Circle of Charles Jervas

Thomas Wyndham was born on 27th December 1681, the youngest son of Colonel John Wyndham M.P. (see lot 117) and his wife, Alice Fownes. The family lived at Norrington Manor near Salisbury, an estate which had been acquired in 1658 by Thomas’ grandfather, Sir Wadham Wyndham, a Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

This portrait depicts Thomas Wyndham in the robes of the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland, a post he held from 1724 to 1726. This marked the beginning of a fifteen year legal career in Ireland. Following the early death of Richard West in 1726, Wyndham was appointed to succeed him as Lord Chancellor of Ireland. In 1728 he was appointed a Lord Justice in Ireland and this gave him the authority to act in the absence of the Lord Lieutenant, and during his time in Ireland he acted eight times in that capacity. On 18th September 1731 he was created Baron Wyndham of Finglas, near Dublin, and presided over six sessions of the Irish Parliament as Speaker of the House of Lords.

He was buried in Salisbury Cathedral and is commemorated by a fine marble monument by Rysbrack. He left £2500 to Wadham College 'for the better appointments of the Warden', and £200 to Lincoln’s Inn for the decoration of either the great hall or the chapel. At the instigation of William Murray, later Lord Mansfield, the money was used to commission a work from Hogarth, and his Paul before Felix was installed in 1750.