John Wyndham (1558–1645)

Sir John Wyndham (1558 – 1 April, 1645), JP, of Orchard Wyndham in the parish of Watchet in Somerset, was an English landowner who played an important role in the establishment of defence organisation in the West Country against the threat of Spanish invasion.

He was born at Orchard Wyndham, the only child and heir of Sir John Wyndham (d.1572) of Orchard Wyndham, by his wife Florence Wadham (1538–1597), a co-heiress of her brother Nicholas Wadham (1531/2-1609), of Merryfield, Ilton, in Somerset and of Edge, Branscombe, in Devon, who with his wife Dorothy Petre (1534/5-1618), eldest daughter of Sir William Petre, principal secretary to King Henry VIII, founded Wadham College, Oxford. In memory of his parents Sir John erected a pair of almost life-size monumental brasses in St Decuman's Church, Watchet, and also erected an almost identical pair (considered the finest of their style in England), also set into Purbeck marble, in memory of his uncle Nicholas Wadham and his wife on their chest tomb in the Wadham Chapel in St Mary's Church, Ilminster. Sir John Wyndham was one of the heirs to the large fortune of his uncle Nicholas Wadham and helped to put into effect his plans for the founding of Wadham College. Sir John Wyndham also erected similar brasses, but much smaller, in St Margaret's Church, Felbrigg, Norfolk, to his cousin Thomas Windham (d.1599) (in the nave), from whom he inherited Felbrigg Hall, and to Thomas's sister Jane Coningsby (d.1608) (in the chancel). The inscriptions in accomplished verse on all these monuments are believed to have been written by Wyndham himself.

His grandfather was Sir John Wyndham (died 1573) of Felbrigg (second son of Sir Thomas Wyndham (d. 1521) by his first wife Eleanor Scrope, daughter and heiress of Richard Scrope of Upsall Castle, Yorkshire) who inherited Orchard, Somerset from his wife Elizabeth Sydenham (d. 1 January 1571), daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Sydenham of Orchard, Somerset.

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