynn’s inactivity in the Commons belies an active interest in foreign policy, which was clearly revealed in his correspondence. In June 1621 he was troubled by the abrupt adjournment of the session, ‘without the effecting of any of our business’, although he believed the king regretted this decision. He also feared that the Protestant cause was suffering from English inattention: ‘our religion was never so like to be banished out of France ... All the princes of Christendom are arming. Yet we are not moved with all this. I pray God keep us, for we were never in more need of his help’. The recall of Parliament in November raised his hopes for action over the Palatinate, which he believed ‘will be either won or lost this winter, for there’s no hope of recovery of it by mediation’.
Prince Charles’s departure for Spain early in 1623 placed Wynn in a quandary, as in March he had what he described as the ‘ill fortune’ to be among those sent to join his master in Madrid. He left an account of his journey, which included many unflattering references to his hosts and their religious practices, among them a preacher who not only denounced the Church of England for denying the real presence, but also assured his flock that Charles had come to Spain to convert to Catholicism. His obvious distaste for Spanish hospitality led the duke of Buckingham to give him permission to return home early.
Wynn’s behaviour might have harmed his prospects at Court, but for the fact that Charles and the favourite had come to share his distrust of Spain by the time of their return in October. The duke indicated his respects by procuring a knighthood for Wynn’s nephew Thomas Mostyn, and Wynn was once again returned for Ilchester at the election which followed in the New Year. He enthusiastically promoted the return of various relatives for Welsh constituencies, and at the outset of the session he excitedly informed his father
I know you expect no other news now, but such as is in agitation in Parliament, which is enough to fill this and other kingdoms. The king has commended both Houses to take into consideration whether they think fit for His Majesty to hold on to both the treaties of the Palatinate and the Match, which upon long debate they resolved to break both ... I sent you here ... the relation made by the prince and the duke of Buckingham upon which they grounded their debate, out of the notes I took.
NLW, 9058E/1071 [redated to 1623/4]; 9059E/1165, 1177, 1185, 1187, 1190.
He subsequently recorded James’s acceptance of a grant of three subsidies and three fifteenths in return for the repudiation of the Spanish Match, and the public celebrations which followed, although he cautiously noted that ‘this is the beginning, and I pray God the end give us just cause of rejoicing’. The Commons probed the king’s commitment to anti-Catholic policies after the Easter recess, when Wynn was one of those ordered to confer with the Lords about a joint petition for the removal of recusant officeholders (3 April).
Wynn was also involved with Welsh affairs during the 1624 session, being named to the committee for the bill to repeal the clause of the 1536 Act of Union ‘for the making of what law the king pleased for the governance of Wales’ (6 Mar.), the success of which he later noted with approval. He also welcomed the passage of the Welsh cottons bill, an abstract of which was sent to Gwydir, and considered that these two measures, together with the bill forbidding the import of Irish cattle, comprised ‘as much as we could desire at this time’.
Charles’s accession as king in March 1625 improved Wynn’s prospects at Court, and he accompanied his master to Dover to meet the latter’s French bride, Henrietta Maria. Hopes of preferment made Wynn particularly keen to procure a seat in the Parliament which followed in June, and when Williams’s patronage failed to secure him a seat, he turned to Phelips once more. Wynn left no trace upon the records of the Commons’ debates and, with his brother Henry* providing a weekly digest of parliamentary news, he had no need to correspond with his father about the session. The plague drove him and his brother out of London in early July, but they attended the Oxford sitting, sharing lodgings with Darcy and Tomkins. On 15 Aug. he reported that the session was ‘now dissolved for refusing to give’, despite which he noted that ‘the fleet goes forth ... with a resolution to invade some part of the king of Spain’s dominions. I pray God bless their success’.
Wynn’s standing at Court rose further at the Coronation in February 1626, when he and Sir George Goring* carried the robes of state. However, he apparently chose not to stand for Parliament in 1626: Williams’s dismissal in November 1625 had deprived him of his chief patron, and a fresh resort to Phelips for electoral patronage was unlikely to recommend him to Buckingham. Wynn may now have been regarded as a threat by the latter, for although King Charles had apparently promised him the receivership of the queen’s revenues, his appointment was blocked, presumably by the favourite. In May 1626, at the height of the duke’s impeachment proceedings, Wynn confessed his relief that he was not in the Commons, ‘considering how dangerous ways they now run, things being come to that height between the king and them’.
In March 1629 Wynn was finally appointed receiver-general to the queen, a lucrative position he held for the rest of his life. A Middlesex resident, his detachment from Welsh politics was underlined in 1640, when John Griffith, his old rival’s son, canvassed him for the Caernarvonshire seat. He wryly commented that ‘for these twenty years I had reason to believe I was no freeholder there, for my voice (it seems) was not worth the desiring’.