Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet

Who was Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet?

Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet, English politician, was the only son of Sir Edward Wyndham, Bart., a grandson of Sir William Wyndham and a great-great-grandson of Sir John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham, Somerset, who was created a baronet in 1661.

Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, he entered parliament in 1710 and became Secretary at War in the Tory ministry in 1712 and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1713. He was closely associated with Lord Bolingbroke, and he was privy to the attempts made to bring about a Jacobite restoration on the death of Queen Anne; when these failed he was dismissed from office.

In 1715, the failure of a Jacobite movement led to his imprisonment, but he was soon set at liberty. Under George I and the early years of George II Wyndham was the leader of the Tory opposition in the House of Commons, fighting for his High Church and Tory principles against Sir Robert Walpole. He was in constant communication with the exiled Bolingbroke, and after 1723 the two were actively associated in abortive plans for the overthrow of Walpole.

Despite these various enmities, Wyndham was a respected participant of public life in London. He is, for instance, listed as a founding governor of the Foundling Hospital in that charity's royal charter, granted in 1739. This institution was the capital's most fashionable charity at the time, and Wyndham is listed as a governor alongside such other notables as the Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the Earl Waldegrave, the Earl of Wilmington, Henry Pelham, Arthur Onslow and even Horatio and Sir Robert Walpole.