John Wynne (1650 – 31 December 1714) was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

industrialist, who tried but failed to turn the place where he was born into a centre of the lead industry.

Life

Wynne was born in

Trelawnyd Trelawnyd (formerly ''Newmarket'' from 1710 to 1954) is a village in Flintshire, Wales. The village had a population taken at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census of 584. It is part of the Community (Wales), community of Trelawnyd and Gwa ...

(a hamlet of 10 houses near

Diserth Dyserth ( cy, Diserth) is a village, community and electoral ward in Denbighshire, Wales. Its population at the 2011 United Kingdom census was 2,269 and was estimated by the Office for National Statistics as 2,271 in 2019. It lies within the h ...

) in

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

, north Wales. Like his father before him (who was also called John), he was educated at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship St ...

, from 1668, joining

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

in the following year. He served as

High Sheriff of Flintshire This is a list of High Sheriffs of Flintshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly, the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county, but over the centuries most of the responsibilitie ...

in 1695, as his grandfather (another John) had done in 1677. He thought that Trelawnyd had a role to play in the lead industry and drew up plans to turn it into an industrial town of some importance, building various houses and public buildings (including a non-conformist chapel) and obtaining permission to rename it as "Newmarket" in 1710. The proposed lead works came to nothing, however, and the change of name did not last. Wynne died on 31 December 1714. He left money in his will to establish a grammar school in Newmarket to teach Latin, Greek, French, mathematics and navigation. The school did not survive and the money that Wynne had left to secure its future was wrongfully used elsewhere. The same fate befell the endowment he left to assist poor people in Newmarket.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wynne, John 1650 births 1714 deaths Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford Members of Gray's Inn Welsh industrialists Welsh philanthropists High Sheriffs of Flintshire