Admiral Sir William Wynter (c. 1521 – 20 February 1589) held the office of Surveyor and Rigger of the Navy for 40 years, from 1549 until his death in 1589, and combined that with the office of Master of Navy Ordnance from 1557. He was an admiral and principal officer of the Council of the Marine under Queen Elizabeth I of England and served the crown during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).D. Loades, 'Winter, Sir William (c. 1525–1589), naval administrator', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004). He was returned four times to parliament in Elizabeth's time.
Personal Wynter was born at Brecknock, the second of five sons of John Wynter (died 1545),Will of John Wynter or Winter of Deptford, Kent (P.C.C. 1546, Alen quire). Read a transcript at bris.ac.uk (Department of History, University of Bristol). a merchant and sea captain of Bristol and second Treasurer of the Navy (1544–1545),'Appendix II: Biographical Notes. Winter, John, Paymaster or Treasurer of the Navy', in C.S. Knighton and D.M. Loades (eds), The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I, Navy Records Society (Ashgate Publishing, Farnham (UK) and Burlington VT 2011), p. 570 (Google). a friend of Thomas Cromwell's. His mother was Alice, daughter of William Tirrey of Cork, Ireland.'Wynter. Pedigree No. 1', in J. Macleane and W.C. Heane (eds), The Visitation of the County of Gloucester taken in the year 1623, (&c.), Harleian Society XXI (1885), pp. 271-74, at p. 273 (Internet Archive). His sister Agnes Winter (died 1574) in her second marriage became the first wife of the diplomat Thomas Wilson (1524–1581), and was the mother of his children. William's brothers Arthur Wynter and George Wynter also held important positions in relation to the Navy.'Appendix II: Biographical Notes. Winter, Arthur' and 'Winter, George, Clerk of the Ships (1560-1582)', in C.S. Knighton and D.M. Loades (eds), The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I, Navy Records Society (Ashgate Publishing, Farnham (UK) and Burlington VT 2011), pp. 569-70 (Google).
Naval career William was schooled in the Navy. He took part in the 260 ship expedition of 1544, which burned Leith and Edinburgh,'ccxi.38, June 20. - Wynter to Walsyngham', in J.K. Laughton, State Papers Relating to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, anno 1588, 2 vols, Navy Records Society I & II (1894), I, pp. 212-17, at p. 213 (Internet Archive). Cited in DNB. and in 1545 he served in Lord Lisle's channel fleet. In July 1546 he held the office of Keeper of the King's Storehouse at Deptford Strand.'1334. William Watson (24 July 1546)', in J. Gairdner and R.H. Brodie, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. XXI Part 1: January-August 1546 (London: HMSO, 1908), pp. 654-63 (British History Online, accessed 12 June 2023]. Cited in History of Parliament. In 1547 he took part in Protector Somerset's expedition to Scotland and victory at Pinkie, and in 1549, in an expedition to Guernsey and Jersey.W.L. Clowes, The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to the Present, 5 vols (London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company, 1897), I, p. 469'ccxix.36, December 20. - Wynter to Walsyngham', in Laughton, Defeat of the Spanish Armada (Navy Records Society, 1894), II, pp. 309-13, at p. 311
In April 1549 Wynter was appointed Surveyor of the Navy, succeeding his colleague Benjamin Gonson, who was simultaneously appointed Treasurer of Marine Causes. Gonson held his post until his death in 1577, and Wynter his until 1589, so that this partnership was a constant feature of the naval administration through the third quarter of the sixteenth century.
In December 1549, as captain of the Mynion, he captured the prize of a French ship, the Mary of Fécamp, laden with sugar. A reward of £100 was to be shared out among the crew of 300.C. S. Knighton and D.M. Loades (eds), The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I, Navy Records Society (Ashgate, 2011), pp. 570-72. In 1550, he superintended the removal of the ships from Portsmouth to Gillingham in the Thames Estuary. He took part in an aquatic pageant and water tournament on 19 June 1550 at Deptford devised by Lord Clinton, for Edward VI. Wynter defended a pretend fortress built on a boat from Clinton's sailors who attacked in four pinnaces. After a fire fight, Clinton won the castle.Sydney Anglo, Spectacle Pageantry, and Early Tudor Policy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), pp. 300–301.
Edward VI owed him £471 for a voyage to Ireland in 1552,Samuel Haynes, A Collection of State Papers (London: William Bowyer, 1740), p. 127 and, in 1553, he went on a voyage to the Levant.W. B. Turnbull, Calendar of State Papers Foreign, Edward VI, 1547-1553 (London: HMSO, 1861), p. 254 no. 632 In 1554, Wynter spent several months in the Tower of London under suspicion of involvement in Thomas Wyatt's rebellion against Mary I of England, until he was pardoned in November.
In 1557, Wynter was appointed Master of Navy Ordnance, a post he held along with the Surveyorship for the rest of his life.M. Oppenheim, A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy and of Merchant Shipping in Relation to the Navy (John Lane The Bodley Head, London & New York, 1896), I: MDIX - MDCLX, p. 111 (Google).'Miscellanea. Order by Philip and Mary for Payment of the Surveyor of Ships', The Reliquary, Quarterly Archaeological Journal, New Series VII, January to October 1893 (Bemrose and Sons, Limited, London and Derby 1893), pp. 180-82 (Google). On 22 May 1558, Wynter brought ships from Dunkirk to Dover which were sailing on to Portsmouth.Knighton and Loades, The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I, (Ashgate, 2011), pp. 143, 152, 156, 275, pp. 370-372 He was present at the burning of Le Conquet in July 1558.
At about this time William Wynter married Mary Langton, one of the daughters of the London merchant Thomas Langton, citizen and Skinner (died c. 1550) and his wife Mary Matthew of Colchester. The marriage reflected civic and mercantile interest: Mary Matthew, Wynter's mother-in-law, became Dame Mary Judde (died 1602),Will of Dame Mary Judd or Judde, Widow of Latton, Essex (P.C.C. 1602/03, Montague quire). as the third wife of the Lord Mayor Sir Andrew Judde, a leading representative of the Muscovy Company, who died in 1558:Will of Sir Andrew Judde (P.C.C. 1559, Welles quire). she afterwards married the London alderman, citizen and Clothworker James Altham of Mark Hall, Latton, Essex (died 1582).Will of James Altham of Latton, Essex (P.C.C. 1586, Rowe quire). Mary Langton's sister (Wynter's sister-in-law) Jane Langton was the wife of John Barne, son of the leading Muscovy merchant and Lord Mayor, George Barne (died 1558). Subscription or UK public library subscription needed to view online'Altham', in W.C. Metcalfe (ed.), The Visitations of Essex, Harleian Society, 2 Vols. XIII-XIV (London 1878-1879), II, pp. 538-39 (Internet Archive). Edward Wynter, eldest son of William and Mary, was born in 1560.
Mission to Scotland, 1559-1560
Wynter was sent with a fleet to Scotland in January 1560 during the crisis of the Scottish Reformation commanding the Irish Squadron. In Scotland, Protestant lords, known as the "Lords of the Congregation" challenged the Catholic Regent Mary of Guise who was supported by French forces.T. C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People, 1560-1830 (Collins, 1969), p. 53. Wynter commanded a fleet to guard against French landings in Scotland in 1559, while diplomatic efforts were made to negotiate sending an English army to aid the Scottish Protestants. After a briefing at Gillingham, Wynter left Queenborough in the Lyon on 27 December, and sailed from the Lowestoft sea road on 14 January with 12 men-of-war followed by two supply ships, the Bull and the Saker. After the fleet was dispersed by a storm off Flamborough Head on 16 January, the damaged Swallow, Falcon, and Jerfalcon were left at Tynemouth, and the rest of the fleet passed Bamborough Castle to Berwick upon Tweed, where 600 hand gunners were embarked.
Wynter's fleet enters the Firth of Forth The Duke of Norfolk, commander in the North, gave Wynter orders to hinder any French landings in the Firth of Forth. He was to avoid battle, pretending he came up-river by chance without any official commission. At Coldingham bay, Wynter paused to send a copy of his log, which survives, to London.Joseph Stevenson, Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth, 1559-1560 (HMSO, London 1865), pp. 294-5 He was observed by Lord John Stewart, Commendator of Coldingham, a half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots.Joseph Bain, Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 293-95. The Protestant party were pleased when the ships were sighted at the Isle of May. William Douglas wrote that their arrival was by God's work, for before they had no support.Jane Dawson, "The relation between James Stewart, Regent Moray and John Knox", Steven J. Reid, Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Boydell, 2024), p. 167.
Eight ships including the Antelope and Lyon carried on into the Firth of Forth towards the fortress Island of Inchkeith on 21 January 1560. Wynter's blockade was immediately effective in preventing communication by sea from Edinburgh to the French garrison at Dunbar Castle. Although he could not do as much as he wished because his small landing boats were lost in the storm, he captured two French ships loaded with armaments. At first, the French had thought that Wynter's fleet were French ships bringing more troops, and their response was to send these boats loaded with munition for Henri Cleutin who was advancing on St Andrews. Instead, Cleutin was forced to race back to Stirling overland, and William Kirkcaldy of Grange delayed him by cutting the bridge over the Devon at Tullibody.'John Knox's History of the Reformation', Book 3, in David Laing, The Works of John Knox, Bannatyne Club (Edinburgh 1848), II, p. 14 (Google).
On 24 January 1560, Wynter allowed the Scottish Snawdoun Herald John Patterson with the trumpet messenger James Drummond aboard the Lyon, who demanded to know his business in Scottish waters. As instructed, Wynter told Snawdoun he had been bound for Berwick, and came into the Forth expecting "friendly entertainment" as the nations were at peace. As the French forts had fired on him, and he had heard of the political situation in Scotland, he had taken it upon himself to aid the Lords of the Congregation against the "wicked practices of the French," and so Elizabeth I of England knew nothing of it. Patterson and Drummond visited the English fleet four times.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 11, p. 10.
Wynter's actions and speech to the Herald were reported to the Privy Council of England. To maintain the pretence he was instructed not to bring any ships he captured to England, but to berth them in the friendly harbours of Dundee and St Andrews which were in Protestant hands.Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 291–306 As late as 16 February 1560, Norfolk sent the Chester Herald, William Flower, to Mary of Guise who declared the English fleet had arrived in the Firth by accident. She claimed that the Lords of the Congregation had revealed advance knowledge of Wynter's mission and were in communication with him. Flower replied that he had no knowledge of ships or letters. While this ineffectual diplomacy continued, the Lords of the Congregation concluded the Treaty of Berwick with Norfolk, which set conditions for English intervention. Some of the sons of the leading Protestants were given up as hostages to guarantee the treaty, and these boys were delivered to Wynter.Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1898), pp. 322, 344
De Seure's complaint