- Henry Penruddocke Wyndham
Henry Penruddocke Wyndham (1736 – 1819) MP JP FSA FRS, was a British Whig
Member of Parliament , topographer and author.Background
Wyndham was born on 4 June 1736, the eldest surviving son of Henry Wyndham of
St Edmund's College, Salisbury , and his wife Arundel Penruddocke, daughter of Thomas Penruddocke ofCompton Chamberlayne .Colonel Wadham Wyndham was his younger brother and the distinguished judgeSir Wadham Wyndham was his great-grandfather.He was educated at Eton and
Wadham College, Oxford , and was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 6 February 1777 and a fellow of theRoyal Society on 9 January 1783.Politics
The
Wyndhams of the College held great influence inSalisbury and he was elected a freeman of the city on 15 March 1761, was mayor of Salisbury in 1770–1, andHigh Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1772. In 1794 he commanded a troop of cavalry raised in Salisbury.In 1795 he was elected
Member of Parliament (MP) for Wiltshire. He sat as a whig in the family tradition, but rarely attended the House of Commons. He retired from politics in 1812. The whig statesman,William Windham andPrime Minister William Wyndham Grenville , 1st Baron Grenville, were his third cousins.Publications
By inclination he was more of a topographer than a politician. In 1774 he visited
Wales , and in he following year he published anonymously "A Gentleman's Tour through Monmouthshire and Wales". He revisited the area in 1777, and in 1781 published his "Tour through Monmouthshire and Wales", declaring authorship of the work. He was accompanied on his journey of 1777 by the Swiss watercolouristSamuel Hieronymus Grimm , whose works illustrated the account.He was keen to produce a county history of
Wiltshire and published "Wiltshire, Extracted from the Domesday Book" with a translation of the Latin into English in 1788 which he hoped might stimulate such a work. His most celebrated publication remains his "Diary of the LateGeorge Bubb Dodington " in 1784, a rich source of information about politics in the first half of the 18th century.Friendship with Turner
Like his cousin
George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont , Pen Wyndham was an admirer of the painter Turner who stayed with him at the College on several occasions in the late 18th century. Two paintings of the College landscape made by Turner during his visits of 1798 and c1800 are now preserved in the British Museum.Family life
He married Caroline, daughter and heir of Edmund Hearst, on 18 October 1768 and they had five sons and two daughters. He died on 3 May 1819 and was buried in the Wyndham family vault in
St Edmund's Church, Salisbury . He was succeeded by his eldest son, Wadham Wyndham, MP for Salisbury. His sister, Laetitia, marriedSir William à Court, 1st Baronet .References
* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004.
* Wyndham, the Hon H A, "A Family History, The Wyndhams of Somerset, Sussex and Wiltshire", 1950.External links
* [http://holmesacourt.org/d8/i0002126.htm#i2126 Holmes à Court Family Website.]
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=41963&strquery=henry%20penruddocke%20wyndham Victoria County History.]
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