Williams-Wynn Baronets
Encyclopedia
The Williams-Wynn Baronetcy, of Gray's Inn in the County of Middlesex in the Baronetage of England, and of Bodelwyddan
in the County of Flint in the Baronetage of Great Britain, are two titles held jointly since 1880.
politician and lawyer from North Wales
. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons
from 1680 to 1681. The second Baronet represented Denbigh Boroughs
in the House of Commons.
Sir Watkin, 3rd Baronet, sat as Member of Parliament
for Denbighshire
and was a prominent Jacobite
. He was the husband of Jane (née Thelwall), great-granddaughter of Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet, of Gwydir
. Sir John Wyn was the direct male heir descendant of the princely house of Aberffraw through his ancestor Owain Gwynedd
, and pretender
to the title prince of Wales
. By the 18th century the Wynn family had become the largest landowners in North Wales. In 1718, he inherited, through his wife, the Wynnstay estates on the death of Sir John Wynn, 5th Baronet, of Gwydir
(see Wynn Baronets
), and assumed the same year the additional surname of Wynn in honor of his wife's princely heritage and claims as prince of Wales.
The fourth Baronet represented Shropshire
and Denbighshire in Parliament and served as Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire
. The fifth Baronet sat for Beaumaris
and Denbighshire and was also Lord-Lieutenant of Merionethshire. The sixth Baronet was Conservative
Member of Parliament for Denbighshire for over forty years.
the family's principal seat
, refurbishing the castle in the 1880s. Additionally, Sir Herbert briefly represented Denbighshire in 1885 before the constituency was abolished. However, the costs of maintaining the castle became too great, and Sir Watkin, 8th Baronet, was forced to sell Bodelwyddan Castle and estate by 1925.
The ninth Baronet was Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire
, and the tenth Baronet served as Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire and of Clwyd
.
Today, the family is represented by Sir David, 11th Baronet
, who remains active in Welsh life in Dinbighshire and Flint. In 2008 he was in the news because it was widely reported that his daughter Alexandra - a sculptor and student at the Royal Academy of Arts - had modelled nude for the famous artist Lucian Freud
.
In the continued discussion of potential Welsh independence his name is sometimes brought forward as a theoretical candidate in Welsh monarchy scenarios. In the past, some Plaid Cymru
members have advocated that an independent Wales would be better served by a Welsh constitutional monarchy
, one which would engender the affection and allegiance of the Welsh people and legitimize Welsh sovereignty
. An hereditary constitutional monarch would, they argued, embody and personify Welsh national identity above party politics, while political parties formed governments in a parliamentary system
similar to those of Denmark
, Norway
, the Netherlands
, or Spain
.
The socialist and economist D.J. Davies wrote an article in Y Faner in 1953, and later published in English in the 1958 book Towards Welsh Freedom, in which he advocated for the elevation of a Welsh gentry family
as the Royal Family of Wales. Among the criteria for consideration, argued Davies, was that the family had to have a history of contributing to Welsh life and reside in Wales. Today's Plaid Cymru members, however, are largely republican and the idea is rarely revived.
Through primogeniture
, Sir David Williams-Wynn, 11th Baronet
, may be heir to the Aberffraw legacy and claim as princes of Wales, and could theoretically use the appellation "Dafydd III of Wales".
The heir apparent is the present holder's son Charles Edward Watkin Williams-Wynn (born 1970).
Bodelwyddan
Bodelwyddan is a village and community in Denbighshire, Wales now bypassed by the A55 road. It has a population of 2,106. The village lies east of Abergele, south of Rhyl, and north west of Ruthin....
in the County of Flint in the Baronetage of Great Britain, are two titles held jointly since 1880.
Creation
Initially the Williams baronetcy of Greys Inn in Middlesex was created on 6 July 1688 for William Williams, a prominent WelshWales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
politician and lawyer from North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
. He served as Speaker of the House of Commons
Speaker of the British House of Commons
The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...
from 1680 to 1681. The second Baronet represented Denbigh Boroughs
Denbigh Boroughs (UK Parliament constituency)
Denbigh District of Boroughs was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Denbigh in Wales. It returned one Member of Parliament to the British House of Commons.The constituency first returned an MP in 1542, to the English Parliament...
in the House of Commons.
Sir Watkin, 3rd Baronet, sat as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Denbighshire
Denbighshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Denbighshire was a county constituency in Denbighshire, in north Wales, from 1542 to 1885.- History :From 1542, it returned one Member of Parliament , traditionally known as the knight of the shire, to the House of Commons of the Parliament of England until 1707, then to the Parliament of Great...
and was a prominent Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
. He was the husband of Jane (née Thelwall), great-granddaughter of Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet, of Gwydir
Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet
Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet , Welsh baronet, Member of Parliament and antiquary, was the son of Morys Wynn ap John. He claimed to be directly descended from the princes of Gwynedd through Rhodri ab Owain son of Owain Gwynedd. However, this claim is disputed in a publication of 1884 entitled...
. Sir John Wyn was the direct male heir descendant of the princely house of Aberffraw through his ancestor Owain Gwynedd
Owain Gwynedd
Owain Gwynedd ap Gruffydd , in English also known as Owen the Great, was King of Gwynedd from 1137 until his death in 1170. He is occasionally referred to as "Owain I of Gwynedd"; and as "Owain I of Wales" on account of his claim to be King of Wales. He is considered to be the most successful of...
, and pretender
Pretender
A pretender is one who claims entitlement to an unavailable position of honour or rank. Most often it refers to a former monarch, or descendant thereof, whose throne is occupied or claimed by a rival, or has been abolished....
to the title prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
. By the 18th century the Wynn family had become the largest landowners in North Wales. In 1718, he inherited, through his wife, the Wynnstay estates on the death of Sir John Wynn, 5th Baronet, of Gwydir
Sir John Wynn, 5th Baronet
Sir John Wynn, 5th Baronet succeeded his cousin Sir Richard Wynn, 4th Baronet as a baronet in 1674 but did not inherit the lands of the Gwydyr Estate which passed to his predecessor's daughter Mary.-Inheritance:...
(see Wynn Baronets
Wynn Baronets
There have been two Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Wynn, one in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of Great Britain. One creation is extant as of 2008....
), and assumed the same year the additional surname of Wynn in honor of his wife's princely heritage and claims as prince of Wales.
The fourth Baronet represented Shropshire
Shropshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Shropshire is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Knights...
and Denbighshire in Parliament and served as Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire
Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire
This is a list of people who served as Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire. After 1762, all Lord Lieutenants were also Custos Rotulorum of Merionethshire...
. The fifth Baronet sat for Beaumaris
Beaumaris (UK Parliament constituency)
Beaumaris was a parliamentary borough in Anglesey, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of England from 1553, then to the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and to the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885, when the constituency...
and Denbighshire and was also Lord-Lieutenant of Merionethshire. The sixth Baronet was Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Member of Parliament for Denbighshire for over forty years.
Bodelwyddan Castle
Sir Herbert, 7th Baronet inherited the Williams Baronetcy of Bodelwyddan in the County of Flint in 1880 on the death of his cousin, and made Bodelwyddan CastleBodelwyddan Castle
Bodelwyddan Castle, close to the village of Bodelwyddan, near Rhyl, Denbighshire in Wales, was built around 1460 by the Humphreys family of Anglesey as a manor house. Its most important association was with the Williams-Wynn family, which extended for around 200 years from 1690...
the family's principal seat
Family seat
A seat or family seat is the principal residence of a family. The residence usually denotes the social, economic, political, or historic connection of the family within a given area. Some families took their dynasty name from their family seat , or named their family seat after their own dynasty...
, refurbishing the castle in the 1880s. Additionally, Sir Herbert briefly represented Denbighshire in 1885 before the constituency was abolished. However, the costs of maintaining the castle became too great, and Sir Watkin, 8th Baronet, was forced to sell Bodelwyddan Castle and estate by 1925.
The ninth Baronet was Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire
Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire
This is an incomplete list of people who served as Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire. After 1733, all Lord Lieutenants were also Custos Rotulorum of Denbighshire...
, and the tenth Baronet served as Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire and of Clwyd
Lord Lieutenant of Clwyd
This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant for Clwyd. The office was created on 1 April 1974.*Brigadier Hugh Salusbury Kynaston Mainwaring, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.O., T.D...
.
Today, the family is represented by Sir David, 11th Baronet
Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 11th Baronet
Sir David Watkin Williams-Wynn, 11th Baronet of Bodelwyddan in the County of Flint , and of Gray's Inn in the county of Middlesex , is a member of the surviving Welsh nobility and is the closest known living heir of the Princely House of Aberffraw, the former ruling family of Gwynedd and the...
, who remains active in Welsh life in Dinbighshire and Flint. In 2008 he was in the news because it was widely reported that his daughter Alexandra - a sculptor and student at the Royal Academy of Arts - had modelled nude for the famous artist Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud, OM, CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impasted portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time...
.
In the continued discussion of potential Welsh independence his name is sometimes brought forward as a theoretical candidate in Welsh monarchy scenarios. In the past, some Plaid Cymru
History of Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru; The Party of Wales originated after a 1925 National Eisteddfod meeting, held in Pwllheli, Gwynedd. Representatives from the Army of the Welsh Home Rulers and The Welsh Movement , both founded only the previous year, agreed to meet and discuss the need of a "Welsh party"...
members have advocated that an independent Wales would be better served by a Welsh constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
, one which would engender the affection and allegiance of the Welsh people and legitimize Welsh sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
. An hereditary constitutional monarch would, they argued, embody and personify Welsh national identity above party politics, while political parties formed governments in a parliamentary system
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
similar to those of Denmark
Constitution of Denmark
The Constitutional Act of Denmark is the Kingdom of Denmark's constitution, or fundamental law. Originally verified in 1849, the last revision was signed on 5 June 1953 as "the existing law, for all to unswerving comply with, the Constitutional Act of Denmark".-Idea and structure:The main...
, Norway
Constitution of Norway
The Constitution of Norway was first adopted on May 16, 1814 by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll , then signed and dated May 17...
, the Netherlands
Constitution of the Netherlands
The Constitution of the Netherlands is the fundamental law of the European territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The present constitution is generally seen as directly derived from the one issued in 1815, constituting a constitutional monarchy. A revision in 1848 instituted a system of...
, or Spain
Constitution of Spain
Spain's first Constitution was passed in 1812. A list of the different Spanish constitutional laws follows:During Franco's dictatorship, there were many attempts to create stable institutions that did not emanate from the dictator as they did in the post-war period...
.
The socialist and economist D.J. Davies wrote an article in Y Faner in 1953, and later published in English in the 1958 book Towards Welsh Freedom, in which he advocated for the elevation of a Welsh gentry family
Welsh peers
This is an index of Welsh peers whose primary peerage, life peerage, and baronetcy titles includes a Welsh place-name origin or its territorial qualification is within the historic counties of Wales....
as the Royal Family of Wales. Among the criteria for consideration, argued Davies, was that the family had to have a history of contributing to Welsh life and reside in Wales. Today's Plaid Cymru members, however, are largely republican and the idea is rarely revived.
Through primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
, Sir David Williams-Wynn, 11th Baronet
Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 11th Baronet
Sir David Watkin Williams-Wynn, 11th Baronet of Bodelwyddan in the County of Flint , and of Gray's Inn in the county of Middlesex , is a member of the surviving Welsh nobility and is the closest known living heir of the Princely House of Aberffraw, the former ruling family of Gwynedd and the...
, may be heir to the Aberffraw legacy and claim as princes of Wales, and could theoretically use the appellation "Dafydd III of Wales".
Williams Baronets of Gray's Inn (1688)
- Sir William Williams, 1st Baronet (c. 1634–1700)
- Sir William Williams, 2nd BaronetSir William Williams, 2nd Baronet, of Gray's InnSir William Williams, 2nd Baronet was a politician in the United Kingdom Great Britain. He was Member of Parliament for Denbigh Boroughs from 1708 to 1710....
(c. 1665–1740)
Williams-Wynn Baronets of Grey's Inn
- Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet (1692–1749)
- Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th BaronetSir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th BaronetSir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet was a Welsh politician and patron of the arts.Sir Watkin was the eldest son of the second marriage of his father, Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet, to Frances Shackerley of Cheshire...
(1749–1789) - Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th BaronetSir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th BaronetSir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 5th Baronet was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1794 to 1840....
(1772–1840)
Williams-Wynn of Greys Inn and of Bodelwyddan
- Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 6th BaronetSir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 6th BaronetSir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 6th Baronet was a Welsh Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1841 to 1885....
(1820–1885) - Sir Herbert Lloyd Watkin Williams-Wynn, 7th Baronet (1860–1944)
- Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 8th Baronet (1891–1949)
- Sir Robert William Herbert Watkin Williams-Wynn, 9th Baronet (1862–1951)
- Sir Owen Watkin Williams-Wynn, 10th Baronet (1904–1988)
- Sir David Watkin Williams-Wynn, 11th BaronetSir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 11th BaronetSir David Watkin Williams-Wynn, 11th Baronet of Bodelwyddan in the County of Flint , and of Gray's Inn in the county of Middlesex , is a member of the surviving Welsh nobility and is the closest known living heir of the Princely House of Aberffraw, the former ruling family of Gwynedd and the...
(b. 1940)
The heir apparent is the present holder's son Charles Edward Watkin Williams-Wynn (born 1970).
Sources
- Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.