WYNN, Henry (1601/2-1671), of Rhiwgoch, Trawsfynydd, Merion. and Figtree Court, the Inner Temple, London.

Wynn’s return for Merioneth in 1624 and 1625 owed much to his father-in-law’s influence in the county and to the accumulated political capital of his own formidable father, Sir John Wynne. Although Wynn left no trace on the records of either Parliament, he diligently attended the House and sent Sir John copies of major speeches and regular newsletters on affairs and issues at Westminster. His attempt to secure re-election for the county in 1626 was scuppered largely, it seems, by his determination to collect the parliamentary wages he was owed, which did not endear him to the Merioneth gentry. There is no evidence that he stood for election to the 1628 Parliament.26HP Commons 1604-29, ‘Henry Wynn’; J. K. Gruenfelder, ‘The Wynns of Gwydir and parliamentary elections in Wales, 1604-40’, WHR ix. 138.

Having been called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1629, Wynn built a thriving legal practice during the 1630s, with a healthy case-load in chancery for a client-base drawn mainly from north Wales.27NLW, Wynnstay mss, Ms 160; HP Commons 1604-29, ‘Henry Wynn’; Lloyd, ‘Welsh masters’, 162-7. It was probably through his elder brother Sir Richard – who was appointed receiver-general and treasurer to Queen Henrietta Maria in 1629 – that Henry became a business associate during the personal rule of the courtier and notable ‘projector’ George 1st Lord Goring† (the queen’s master of horse) and of his son, the future royalist general George Goring*.28Coventry Docquets, 179; C78/519/7; C78/1328/10; NLW, Wynnstay mss, K1/2. Sir Richard was almost certainly responsible for securing Wynn’s appointment in 1631 as deputy steward of the queen’s manor of West Ham, in Essex.29NLW, Wynnstay mss, K1/2; VCH Essex, vi. 68. Similarly, Wynn’s influential contacts at court would account for his appointment in 1637 as steward or judge of the court of the palace of Westminster and of the Marshalsea court. Established by Charles I in 1630, the palace court dealt with personal cases within 12 miles of Westminster that did not fall within the jurisdiction of the City or other liberties; the Marshalsea court administered justice between the king’s household servants within a 12 mile radius of the verge of the court.30Coventry Docquets, 201; Lloyd, ‘Welsh masters’, 167. Wynn had prospered sufficiently as a lawyer and royal servant by 1639 to lend the king £500 towards the cost of the first bishops’ war against the Scottish Covenanters.31CSP Dom. Add. 1625-49, p. 605; CSP Dom. 1640, p. 5. In January 1640, he was appointed solicitor general to the queen.32Les Reportes de Sir William Jones, 454; Lloyd, ‘Welsh masters’, 167.

Wynn was returned again for Merioneth in the elections to the Short Parliament in the spring of 1640.33Supra, ‘Merioneth’. He received only one appointment in the Commons – to the committee of privileges, on 16 April – and made two recorded contributions to debate, both relating to procedural and legal questions.34CJ ii. 4a; Aston’s Diary, 33, 59. He failed to retain his seat in the elections to the Long Parliament that autumn. He seems to have remained in good odour at court during the early 1640s, for in July 1641, his brother William, Wynn himself and another gentleman were granted the offices of prothonotary and clerk of the crown for Caernarfonshire, Anglesey and Merioneth ‘for their lives successively’.35SO3/12, f. 158; CSP Dom. Add. 1660-70, p. 238; Lloyd, ‘Welsh masters’, 168.

But any obligation that Wynn may have felt to the crown was not strong enough to prompt his active support for the king during the civil war. He seems to have resided at the Inner Temple or in Wimbledon, Surrey, for much of the 1640s, and in 1644 he was assessed at £1,000 – subsequently abated to £300 – by the Committee for Advance of Money.36NLW, Mss 467E/1739, 1761; Ms 9064E/1896; CCAM 372. Although elected a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1647, he declined to serve until after the Restoration.37CITR ii. 277, 334; Lloyd, ‘Welsh masters’, 168. Added to the Merioneth bench in July 1650, he was removed from the magistracy a few months after the fall of the Rump in 1653.38Justices of the Peace ed. Phillips, 50, 52.

Wynn was restored to most of his offices after 1660 and was rewarded with several more – most notably that of prothonotary and clerk of the crown for Caernarfonshire, Anglesey and Merioneth.39CSP Dom. 1664-5, p. 158; Lloyd, ‘Welsh masters’, 168-9. Returned for Merioneth to the Cavalier Parliament in 1661, he continued his undistinguished career as a Commons-man, receiving fewer than 30 committee appointments and making no recorded speeches on the floor of the House.40HP Commons 1660-90, ‘Henry Wynn’.

Wynn died on 27 July 1671 and was buried in the Temple Church two days later (29 July).41Jones, Wynn Fam. 212, n. 181; Regs. of Burials at the Temple Church 1628-1853, 20. No will is recorded. His only son, John, who had married the heiress of Watstay (later Wynnstay), Denbighshire, inherited the Gwydir baronetcy in 1674 and represented Merioneth, Caernarvon Boroughs and Caernarvonshire in numerous Parliaments between 1679 and 1710.42HP Commons 1660-90, ‘Sir John Wynn’; Lloyd, ‘Welsh masters’, 170.