Henry Watkin Williams-Wynn

Sir Henry Watkin Williams-Wynn, GCH, KCB (16 March 1783 – 28 March 1856) was a British diplomat.

Williams-Wynn was a son of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet and his second wife, Charlotte, the eldest daughter of George Grenville. He entered the Foreign Office as a clerk in January 1799, when his uncle, William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, was its head, and early in 1801, was appointed Grenville's private secretary and précis writer. From April 1803 to October 1806, he was envoy-extraordinary to Saxony, and his services were rewarded with a pension of £1500 a year. For a few months (January to April 1807) he sat in the Commons for Midhurst on the influence of Lord Carrington, whose daughter, Hester Frances Smith (died 5 March 1854), he married on 30 September 1813; the couple had three sons and three daughters. Wynn's political career came to nothing, however, and, with his family in opposition to the government, his diplomatic career also foundered. His family's alliance with Lord Liverpool eventually led to Wynn being made envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary to Switzerland in February 1822, an appointment sharply criticized in both Houses of Parliament. He was transferred to a like position at the court of Württemberg in February 1823. In September 1824, he was sent in a similar capacity to Denmark, and remained there until early in 1853. He was sworn of the Privy Council on 30 September 1825, made a GCH in 1831 and a KCB on 1 March 1851. He died on 28 March 1856 at Llanroida, Shropshire.

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