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 descent. That manor remained in the hands of the family until Henry VIII compelled Andrew Windsor (1474?–1543), whom he had in 1529 summoned to parliament as first Baron Windsor of Stanwell, and made keeper of his wardrobe (see Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vols. i–xvi. passim), to exchange it for Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire. By his wife Elizabeth, eldest sister of Edward Blount, second lord Mountjoy, he was father of William Windsor, second baron (1499?–1558), whose widow married George Puttenham [q. v.], and pestered the council for many years with suits against him for maintenance (Acts P. C. vols. xii–xvi. passim); William's son Edward, third baron (1532–1575), was father of Frederick, fourth baron (1559–1585), and of Henry, fifth baron (1562–1615). The latter's son, Thomas, sixth baron (1590–1641), was created K.B. in June 1610, and was rear-admiral of the fleet sent to fetch Prince Charles from Spain in 1623; he married Catherine, youngest daughter of Edward Somerset, fourth earl of Worcester [q. v.], but died without issue. The barony thus fell into abeyance between the heirs of his two sisters, while the estates passed to his nephew, Thomas Windsor Hickman, who assumed the surname Windsor in lieu of Hickman, and was commonly known as Lord Windsor (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p. 70; Cal. Comm. for Compounding, p. 1260).

Though little more than fifteen at the outbreak of the civil war, Windsor is said to have been captain of a troop of horse in the royalist army in 1642, and lieutenant-colonel in May 1645; these commissions do not appear in Peacock's ‘Army Lists,’ but possibly he was the Windsor serving in Bard's regiment of foot who was captured at Naseby on 14 June 1645 (, 2nd edit. p. 98). He compounded for his ‘delinquency in arms’ on 30 April 1646, and was described as having been ‘concerned in’ the articles for the surrender of Hartlebury Castle, Worcestershire (Cal. Comm. for Compounding, p. 1260). His fine, fixed at a sixth of his estate, was 1,100l., which seems to have been paid. On 4 April 1649 he was reported to have gone to Flanders ‘upon challenge sent him by an English gentleman named Griffith’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p. 380). According to Sir Kenelm Digby, who gives the challenger's name as Griffin, the latter's letters to Windsor caused much merriment among the exiles at Calais (ib. p. 380), and the council of state requested the Spanish ambassador to prevent the duel. On 19 May 1651 he was summoned before the council of state and required to give a bond of 4,000l. with two sureties of 2,000l. to appear when called upon and ‘not to do anything prejudicial to the present government’ (ib. 1651, p. 207). On 2 Aug. 1653 he was granted a pass to go beyond seas, but for the most part he lived quietly in England, absorbed in a fruitless scheme to render the river Salwarpe navigable by means of locks, for the benefit of the salt trade at Droitwich. On 12 May 1656 he married at St. George's-in-the-Fields, London, Anne, sister of George Savile (afterwards Marquis of Halifax) [q. v.]

After the Restoration Windsor received on 16 June 1660 a declaratory patent determining in his favour the abeyance into which the barony of Windsor of Stanwell had fallen (, Complete Peerage, vi. 257; Egerton MS. 2551, f. 27). He took his seat as seventh Baron Windsor in the House of Lords two days later, and in the same year was made lord lieutenant of Worcestershire. On 20 July 1661 he was appointed governor of Jamaica, with a salary of 2,000l. a year, though his commission was dated only from 2 Aug. following. He did not set out till the middle of April 1662 (, Diary, ed. Braybrooke, i. 342), but during the interval seems to have developed some fairly enlightened views upon the government of colonies (Egerton MS. 2395, ff. 301–303). He arrived at Barbados on 11 July, and there published his proclamations for the encouragement of settlers in Jamaica. Lands were to be freely granted; no one was to be imposed upon in point of religion, provided he conformed to the civil government; trade with foreigners was to be free; and all handicrafts and tradesmen were to be encouraged (Cal. State Papers, America and West Indies, 1661–8, Nos. 324, 335). He left on 1 Aug. for Jamaica, where he acted as governor for little more than ten weeks, part of which was occupied by an expedition to Cuba and the seizure of a Spanish fort there called St. Jago. But during this brief period Windsor claimed to have established an admiralty court, disbanded the roundhead army in Jamaica and remodelled its forces, called in all commissions to buccaneers and ‘reduced them to certain orderly rules, giving them commissions to take Spaniards and bring them into Jamaica’ (ib. No. 379; cf. arts. and ; ). ‘Being verie sick and uneasie,’ he embarked for England on 20 Oct. 1662, leaving Sir Charles Lyttelton (1629–1716) [q. v.] as his deputy governor (Present State of Jamaica, 1683, p. 39). His com-