Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet

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Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet (1687 - June 17, 1740), English politician, was the only son of Sir Edward Wyndham, Bart., and a grandson of William Wyndham (d. 1683) of Orchard Wyndham, Somerset, who was created a baronet in 1661.

Educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, he entered parliament in 1710 and became Secretary at War in the Tory ministry in 1712 and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1713. He was closely associated with Lord Bolingbroke, and he was privy to the attempts made to bring about a Jacobite restoration on the death of Queen Anne; when these failed he was dismissed from office.

In 1715, the failure of a Jacobite movement led to his imprisonment, but he was soon set at liberty. Under George I and the early years of George II Wyndham was the leader of the Tory opposition in the House of Commons, fighting for his High Church and Tory principles against Sir Robert Walpole. He was in constant communication with the exiled Bolingbroke, and after 1723 the two were actively associated in abortive plans for the overthrow of Walpole.

He died at Wells on 17 June 1740. Wyndham's first wife was Catherine, daughter of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset. By her he had two sons, Charles, who became 2nd Earl of Egremont in 1750, and Percy, who took the name of O'Brien and was created Earl of Thomond in 1756.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.