WYNNE, OWEN (1652-?), civil servant

The second son of Hugh Gwyn (alias Hugh ap John Owen) of Gwaenfynydd, Llechylched, Anglesey, who claimed descent from Hwfa ap Cynddelw, the 12th century lord of Llifon, and of Elin, daughter of Robert ap John ap William of Tre'rddolphin. He entered Jesus College, Oxford (matriculated 10 July) in 1668, and graduated B.A. in 1672. At some subsequent date he qualified as a doctor of laws, and probably became an advocate of Doctors' Commons (10 January 1694). He was confidential secretary to Sir Leoline Jenkins during the latter's tenure of the secretaryship of state (1680-5), and retained the office of undersecretary under Jenkins's successors till c. 1690; in this capacity he served as secretary to the commissioners sent by James II to treat with William of Orange (November 1688). He is thus an early example of the permanent civil servant; a contemporary account of his duties (which included custody of all papers and translations of those in Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch) is printed in F. M. G. Evans, The Principal Secretary of State (1923), 192, where his salary is given as £140 with board and lodging or £200 without. Among his other offices were those of warden of the Mint (to 1690) and secretary to the commissioners for prizes (January 1693). He kept his North Wales acquaintances, especially Sir Robert Owen, of Porkington and Clenennau (see Owen, Sir John), posted with the latest court news in James II's day.

WILLIAM WYNNE (1693 - 1765), lawyer and author

Eldest son of Owen Wynne. He followed his father to Jesus College (matriculated 23 January 1709), graduated B.A. 1712, M.A. 1723, entered Middle Temple in 1718 and was made a serjeant at law in 1736. Inheriting from his father the private papers which Jenkins had bequeathed, he published in two volumes, in 1724, The Life of Sir Leoline Jenkins. He died on 16 May, 1765, and was buried a week later in Westminster Abbey.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Arthur Herbert Dodd, (1891 - 1975)

Sources

• W. R. Williams, The history of the Great Sessions in Wales, 1542-1830, together with the lives of the Welsh judges (Brecknock 1899), 140
• J. E. Griffith; Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families (1914), 111
• Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: the members of the University of Oxford
• Florence Mary Greir Evans, The Principal Secretary of State. A survey of the office from 1558 to 1680 (Manchester 1923), 155-6, 164, 192
• Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, 6th R., app.
• N.L.W. Brogyntyn MSS. at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, letters 1656, 1695, and unscheduled letter 8 January 1684

Published date: 1959

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