GLYNNE, Thomas (c.1596-1647), of Glynllifon, Llandwrog, Caern.

Glynne’s family had settled at Glynllifon, in the parish of Llandwrog, a few miles south of Caernarfon, by the mid-fourteenth century.32Griffith, Peds. Anglesey and Caern. Fams. 172; DWB (Glyn of Glynllifon); Roberts, ‘The Glynnes and the Wynns of Glynllifon’, 26. His father, Sir William Glynne, had been returned in 1593 for Anglesey, where he owned a small estate – at Llanfwrog, on the western side of the island – that he had inherited through his mother.33HP Commons 1558-1603, ‘William Glynne’; Griffith, Peds. Anglesey and Caern. Fams. 108; A.H. Dodd, Hist. of Caern. 76. Glynne entered Caernarfonshire’s fractious political community in the 1620s as an ally of John Griffith I* and the Llŷn faction – composed largely of the county’s southern and western gentry – in its defiance of the domineering Sir John Wynn† (the father of Sir Richard Wynn* and Henry Wynn*) and the Gwydir interest. Returned for Caernarvonshire to the 1624 and 1625 Parliaments, he made little impact at Westminster, and in 1626 he seems to have stepped aside voluntarily to allow Griffith to take his place.34HP Commons 1604-1629, ‘Caernarvonshire’; ‘Thomas Glynne’; A.H. Dodd, ‘Wales in the Parliaments of Charles I’, Trans. Hon. Soc. Cymmrodorion (1946), 18; J.G. Jones, ‘Caern. admininstration: the activities of the JPs, 1603-60’, WHR v. 136-7; J.K. Gruenfelder, ‘The Wynns of Gwydir and parliamentary elections in Wales, 1604-40’, WHR ix. 121, 127, 132-5. Glynne should not be confused with his kinsman and near neighbour, Thomas Glynne of Nantlle or ‘Nanley’.35Coventry Docquets, 360, 362; SR v. 157.

In the elections to the Short Parliament in the spring of 1640, Glynne was returned for Caernarvonshire, apparently without serious opposition.36Supra, ‘Caernarvonshire’. He does not appear to have received any appointments in the House, or made any recorded contribution to debate, and it is therefore not clear that he took his seat. The numerous references to ‘Mr Glyn’ or ‘Mr Glinne’ in the records of this Parliament’s proceedings probably relate exclusively to his younger brother John, who had been elected for the liberty of Westminster.37Supra, ‘John Glynne’. In the elections to the Long Parliament that autumn, Thomas stood for Caernarvonshire and for the borough of Caernarvon, but was defeated in both elections. The successful candidates for the two seats were John Griffith II and William Thomas – a son and ally respectively of John Griffith I – Glynne having evidently fallen out with the Griffiths since the 1620s. Glynne’s emergence in opposition to his erstwhile allies, the Griffiths, probably accounts in large part for the electoral backing he had received from his erstwhile rivals the Wynns of Gwydir. Glynne petitioned Parliament against Griffith’s return and – assisted by John, who had been re-elected for Westminster – seemed all set to secure a new election, it being ‘proved on Mr Thomas Glynne’s part that the greater show of voices was for him’. Indeed, by the spring of 1641 it was reported that the committee dealing with the disputed elections for Caernarvonshire and Caernarvon had voted to nullify both returns and was simply awaiting an opportunity to report its resolutions to the House. Yet Glynne succeeded in having this report delayed in the hope that the next sheriff of Caernarfonshire would be ‘on[e] of his forward friends ... he well knowing that without some such help ... he can hardly carry it in this county by voices’. With the appointment that autumn of an ally of the Griffiths as sheriff, Glynne seems to have conceded defeat with regard to both the county and borough seats.38Supra, ‘Caernarvon Boroughs’; ‘Caernarvonshire’; Procs. LP ii. 89, 159, 160, 668-70, 755-6; iv. 317, 357; Cal. Wynn Pprs. 271, 274; Gruenfelder, ‘The Wynns of Gwydir, 135-6, 137; A.H. Dodd, ‘Caern. elections to the Long Parliament’, BBCS xii. 44-8; ‘The Caern. election dispute of 1640-1 and its sequel’, BBCS xiv. 42-5.

Sir Thomas Salusbury* may well have been referring to Glynne and his circle in Caernarfonshire when he wrote in August 1642 that the county’s ‘puritans brag of a great party, as if they had some design for the Parliament’.39Cal. Wynn Pprs. 277-8; Dodd, ‘Caern. in the civil war’, 6. Four years later, in mid-1646, the parliamentarian commander Major-general Thomas Mytton* wrote to the Commons, relating how Glynne had opposed the Caernarfonshire commissioners of array in 1642, ‘until the then sheriff and commissioners brought forces and a piece of ordnance against the house of the said Mr Glynne, who being then without any hopes of relief was forced to yield up himself and his few arms’. Mytton further claimed that a royal warrant had then been issued for bringing Glynne and two other gentlemen (one of them, the father of Griffith Bodurda*) prisoners to Shrewsbury – the location of the royal court for much of September and October 1642 – but through the intercession of Archbishop John Williams they had been discharged upon security of £6,000 not to disturb the peace of the county.40Bodl. Tanner 59, f. 332.

Despite his defiance of the commissioners of array in 1642, Glynne had apparently gained their trust by the spring of 1644, when he received a royal commission as a colonel in the Caernarfonshire trained bands and began mustering forces on that authority – while reminding the commissioners of his ‘weak state of body’. In April of that year he was one 25 county gentry who petitioned the king to abate the burden of assessments for raising troops.41CCAM 1245; Cal. Lttrs. relating to N. Wales, 61-2; Cal. Wynn Pprs. 287; Dodd, ‘Caern. in the civil war’, 10, 13, 14. According to Mytton’s letter to the Commons, Glynne was forced to flee to Anglesey when the royalists retreated across north Wales to Caernarfon early in 1646, having been warned ‘of an intention to imprison him, he being styled by them the firebrand of the country [sic]’. Although continuing to suffer ‘all disgraces and oppressions’, wrote Mytton, ‘he had prepared the country and people of these parts [Caernarfonshire and Anglesey] for our reception, which they have accordingly performed with their cheerful assistance and all possible aid to be expected from them’.42Bodl. Tanner 59, f. 332.

Glynne’s ‘great power’ in the region, and his role in assisting Parliament’s forces to besiege Caernarfon and to negotiate its surrender in June 1646, were acknowledged not only by Mytton, but also in the parliamentarian press.43An Exact Relation of the Whole Proceedings of Gallant Col. Mitton (1646), 6 (E.340.1); The Taking of Carnarven (1646), 1, 4, 6 (E.340.17); A Bloody Fight at Black-Water in Ireland (1646), 2 (E.340.21); Phillips, Civil War in Wales, ii. 307, 309, 310. The Commons duly thanked Glynne for his ‘good and faithful service’; and on 20 June the two House appointed him the new governor of Caernarfon – a position procured for him, or so the army would allege in its charges against the Eleven Presbyterian Members in 1647, by his brother John.44CJ iv. 572a, 586a; LJ viii. 386b; A Particular Charge or Impeachment, in the Name of…Sir Thomas Fairfax (1647), 24 (E.397.17). In February 1647, Glynne joined Archbishop Williams and other Caernarfonshire gentlemen in a letter to the Commons, promising ‘ready and constant obedience’ to the orders of Parliament.45Bodl. Tanner 59, f. 782. John Glynne certainly used his influence as a member of the Committee for the Admiralty and Cinque Ports* (CACP) to secure his elder brother’s appointment on 30 June as vice-admiral for north Wales.46CJ iv. 593b; LJ viii. 398b. In his pamphlet of July 1647 rebutting the army’s charges against the Eleven Members, William Prynne* published a statement, purportedly by John Glynne, repeating and embellishing many of the claims made in Mytton’s letter to the Commons in 1646 and denying that Glynne had ever been a colonel in the king’s army.47[W. Prynne], A Full Vindication and Answer of the XI Accused Members (1647), 33 (E.398.17). Although Glynne retained his offices after his younger brother and other leading Presbyterians had been imprisoned or forced into exile in August 1647, he was reprimanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax* in December for abusing his authority as governor in levying excessive taxes and imprisoning defaulters.48Cal. Wynn Pprs. 303-4.

Glynne died at some point between 25 November 1647, when he wrote his will, and 30 December, when the CACP gave order for his replacement as vice-admiral of north Wales.49PROB11/206, f. 4v; LJ ix. 622b. In his will, he asked to be buried ‘in the vault of my own chapel at Llandwrog’. His monetary bequests totalled a mere £61.50PROB11/206, f. 4v. His son John died without male issue in 1686, whereupon Glynllifon passed by marriage to the Wynn family.