Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth

Last updated

 Family tree summary for the Thynnes of Longleat from about 1500 [2]
The Viscount Weymouth
Weymouthlord.jpg
President of the Board of Trade
In office
8 January 1702 1705
Ralph Botevile [3]
Thomas Thynne [3] William Thynne [3] [4]
d.1546
John Thynne of Longleat [5]
c.1515–1580
Francis Thynne [4]
c.1544–1608
John Thynneof Longleat [6]
1555–1604
Charles Thynne [7]
c.1568–1652
Thomas Thynne of Longleat [8]
c.1578–1639
Baronet of Caus Castle, of Kempsford in the County of Gloucester, 1641
James of Longleat [9]
1605–1670
Thomas of Richmond [10]
d.1669
Henry Frederick Thynne
1615–1680
1st Baronet of Kempsford
Baron Thynne, 1680
Viscount Weymouth, 1682
Thomas of Longleat, [11]
1648–1682
Thomas Thynne [12]
1640–1714
inherited Longleat, 1682
1st Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
2nd Baronet of Kempsford
James Thynne of Buckland
d.1709
Henry Thynne Frederick
d.1705
unmarried
Henry Thynne [13]
1675–1708
Thomas Thynne d.1710
two daughters but no sons
Thomas Thynne [14]
1710–1751
2nd Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
3rd Baronet of Kempsford
Marquess of Bath, 1789 Baron Carteret (2nd creation), 1784
Thomas Thynne [15]
1734–1796
1st Marquess of Bath,
3rd Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
4th Baronet of Kempsford
Henry Carteret [16]
1735–1826
1st Baron Carteret
Thomas Thynne [17]
1765–1837
2nd Marquess of Bath,
4th Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
5th Baronet of Kempsford
George Thynne
1770–1838
2nd Baron Carteret
John Thynne
1772–1849
3rd Baron Carteret
Baron Carteret extinct, 1849
Henry Thynne
[18]
1797–1837
3rd Marquess of Bath,
5th Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
6th Baronet of Kempsford
Edward Thynne
1807–1884
Lady Charlotte Anne Thynne
1811–1895
marr.: Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, Duke of Buccleuch and had issue.
John Thynne [19]
1831–1896
4th Marquess of Bath,
6th Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
7th Baronet of Kempsford
Henry Thynne
1832–1904
Thomas Thynne
1862–1946
5th Marquess of Bath,
7th Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
8th Baronet of Kempsford
Ulric Oliver Thynne
1871–1957
Henry Thynne
1905–1992
6th Marquess of Bath,
8th Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
9th Baronet of Kempsford
Thomas Timothy Thynne
1929–1930
Alexander George Thynn
1930–2020
7th Marquess of Bath,
9th Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
10th Baronet of Kempsford
Christopher John Thynne
1934–2017
Valentine Charles Thynne
1937–1979
Ceawlin Thynn
b.1974
8th Marquess of Bath,
10th Viscount Weymouth and Baron Thynne,
11th Baronet of Kempsford
Lucien Henry Valentine Thynne
b.1965
John Alexander Ladi Thynn
b.2014
styled Viscount Weymouth

    Longleat House and the Thynnes

    A View of Longleat, Jan Siberechts, 1675 Siberechts-ViewovLongleat.jpg
    A View of Longleat, Jan Siberechts, 1675

    Longleat was purchased by Sir John Thynn in 1541. He was the first of the Thynne 'dynasty' - the family name was Thynn or Thynne in the 16th century, later Thynne only, but Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, who died in 2020, reverted to the spelling Thynn in the 1980s so that it would be clear how to pronounce it. "Obituary: The Marquess of Bath". BBC News. 2020. He also changed his surname to Thynn, which was the historical spelling of his family name. He did so in order to stop the drift in its pronunciation and to ensure people knew it rhymed with 'pin' instead of 'pine'.

    Sir John Thynne (1515–1580) purchased Longleat which was previously an Augustinian priory. He was a builder with experience gained from working on Syon House, Bedwyn Broil and Somerset House. In April 1567 the original house caught fire and burnt down. A replacement house was effectively completed by 1580. Adrian Gaunt, Alan Maynard, Robert Smythson, the Earl of Hertford and Humpfrey Lovell all contributed to the new building but most of the design was Sir John's work.

    Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth (1640–1714) started the house's large book collection. Formal gardens, canals, fountains and parterres were created by George London with sculptures by Arnold Quellin and Chevalier David. The Best Gallery, Long Gallery, Old Library and Chapel were all added due to Wren. What changed most of all, were the general surroundings to the house, for Thomas was impassioned by the idea of gardens, and inspired in particular by Versailles. He employed George London to lay out a vast complex of ornate terraced flower beds, with symmetrical paths and avenues, to furnish Longleat with a decorative environment, which stretched for the most part eastwards, across the leat (having diverted 'the long lete' with a canal), and on up into what is now the safari park. The whole family, when gathered, took much delight in the home-grown fruit to be harvested at Longleat.

    The house is still used as the private residence of the Thynn family. The Viscountcy of Weymouth has been held by the Marquesses of Bath since 18 Jun 1789. Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath (1932–2020) was an artist and mural painter with a penchant for mazes and labyrinths (he created the hedge maze, the love labyrinth, the sun maze, the lunar labyrinth and King Arthur's maze on the property).

    Bishop Ken, lodger

    Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, when deprived of his see by William and Mary in 1691 after he refused to transfer his oath of allegiance from James, on the grounds that once given, it could not be forsworn, was given lodgings at Longleat and an £80 annuity by the 1st Viscount Weymouth, a friend since Oxford days.

    Taking up residence on the top floor at Longleat for a period of some twenty years, he exerted a profound influence upon Thomas, becoming what some might describe as his conscience. Thomas thus acquired a reputation for good deeds, which he himself regarded as spontaneous enough, but which the friends of his youth were inclined to regard as having been inspired by his devout friend, the Bishop. And as an example of such benevolence, somewhere between the two of them, they founded the Lord Weymouth School, now Warminster School. Notable too is the fact that a portion of the West Wing was transformed into a chapel for the household's daily worship. Not that its interior ever matched the architectural finery of equivalent chapels in other stately homes, but it was in any case evidence of the devout spirit which prevailed at Longleat over that particular historical period.

    While living in the house, Bishop Ken wrote many of his famous hymns, including 'Awake my soul', and, when he died in 1711, bequeathed his extensive library to the 1st Viscount.

    Irish estates

    Thomas Thynne gained land in Northern Ireland following the division of land in 1692 which came out of an agreement between the heirs of the two daughters of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. Earl Ferrers, the grandson of Lady Dorothy inherited her share, and Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth succeeded to the inheritance of Lady Frances Devereux, the Earl's elder daughter, later Marchioness of Hertford and Duchess of Somerset. This division was uneven, and in Lord Weymouth's favour. Lord Weymouth, however, behaved generously in order to rectify this injustice to Ferrers.

    In his "Longleat: the Story of an English Country House" (London, 1978), David Burnett records (somewhat improbably, but on the evidence of the Bath estate archive): '... In 1694 a Polish baron had written to Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth asking if he could lease 4,000 acres (16 km2) and the Irish estate town of Carrickmacross in order to settle 200 Protestant families from Silesia. Thomas consented, but the agreement was cancelled when the baron announced his intention to demolish the town and rebuild it in the Polish style."

    Thomas Thynne sent his Irish agent instructions for building the Viscount Weymouth Grammar School, Carrickmacross. "I intend the school house shall be slated and made a convenient house, which will draw scholars and benefit the town; therefore the timber must be oak." But Thomas was an absentee landlord, and ten years elapsed before he discovered that his agent has embezzled the building fund and repaired an existing building. The school was eventually built, and its syllabus included "Oratory, Virtue, Surveying [and] Antiquities". The stern language of its ninth statute stated: "The master shall make diligent enquiry after such as shall break, cut or deface or anywise abuse the desks, forms, walls or windows of this school, and shall always inflict open punishment on all such offenders". Unlike Warminster School this school closed in 1955.

    The 1st Viscount Weymouth died in 1714, without surviving male issue, and bequeathed his estates to his grand-nephew, also named Thomas Thynne, and ancestor of the Marquesses of Bath. Robert Shirley, 1st Earl Ferrers died in 1717, his estate, by agreement, devolving in equal parts to his four sons: Robert, George, Sewallis and John Shirley. Of these, only George survived and, as the others had died without issue, the whole estate passed to him. He was the grandfather of the Shirley brothers, Horatio Henry and Evelyn Philip, the 19th-century owners of the western moiety of Farney. The Shirleys were absentees, spending most of their time at Ettington in Warwickshire. In c.1750, they built a house near Carrickmacross for their occasional visits. It was not until 1826 that Robert's grandson, Evelyn John Shirley, laid the foundations of a mansion worthy of the family and estate near the banks of Lough Fea.

    Family

    Thynne married before 1672 Frances Finch, daughter of Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea, and they had:

    However, none of the children outlived their parents.

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    References

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    2. Burke, Sir Bernard, (1938 ed) Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Shaw, London. p. 243
    3. 1 2 3 Woodfall, H. (1768). The Peerage of England; Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of All the Peers of that Kingdom Etc. Fourth Edition, Carefully Corrected, and Continued to the Present Time, Volume 6. p. 258.
    4. 1 2 Lee, Sidney; Edwards, A. S. G. (revised) (2004). "Thynne, William (d. 1546)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27426.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
    5. Girouard, Mark, Thynne, Sir John (1515–1580), estate manager and builder of Longleat in Oxford Dictionary of Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004)
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    Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

    Parliament of England
    Preceded by Member of Parliament for Oxford University
    1674–1679
    With: Laurence Hyde
    Succeeded by
    Preceded by Member of Parliament for Tamworth
    1679–1681
    With: John Swinfen 1679, 1681–1685
    Sir Andrew Hacket 1679–1681
    Succeeded by
    Political offices
    Preceded by President of the Board of Trade
    1702–1707
    Succeeded by
    Honorary titles
    Preceded by High Steward of Sutton Coldfield
    1679–1714
    Succeeded by
    Preceded by Custos Rotulorum of Wiltshire
    1683–1688
    Succeeded by
    Preceded by Custos Rotulorum of Wiltshire
    1690–1706
    Succeeded by
    Preceded by Custos Rotulorum of Wiltshire
    1711–1714
    Succeeded by
    Peerage of England
    New creation Viscount Weymouth
    1682–1714
    Succeeded by
    Baron Thynne
    1680–1714
    Baronetage of England
    Preceded by Baronet
    (of Cause Castle)
    1680–1714
    Succeeded by