Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/280

 The politician's sister, Frances Williams Wynn, who died on 24 June 1857, aged about seventy-seven, was the writer of ‘Diaries of a Lady of Quality, 1797–1844,’ two editions of which appeared in 1864 under the editorship of Abraham Hayward.

Wynn was the author of ‘An Argument upon the Jurisdiction of the House of Commons to commit in Cases of Breach of Privilege,’ published in May 1810, and twice reissued, with an appendix, by August 1810. It dealt with the arrest of Sir Francis Burdett, Wynn being clear that the house possessed the power of arrest. Many letters from him are in the Duke of Buckingham's ‘Court under the Regency’ (ii. 200 et seq., and in the following volumes); Bishop Heber's ‘Life’ by his widow (vol. ii.)—he conferred on Heber the bishopric of Calcutta—in Southey's ‘Life and Correspondence’ (vols. i–v.); and in all the volumes of Southey's ‘Letters,’ which were edited by Warter. A letter from him to Croker on the authorship of the letters of Junius is in the ‘Croker Papers’ (iii. 183–4). He was an exceptionally well-informed man. He possessed a copy of the first folio edition of ‘Shakespeare,’ and he was horrified at the errors in Scott's ‘Ivanhoe’ (, Diary, ii. 242). A graphic description by Southey of his fussy manner, always ‘doing something else,’ is quoted in Southey's ‘Letters’ (ed. Warter, iv. 530).

[Gent. Mag. 1838 ii. 107, 1850 ii. 544–5; Doyle's Reminiscences, pp. 280–2; Welch's Alumni Westmon. ed. Phillimore, pp. 393, 497–498, 549, 551, 557; Barker and Stenning's Westminster School Registers; Williams's Montgomery Worthies, pp. 328–32; Knight's Coleorton Memorials, ii. 78, 82, 167, 262; Roebuck's Whig Ministry, ii. 190–3; Wilson's House of Commons, pp. 411–12; Duke of Buckingham's Court under the Regency, ii. 14, 64, 186–7, 325; Court of George IV, i. 116–17, 163, ii. 10–11, 367–70, 377; Court of William IV, i. 117, 151, 322; Dibdin's Library Companion, p. 823; Southey's Life and Correspondence, i. 160, 299, ii. 149, 158, iii. 72, 331, iv. 317, 354, v. 35–8, vi. 147; Southey's Letters, ed. Warter, i. 382, ii. 403, iv. 529–30.]  WYNN, CHARLOTTE WILLIAMS (1807–1869), diarist, born on 16 Jan. 1807, was the eldest daughter of Charles Watkin Williams Wynn [q. v.] Her childhood was passed at Dropmore on the Thames, the seat of her great-uncle, Lord Grenville. There, and at her father's house in London, she became acquainted with some of the most distinguished persons of the day, both in literature and in politics. Her father's declining health compelled him to journey in 1836 to Wiesbaden, and while proceeding in the steamboat from Rotterdam to Biebrich she met Varnhagen von Ense. During her father's annual visits to Germany Varnhagen made a point of coming to see them, and their friendship lasted until his death in 1858.

Miss Wynn knew many parts of England, and travelled much in Italy and Switzerland as well as in Germany. She was in Paris during the troubled period from 2 Nov. 1851 to the end of February 1852, and describes in detail the events of that time. Later on, in her English home at 43 Green Street, London, she formed ‘close and lasting friendship’ with Bunsen, Rio, Thomas Carlyle, and F. D. Maurice. Letters to her from Maurice are printed in his ‘Life’ (ii. 315–16, 346, 382, 463, 511, 569, 575–8), and one from him, descriptive of her character, is found in the preface (pp. ix–xi) of her ‘Memorials.’ In 1866 Miss Wynn was compelled through illness to reside nearly all the year in a foreign climate. She died at Arcachon on 26 April 1869, and was buried in the cemetery there.

A volume, entitled ‘Memorials of Charlotte Williams-Wynn, edited by her Sister’ (Mrs. Harriot H. Lindesay) was published in 1877, and reissued in 1878. Many of the letters and extracts had previously appeared in a volume printed solely for private circulation. They show her to have been well read in modern literature, both English and foreign, and to have possessed a cultivated mind instinct with religious feeling. Prefixed to both the published editions of her ‘Memorials’ is a signed engraving, by H. Adlard, from a drawing of her by H. T. Wells, R.A., in 1856.

[Gent. Mag. 1807, i. 88; preface to Memorials, 1877.]  WYNN, HENRY WATKIN WILLIAMS (1783–1856), diplomatist, born on 16 March 1783, was younger brother of Charles Watkin Williams Wynn [q. v.] He entered the foreign office as clerk in January 1799, when his uncle, Lord Grenville, was its head, and early in 1801 was appointed his private secretary and précis writer. From April 1803 to April 1807 he was envoy extraordinary to the elector of Saxony, and his services were rewarded with a pension of 1,500l. a year (Hansard, 15 May 1822, p. 624). For a few months (January to April 1807) he sat in parliament for the borough of Midhurst. In his uncle's first year of office as chancellor of the university of Oxford he was created D.C.L. (6 July 1810). Wynn was made envoy extraordinary