Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wynn, Henry Watkin Williams
WYNN, Sir 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 and minister plenipotentiary to Switzerland in February 1822; the appointment was criticised in the House of Lords on 26 March 1822, and in the commons on 15 and 16 May (ib. vi. new ser. pp. 1287–1307, and vii. 608–70). He was transferred to a like position at the court of Würtemberg in February 1823. In September 1824 he was sent in a similar capacity to Copenhagen, remaining there until early in 1853. He was created a privy councillor on 30 Sept. 1825, made a Knight Grand Cross of Hanover in 1831, and K.C.B. on 1 March 1851. He died on 28 March 1856. On 30 Sept. 1813 he married Hester Frances, sixth daughter of Robert, lord Carrington. She died on 5 March 1854, having had issue three sons and three daughters. His favourite son was killed in the Crimea in 1854 (Memorials of Charlotte Williams-Wynn, p. 206).
Letters from Wynn are in the Duke of Buckingham's ‘Court of George IV’ (i. 225, 261, 284, ii. 86, 117, 172) and his ‘Court of William IV’ (i. 52). Letters to him from Lady Hester Stanhope from the Desert in 1813 are in Frances Williams Wynn's ‘Diaries’ (pp. 320–7).
[Burke's Peerage; Foster's Baronetage; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Gent. Mag. 1856, i. 516; Duke of Buckingham's George IV, pp. 232, 282–327, 399–410.]