John Thynne

Sir John Thynne (c. 1515 – 21 May 1580) was the steward to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c. 1506 – 1552), and a member of parliament. He was the builder of Longleat House, and his descendants became Marquesses of Bath.

Early life Thynne's family also used the surname Boteville (or Botfield), so he was often called Thynne alias Boteville.

Thynne was born in Church Stretton, Shropshire, in 1515, and was the eldest son of Thomas Thynne, otherwise Botevile, and of his wife Margaret, a daughter of Thomas Eynns. His uncle William Thynne was a courtier in the household of King Henry VIII and a literary editor.

Thynne became member of parliament for Marlborough in 1545 (and perhaps also in 1539 and 1542), and for Salisbury in 1547. He was entombed in the parish church at Longbridge Deverill, Wiltshire.

Building of Longleat

Thynne supervised Seymour's planned great house on a hill called Bedwyn Brail at Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, intended to replace his ancestral seat of Wolf Hall. The house was unfinished when Seymour fell from power, but a correspondence survives, dated between November 1548 and June 1549, which shows Thynne directing the plans.

Marriages and issue Thynne married twice: Firstly, in 1549, to Christiana Gresham, a daughter of Sir Richard Gresham and a sister of Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange. John Thynne (died 1604), eldest son and heir. He was knighted by King James I on 11 May 1603, four days after James arrived to take up the English crown. He married Joan Hayward, a daughter of Sir Rowland Hayward, twice Lord Mayor of London by his wife Joan Tyllsworth, daughter and heiress of Sir William Tyllsworth. Joan Hayward brought the Thynne family new estates in Shropshire and elsewhere. Dorothy Thynne (buried 25 September 1592), wife of Sir John Strangways (c.1548-1593) of Melbury House, Melbury Sampford, Somerset, and of Abbotsbury in Dorset, Sheriff of Dorset. Their third son and eventual heir was Sir John Strangways (1585–1666), MP. Anne Thynne, wife of John Cole; Francis Thynne, who married Alice Knocker; Thomas Thynne, who married Emily Bembridge; Elizabeth Thynne, wife of John Chamberlayne; Catherine Thynne, who married firstly Walter Long (1565–1610) and secondly Sir Edward Fox of Gwernigo, Mongomery, Wales. Frances Thynne; By Dorothy Wroughton he had a further five sons: a line which continues to the present-day Ceawlin Thynn, 8th Marquess of Bath (born 1974).

Arms Arms of Thynne The arms of the head of the Thynne family of Longleat are blazoned "Quarterly, 1st and 4th: Barry of ten or and sable (Botteville); 2nd and 3rd: Argent, a lion rampant tail nowed and erect gules (Thynne)".