Edward Wynter

Sir Edward Wynter or Wintour (born 1560, died 1619) was an English mariner and landowner who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1587 and 1601. He developed the iron workings around the family estates at Lydney in the Forest of Dean, which in his son's time were of importance to the Royalist cause. His marriage to Lady Anne Somerset produced a strongly Roman Catholic allegiance among his children.

Life Wynter was the eldest son of Admiral Sir William Wynter of Lydney, Gloucestershire (died 1589) and his wife Mary Langton. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford on 20 December 1577, aged 17 and was awarded BA on 28 January 1579. He was a student of the Inner Temple in 1579. In 1587, he was elected Member of Parliament for Newport. Wynter sailed to the Caribbean with Sir Francis Drake, setting out as Captain of the Aid in the voyage of 1585-1586, during which his brother Nicholas Wynter was lost.

In August 1588, Wynter served on board his father's ship against the Spanish Armada. In February 1589 his father died, and in that month Edward took his seat as MP for Gloucestershire. His father's will, naming Edward sole executor, was proved on 15 March 1588/89 by oath of his attorney. He succeeded his father to the estate which Sir William had built up since c.1560 around the manors and dependencies of Lydney. At about this time, Wynter killed Henry Walsh of Little Sodbury in a duel in Marylebone, for which he was granted a royal pardon.

As patron of Lydney church he presented Antony Stirrey, or Sterry, as vicar in 1594, who was instituted in August 1595 and remained in that living (as rector from 1603) until at least 1623. Stirrey, who had been rector of Abenhall since 1568, was also curate of Aylburton chapel at Lydney from 1612. Wynter was knighted in 1595, and on 11 August in that year he married Lady Anne Somerset, daughter of Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester.

Wynter was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire from November 1598 to December 1599. On 19 January 1601, he became Constable of St Briavels Castle and Keeper of the Forest of Dean on the death of the 2nd Earl of Pembroke. In letter in the Cecil Papers, Wynter refers to the Earl's demands that he should pay sureties for his own behaviour in this office. He was elected MP for Gloucestershire again in 1601. On 10 January 1609, he surrendered his posts as constable and keeper to the 3rd Earl of Pembroke.

Wynter's iron production in the Forest of Dean involved the felling of coppices and development of charcoal pits for fuel for smelting, in addition to open-cast quarrying or levelling for iron ore and for outcrops of coal. Wynter built his furnaces for the extraction of metal from ore (which required water-power to drive bellows) beside the stream that crosses the Lydney vale. claiming that he had been the victim of malicious hostility whipped up against him. He purchased rights to timber from the Crown in 1611, but this led to several further disputes with the Commoners, who were concerned that they would have no wood left for their own use: he surrendered these rights in 1616.

Death and issue Wynter died on 3 March 1619.

Wynter married Anne Somerset, a daughter of Edward Somerset, 4th Earl of Worcester. She danced in masques at court, including The Masque of Queens and The Masque of Beauty. Their children included:

Edward Wynter (died in childhood) Sir John Wynter (c.1600-1676), ironmaster. An ardent catholic and royalist. On 15 March 1627 he paid for 4000 cords of wood to be felled in the Forest of Dean. a haven for English Roman Catholics of which they were among the original founders. Henry Frederick Wynter Elizabeth Wynter, married Richard Monington of Sarnesfield, Herefordshire. among their daughters were Cecilia Hall (1625-1651) and Catherine Hall (1634-1692, abbess 1673-77) who together entered the Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of Consolation at Cambrai (Artois) in 1646. Their mother also retired there in 1675 and is buried with them there.

It was a younger Sir Edward Winter (1621/22-1686) who became an administrator for the East India Company.