Francis Gwyn
PC (1648 – 14 June 1734), of
Llansannor Court
Llansannor Court is a Grade I listed building in Llansannor, near Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. It became a Grade I listed building on 16 December 1952. It is believed to have been built during the Elizabethan era.
The walls are ...
, was a Welsh Tory politician who sat in the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
at various times between 1673 and 1727.
Background
Gwyn was the son and heir of Edward Gwyn of
Llansannor
Llansannor ( cy, Llansanwyr) is a small hamlet in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, United Kingdom.
It has a population of roughly 200 people. It contains a parish church, a pub (the City Inn, now closed), a primary school and a village hall, which ha ...
,
Glamorganshire
, HQ = Cardiff
, Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974)
, Origin=
, Code = GLA
, CodeName = Chapman code
, Replace =
* West Glamorgan
* Mid Glamorgan
* South Glamorgan
, Motto ...
, who married Eleanor, youngest daughter of Sir Francis Popham of Littlecott,
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
. He was born at
Combe Florey
Combe Florey is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated northwest of Taunton in the Somerset West and Taunton district, on the West Somerset Railway. The village has a population of 261. The parish includes the hamlet of Eastc ...
in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
about 1648. He matriculated at
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
, on 1 June 1666, aged 17 and was admitted at
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...
in 1667.
Although he trained as a lawyer, he had ample means and went into politics.
Member of Parliament
Gwyn was elected as
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for
Chippenham
Chippenham is a market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...
at the general election of 1673 and although his election was voided on 6 February, he was returned at a
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
on 11 February 1673. He was defeated at Chippenham at the 1679 general election and remained outside the House of Commons discharging his official duties. At the 1685 general election he was returned unopposed as MP for
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
. He was returned unopposed as MP for
Christchurch
Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...
on the recommendation of
Lord Clarendon
Earl of Clarendon is a title that has been created twice in British history, in 1661 and 1776.
The family seat is Holywell House, near Swanmore, Hampshire.
First creation of the title
The title was created for the first time in the Peera ...
in 1689 and sat in the
Convention Parliament of 1689 to 1690 and in its successor from 1690 to 1695.
At the 1695 general election, Gwyn was returned unopposed as MP for
Callington
Callington ( kw, Kelliwik) is a civil parish and town in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom about north of Saltash and south of Launceston.
Callington parish had a population of 4,783 in 2001, according to the 2001 census. This had inc ...
. He was returned unopposed as MP for
Totnes
Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-so ...
at a by-election on 11 January 1699 and at the first general election of 1701. He was then returned unopposed for Christchurch at the second general election of 1701, in 1702, 1705 and in
1708. At the
1710 general election he was elected MP for
Totnes
Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-so ...
and was returned unopposed in
1713.
Gwyn was a Tory, and lost his seat at
1715 general election after the accession of George I. He was returned unopposed as MP for Christchurch at a by-election on 9 March 1717. At the
general election in 1722 he was returned unopposed for both Christchurch and elected in a contest at
Wells
Wells most commonly refers to:
* Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England
* Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground
* Wells (name)
Wells may also refer to:
Places Canada
*Wells, British Columbia
England
* Wells ...
and chose to sit for Wells. At the dissolution in 1727 he retired from parliamentary life.
Official
In return for the sum of £2,500
Sir Robert Southwell
Sir Robert Southwell PRS (31 December 1635 – 11 September 1702) was a diplomat. He was Secretary of State for Ireland and President of the Royal Society from 1690.
Background and education
Robert Southwell was born near Kinsale in County ...
vacated for Gwyn the post of clerk of the council, and he was sworn in on 5 December 1679, holding the office until January 1685. Until the death of Charles II he was a
Groom of the Bedchamber, and he was twice under-secretary of state, from February 1681 to January 1683, under his cousin,
Edward, Earl of Conway, and from Christmas 1688 to Michaelmas 1689.
When
Lord Rochester was lord high treasurer under James II, Gwyn was joint secretary to the treasury with
Henry Guy, and when Rochester was made lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1701 Gwyn was his chief secretary, and a privy councillor. At one time he served as a commissioner of public accounts. From June 1711 to August 1713 he was a commissioner of the board of trade, and he was then secretary at war until 24 September 1714, when he received a letter of dismissal from
Lord Townshend. He was recorder of Totnes and steward of Brecknock.
Works and correspondence
The minutes of the business which he transacted during his periods of office were sold with the effects of
Ford Abbey
Forde Abbey is a privately owned former Cistercian monastery in Dorset, England, with a postal address in Chard, Somerset. The house and gardens are run as a tourist attraction while the estate is farmed to provide additional revenue. Forde Abbey ...
in 1846. He accompanied James on his expedition to the west in November 1688, and his diary of the journey was printed by C. T. Gatty in the ''
Fortnightly Review
''The Fortnightly Review'' was one of the most prominent and influential magazines in nineteenth-century England. It was founded in 1865 by Anthony Trollope, Frederic Harrison, Edward Spencer Beesly, and six others with an investment of £9,000; ...
'', xlvi. 358–64 (1886). When the House of Lords met at the Guildhall, London, in December 1688, he acted as their secretary, and kept a journal of the proceedings.
Several letters by Gwyn dated 1686 and 1687, one of which was written when he was setting out with Lord Rochester and James Kendall on a visit to Spa, are printed in the 'Ellis Correspondence' (ed. by Lord Dover), i. 170–171, 202–3, 253–4, 314–15. In 'Notes and Queries,' 2nd ser. xii. 44 (1861), is inserted a letter from him to Harley, introducing
Narcissus Luttrell
Narcissus Luttrell (1657–1732) was an English historian, diarist, and bibliographer, and briefly Member of Parliament for two different Cornish boroughs. His ''Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714'', a c ...
the diarist, and many other communications to and from him are referred to in the Historical MSS. Commission's reports. The constancy of his friendship with Rochester was so notorious that in the 'Wentworth Papers,' p. 163, occurs the sentence 'Frank Gwin, Lord Rotchester's gwine as they call him.'
Family
![FORDE ABBEY DSC 7994](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/FORDE_ABBEY_DSC_7994.jpg)
In 1690 Gwyn married his cousin Margaret Prideaux, third daughter of
Edmund Prideaux, and his wife Amy Fraunceis, coheiress of John Fraunceis of Combe Florey, and granddaughter of Edmund Prideaux, attorney-general of Cornwall. They had four sons and three daughters, besides others who died young, and their issue is set out in the pedigree in
John Hutchins's ''History of Dorset''. He was succeeded in turn by his son
Edward
Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”.
History
The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...
and
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
who were also Members of Parliament.
By his marriage Gwyn eventually became owner of the property of that branch of the Prideaux family, including
Forde Abbey
Forde Abbey is a privately owned former Cistercian monastery in Dorset, England, with a postal address in Chard, Somerset. The house and gardens are run as a tourist attraction while the estate is farmed to provide additional revenue. Forde Abbe ...
. The property passed from the family on the death of J. F. Gwyn in 1846, when there was an eight days' sale of the abbey's contents. The sale of the plate, some of which had belonged to Francis Gwyn, occupied almost the whole of the first day. The family portraits, collected by him and his father-in-law, were also sold. In the grand saloon was hung the tapestry said to have been wrought at Arras, and given to Gwyn by Queen Anne, depicting the cartoons of Raphael, for which
Catharine of Russia, through
Count Orloff, offered £30,000; and this was sold to the new proprietor for £2,200. One room at Ford Abbey was called 'Queen Anne's,' for whom it was fitted up when its owner was secretary at war; and the walls were adorned with tapestry representing a Welsh wedding; the furniture and tapestry were also purchased for preservation with the house.
Gwyn died at
Forde Abbey
Forde Abbey is a privately owned former Cistercian monastery in Dorset, England, with a postal address in Chard, Somerset. The house and gardens are run as a tourist attraction while the estate is farmed to provide additional revenue. Forde Abbe ...
on 2 June 1734, aged 86, and was buried in its chapel.
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwyn, Francis
1648 births
1734 deaths
17th-century Welsh politicians
18th-century Welsh politicians
Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for constituencies in Wales
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
People from Somerset
English MPs 1661–1679
Burials in Dorset
English MPs 1685–1687
English MPs 1689–1690
English MPs 1690–1695
English MPs 1695–1698
English MPs 1698–1700
English MPs 1701
English MPs 1701–1702
English MPs 1702–1705
English MPs 1705–1707
British MPs 1707–1708
British MPs 1708–1710
British MPs 1710–1713
British MPs 1713–1715
British MPs 1715–1722
British MPs 1722–1727
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Totnes
Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall
Civil servants in the Audit Office (United Kingdom)
Chief Secretaries for Ireland
Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Totnes
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Wells