Thomas Wyndham (clergyman)

Last updated March 11, 2019

Thomas Wyndham BCL DCL (1772-1862), was a 19th-century English Doctor of Divinity and scion of one of the most influential families in the West Country of England.

Bachelor of Civil Law is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. The BCL originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but many universities now offer undergraduate law degrees under the same label. Reference to civil law was not originally in contradistinction to common law, but to canon law, although it is true that common law was not taught in the civil law faculties in either university until at least the second half of the 18th century. However, some universities in English-speaking countries use the degree in the former sense.

Doctor of Civil Law is a degree offered by some universities, such as the University of Oxford, instead of the more common Doctor of Laws (LLD) degrees.

West Country area of south-western England

The West Country is a loosely defined area of south-western England. The term usually encompasses the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, and often the counties of Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, in the South West region. The region is host to distinctive regional dialects and accents. Some definitions also include Herefordshire.

Early life and education

The Rev Dr Wyndham was the second son of William Wyndham of Dinton, Wiltshire, a lineal descendant of Sir John Wyndham and Sir Wadham Wyndham.^[1]

Philipps House is an early nineteenth-century Neo-Grecian country house at Dinton, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. The house was built in 1816 by William Wyndham to the designs of Sir Jeffry Wyatville, replacing a 17th-century house. In 1916 the estate was bought by Bertram Philipps, who renamed the house after himself, then in 1943 gave the house and grounds to the National Trust. The house and its parlkand are Grade II* listed.

Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km². It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. The county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the county town of Trowbridge.

Sir John Wyndham, JP, of Orchard Wyndham in the parish of Watchet in Somerset, was an English landowner who played an important role in the establishment of defence organisation in the West Country against the threat of Spanish invasion.

Like his namesake and first cousin Thomas Wyndham, he was educated at Sherborne and Wadham College, Oxford,^[2] the college founded by his ancestress Dorothy Wadham, thereby enabling members of the Wyndham family to claim Founders' kin. He matriculated on 12 March 1788, aged 16, obtaining his BCL in 1794 and DCL in 1809.

Thomas Wyndham (of Witham Friary) English Member of Parliament

Thomas Wyndham MP JP DL, of Witham Friary, Somerset, was MP for Wells, Somerset in 1685 and re-elected in 1689.

Sherborne School is an English independent boarding school for boys in the parish of the Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin at Sherborne, located in the town of Sherborne in Dorset. The school has remained in the same location for over 1200 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Aldhelm and, following the dissolution of the monasteries, re-founded in 1550 by King Edward VI, making it one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom. Sherborne was one of the founder member public schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in 1869, and is a member of the Eton Group.

Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road.

Ecclesiastical career

Dr Wyndham's preferment greatly benefitted from the patronage of his family connections, commencing in 1801 as vicar of Compton Chamberlayne, the living of which was held by his kinsman John Penruddocke. In 1806 he was made rector of Pimperne under the patronage of his kinsman Henry Portman, which he held until his death in 1862. In 1809 Dr Wyndham also became rector of Melcombe Regis in Dorset, a favourite holiday resort of King George III, which he held until 1859.^[3]

Compton Chamberlayne is a small village and civil parish in south Wiltshire, England, situated in the Nadder Valley approximately 7 miles (11 km) west of Salisbury. The River Nadder forms the northern border of the parish, and to the south are chalk hills. The parish is bisected by the A30 road. The village contains approximately 25 privately owned houses, a village hall, and a cricket pitch used by the Compton Chamberlayne Cricket Club.

John Hungerford Penruddocke was a Tory politician in the United Kingdom.

Pimperne is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England, situated on Cranborne Chase 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of the town of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the civil parish had 478 households and a population of 1109.

Steward of Sherborne

In 1791 The Rev Dr Wyndham was appointed Steward, along with Edward Phelips, of the Anniversary Meeting at Sherborne School. The event took place on 22 August, the celebrations comprising a series of public readings from both modern and classical poets beginning at noon, followed by an ordinary [i.e. lunch] at the Antelope Inn at three o'clock, and concluding with a ball at Sherborne Town Hall in the evening.^[4]

Edward Phelips (1725–1797) was an English country landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1780.

Family

In 1809 Dr Wyndham married Anne, the eldest daughter of ardent foxhunter^[5] Walter Stubbs of Beckbury, Shorpshire. They had one son, Thomas Wyndham, who in 1842 married Anne, daughter of Captain Thomas Penruddocke, thus further securing the connection between two of the West Country's leading gentry families.^[6]

Whether Dr Wyndham enjoyed fox hunting is not recorded, perhaps because at the time hunting was somewhat frowned upon in a clergyman, however by the 1820s he owned Beckbury Hall in Shropshire, and in 1837 acquired the surrounding estate and manor of Beckbury from the heirs of Sir John Astley. In 1850 he sold the Hall and 68 acres to his father-in-law Walter Stubbs, owner of the adjoining Lower Hall.^[7]

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Orchard Wyndham is a historic manor near Williton in Somerset, centred on the synonymous grade I listed manor house of Orchard Wyndham that was situated historically in the parish of Watchet and about two miles south of the parish church of St Decuman's, Watchet. Parts of the manor house are medieval. It has been owned for more than 700 years by the prominent Wyndham family, who continue there as of 2015.

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Reverend Sir Frederic Shelley, 8th Baronet (1809–1869), of Shobrooke Park, Crediton, Devon, was a cleric and landowner.

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Dr Egerton Leigh, was an 18th century Anglican clergyman and landowner in North West England.

Richard Knight (1659-1745), of Downton Hall, in the parish of Downton on the Rock in Herefordshire, England, was a wealthy ironmaster who operated the Bringewood Ironworks, on the Downton estate, and founded a large fortune and family dynasty.

William Wyndham JP DL (1796–1862), sometimes numbered as William Wyndham V, was a Wiltshire landowner and Member of Parliament.

References

↑ Burke's Landed Gentry (1937), p. 2511
↑ "The Sherborne Register 1550-1950" (PDF). Old Shirbirnian Society. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
↑ Oxford University Alumni, 1715-1886, Volume IV
↑ A B Gourlay, A History of Sherborne School, Winchester, 1951
↑ John Cooper, The Warwickshire Hunt from 1795 to 1836, London, 1837
↑ John Burke, Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, Volume 2, 1847
↑ Victoria County History, A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 10, Munslow Hundred (Part), the Liberty and Borough of Wenlock, London, 1998.

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[BLG-1] Burke's Landed Gentry (1937), p. 2511

[2] "The Sherborne Register 1550-1950" (PDF). Old Shirbirnian Society. Retrieved 16 February 2019.

[3] Oxford University Alumni, 1715-1886, Volume IV

[4] A B Gourlay, A History of Sherborne School, Winchester, 1951

[5] John Cooper, The Warwickshire Hunt from 1795 to 1836, London, 1837

[6] John Burke, Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, Volume 2, 1847

[7] Victoria County History, A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 10, Munslow Hundred (Part), the Liberty and Borough of Wenlock, London, 1998.