Wyndham family, Barons Leconfield and Egremont

By the early 18th century the Wyndham family of Orchard Wyndham (Somerset) had extensive estates in Somerset and Devon (see Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham). Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Bt (d. 1740), married in 1708 Katherine, a daughter of the 6th Duke of Somerset. In 1750 their elder son Sir Charles Wyndham, 4th Bt (1710-63), succeeded his uncle, the 7th Duke, as 2nd Earl of Egremont, inheriting the former Percy estates in Sussex, Yorkshire and Cumberland (see Percy, Dukes of Northumberland), and making Petworth (Sussex) his principal seat. He was succeeded as 3rd Earl in 1763 by his son George O’Brien Wyndham (1751-1837).

In 1774 the 3rd Earl inherited the estates of his uncle Percy Wyndham, Earl of Thomond, including the ancestral Irish estates of the earls of Thomond principally in Counties Clare and Limerick, together with property in Essex (Shortgrove), Cambridgeshire (Ickleton), Somerset and elsewhere. These estates had descended to Percy Wyndham (for whom the earldom of Thomond was revived in 1756) through his aunt Elizabeth, another daughter of the 6th Duke of Somerset, who had in 1707 married Henry O’Brien, 7th Earl of Thomond (d. 1741).

The 3rd Earl of Egremont also enlarged the Sussex estates by purchase, and acquired land in Surrey and Hampshire (sold by the late 19th century) and Middlesex (Hurlingham, acquired for his wife in 1807 but sold after her death in 1822). He died without legitimate issue in 1837, when the Wyndham estates descended to his nephew George O'Brien Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont (see Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham). The Sussex, Yorkshire and Irish estates, however, passed to his eldest natural son George Wyndham, created Baron Leconfield in 1859, and the Cumberland estates to his second son Henry. On Henry's death in 1860 the Cumberland estates were inherited by Lord Leconfield. John Wyndham (1920-72), created Baron Egremont in 1963, succeeded his father as 6th Baron Leconfield in 1967.

Estates in 1883: Sussex 30,221 acres, Yorks ER 13,247 acres, Cumberland 11,147 acres, Yorks NR 7,643 acres, Yorks WR 3,843 acres, Co Clare 37,292 acres, Co Limerick 6,269 acres, Co Tipperary 273 acres, total 109,935 acres worth £88,112 a year.