Williams-Wynn, Charles Watkin, 1775-1850

WILLIAMS-WYNN, CHARLES WATKIN, brother of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, Bart. (adm. 1784, qv); b. 9 Oct 1775; adm. 23 Mar 1784; Christ Church, Oxford, matr. 24 Dec 1791, Canoneer Student 23 Dec 1791 – void 23 Jun 1805; BA 1795; MA 1798; DCL 1810; adm. Lincoln’s Inn 21 Apr 1795, called to bar 26 Nov 1798, Bencher 30 Jan 1835; MP Old Sarum 29 Jul 1797 – Mar 1799, Montgomeryshire from 14 Mar 1799 (“father” of the House of Commons from 1846); Under-Secretary, Home Office 19 Feb 1806 – Oct 1807; defeated by Manners-Sutton in contest for the Speakership 2 Jun 1817; he had entered politics as a member of the parliamentary group that followed his uncle Lord Grenville, and when the Grenvillites separated themselves from their Whig allies in 1818-9 he sought to form a third party in the House of Commons, but thereafter acted with the Tories, except for a brief period in 1830-1 when he held office in Earl Grey’s incoming Whig government; Privy Councillor 17 Jan 1822; President, Board of Control 8 Feb 1822 – Feb 1828; Secretary at War Nov 1830 – Apr 1831, also member Board of Control; Chancellor, Duchy of Lancaster 26 Dec 1834 – Apr 1835; member, Society of Dilettanti 1805; President, Royal Asiatic Society 1823-41; FRS 24 May 1827; FSA; while at school Wynn assisted Robert Southey (qv) and Grosvenor Charles Bedford (qv) in the production of The Flagellant Mar – Apr 1792; remained an intimate friend of Southey, to whom he made an allowance for some years; took a keen interest in the School, and offered an Indian Writership for competition among the boys in 1826 and 1829; Busby Trustee 15 Jun 1829; author, An Argument upon the Jurisdiction of the House of Commons to commit in Cases of Breach of Privilege, 1810; m. 9 Apr 1806 Mary, eldest dau. of Sir Foster Cunliffe, Bart.; d. 2 Sep 1850. DNB.

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition

Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020

Users should note that the information recorded here that is not to be found in the first two volumes of the Record of Old Westminsters and its first Supplement has been assembled from various published and manuscript sources by Hugh Edmund Pagan MA FSA, and all new resulting text is his copyright, © 2014.

The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from the earliest times to 1927, Volumes 1 & 2, compiled by G. F. Russell Barker and Alan H. Stenning, London, 1928.