Thomas Wyndham

Vice-Admiral Thomas Wyndham (1508–1554), also spelled as Thomas Windham, was an English naval officer, naval administrator, explorer, and navigator. He was appointed a member of the Council of the Marine as one of the Chief Officers of the Admiralty in 1552 and given the title of Master of Naval Ordnance and was simultaneously a member of the Board of Ordnance until 1553. Family and early life Wyndham was born around 1510, the son of Sir Thomas Wyndham of Felbrigg and his wife Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth and the aunt of Queen Jane Seymour. From his mother Elizabeth Wentworth's first marriage to Roger Darcy (d. 30 September 1508), Thomas Wyndham was the half-brother of Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy of Chiche. Through her he was also a first cousin of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Baron Wentworth. By his father's first marriage to Alianore Scrope, he was the half-brother of Sir John Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham. Both of his father's marriages produced numerous children. His mother married, thirdly, as his third wife, John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath. His grandfather, Sir John Wyndham, was implicated in the conspiracy of Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, and executed for treason in 1502. When his father died in 1522, Wyndham was left in the general care of his father's executors, Thomas Howard, earl of Surrey, Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, and "my moost singuler good Lord" Cardinal Wolsey. Arrangements were made for his education at the University of Louvain and possibly in Italy. His father also left his son substantial properties "to bye a marriage for him of Inheritaunce". Wyndham later married and had one son, Henry, and two daughters. Career From 1536 to 1540, Wyndham was employed in Ireland as a servant of Thomas Cromwell. In 1539, he was appointed captain of one hundred soldiers and experienced heavy fighting in Ireland under the leadership of James Butler, earl of Ormond. In 1540, ill health forced his return to England where he was awarded the former monastery of Chicksand, Bedfordshire.