Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/372

 Thynne  so much to take heed of as that man's proceedings' (Cal. State Papers, For. i. 45). Thynne remained faithful to Somerset, was arrested with him at Windsor on 13 Oct. 1549 and committed to the Tower (Acts of the Pricy Council, ed. Dasent, ii. 343). In February 1550 he was released on paying a sum of money and 'uppon condicion to be from day to day forthcumyng and to abide all orders' (ib. p. 398). With others of Somerset's adherents he was again arrested on 16 Oct. 1551, and committed to the Tower on 10 Nov. In June 1552 he was released on paying a heavy fine and surrendering the patent of the packership of London and his lease of the Savoy Hospital (ib. iv. 84, 86). On 25 July 1553 instructions were sent him by Queen Mary to stay in his own country till her further pleasure. Throughout her reign he continued a zealous protestant.

Subsequently Thynne acted as comptroller of the household of the Princess Elizabeth (cf., Progresses of Elizabeth, i. 114, 124, ii. 74, 87). In the first parliament of Elizabeth he sat for Wiltshire, and afterwards for the boroughs of Great Bedwin and Heytesbury, but lived for the most part in the country. In 1569 he was appointed one of the commissioners of musters for Wiltshire and a justice of the peace (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547-80, pp. 341-9). Meanwhile, Longleat House, on the site of the dissolved priory of St. Radegund, had been begun in January 1567, and the building was carried on till 1579. Though often attributed to John Thorpe (fl. 1570-1610) [q. v.], it is more probable that the plan was Thynne's own. The whole of the outside and the interior, from the hall to the chapel court, were finished in Sir John's time. The great stairs and stone terrace were added in the time of his great-grandson, Sir James Thynne (1605-1670), under the advice of Sir Christopher Wren. It is said to have been the first well-built house in the kingdom. All the accounts relating to this period of the building are preserved, and show an expenditure of about 8,000l. Queen Elizabeth stayed at Longleat on her way to Bristol in 1575.

Thynne died in April 1580, and was buried in the church of Monkton Deverell, Wiltshire. In the chancel is a monument with a Latin inscription, erected by Thomas Thynne, first viscount Weymouth. Sir John appointed as one of the 'overseers' of his will the lord-treasurer of England (Burghley) 'in respect of their former friendship,' Sir Amyas Paulet being another. A portrait of him at Longleat was engraved from a drawing by Roth for Sir R. C. Hoare's 'Modern Wiltshire,' where are also engravings by G. Hollis of views of Longleat House. Some valuable letters and papers acquired by Thynne through his connection with the Duke of Somerset are preserved there. A few were printed in full by Canon Jackson in 'Wiltshire Archæological Magazine,' vol. xv. The collection is inadequately catalogued in the third report of the historical manuscripts commission (pp. 180-202).

Thynne was twice married: first, to Christian, daughter and heir of Sir Richard Gresham [q. v.], and sister of Sir Thomas; and, secondly, to Dorothy, daughter of Sir William Wroughton. Thomas Thynne (d. 1682) [q. v.] and Thomas Thynne, first viscount Weymouth [q. v.], were both great-grandsons of Thynne's eldest son, Sir John, who succeeded to Longleat, and died in 1623 (, Modern Wiltshire, vol. i. 'Heytesbury,' pp. 60-61).

[Botfield collected in his Stemmata Botvilliana (1858) much information concerning the Thynne family, and embodied in it the researches of Sir R. C. Hoare, Joseph Morris (Hist. of Family of Thynne alias Botfield, 1855), and Blakeway. See also Lit. Rem. of Edw. VI (Roxburghe Club); Cal. Hatfield MSS. vols. i. ii.; Fuller's Worthies, 1811, ii. 462; Strype's Works; Collins's Peerage; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Jackson's Hist. of Longleat; Ret. Memb. Parl.; Blomfield's Renaissance Architecture in England, 1897. For the family pedigree and the inscription in Monkton Deverell church, see Hoare's Modern Wiltshire, vol. i., Hundred of Heytesbury. See also art. , fl. 1570-1610.]

 THYNNE, JOHN ALEXANDER, fourth (1831–1896), born in Westminster on 1 March 1831, was the eldest son of Henry Frederick, third marquis, by Harriet, daughter of Alexander Baring. Thomas Thynne, first marquis of Bath [q. v.], was his great-grandfather. John was educated at Eton and matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford on 31 May 1849. He soon began to take an active part in county business, being appointed a deputy-lieutenant of Somerset in 1853, and of Wiltshire in 1860. He was gazetted colonel of the 1st Wiltshire volunteers in April 1866, lieutenant-colonel of the Wiltshire yeomanry in April 1876, and colonel in July 1881. In 1889 he was appointed lord-lieutenant of Wiltshire and chairman of the county council. He was much interested in political questions, though he never associated himself with any party.

In May 1858 he was sent to Lisbon as ambassador-extraordinary and plenipotentiary, when he received from Pedro V the order of the Tower and Sword. Nine years