was the third son of this
Griffith
Wynn
. Nominated in
1584
to one of the
Welsh scholarships
founded at
S. John's
,
Cambridge
, under the will of his uncle,
Dr.
John
Gwyn
(q.v.)
, of which his father was executor, he graduated there in
1588
, was elected next year to a
Fellowship
under the same foundation, and proceeded to the further degrees of
M.A.
in
1591
and
B.D.
in
1599
. He then became
rector
of
Honington
,
Suffolk
, from
1600 to 1605
, when he was succeeded by his cousin and pupil
John
Williams
, later
archbishop of York
(q.v.)
, receiving instead the living of
East Ham
(
1605-11
). He was
bursar of the college
from
1608-11
, and in the following year was elected
Master
(largely through
Williams
's influence among the Fellows) over the head of the far more distinguished
Thomas
Morton
, later
bishop of Durham
— an action which
Hacket
believes
Williams
to have later repented. In the same year he was made
D.D.
on the occasion of a royal visit, ‘
without the uneasiness of performing exercise
,’ and was presented to the living of
Luffenham
,
Suffolk
, declining the
archdeaconry
of
Shrewsbury
, offered to him by
bishop
Neile
of
Coventry
and
Lichfield
. As
vice-chancellor
in
1615
he took official part in the reception of
king
James
and the
prince of Wales
, but no fresh preferment resulted till, in
1621
,
prince
Charles
put forward his name for the vacant
see of S. Davids
.
Gwynn
seems to have been lukewarm, and
Laud
was appointed instead;
Williams
, elected to
Lincoln
the same year, consoled his old tutor with the
archdeaconry
of
Huntingdon
and the
vicarage
of
Buckden
(both in his diocese), which
Laud
had vacated, and a prebendal stall in
Lincoln cathedral
(
1622
). A suggestion that he should be given
S. Asaph
on the death of
Richard
Parry
(q.v.)
(
1623
) also came to nothing, nor
does he seem to have been presented to any of the four livings (including
Aberdaron
, vacant
1624
) with which
Williams
had recently endowed the college, and for which
Gwynn
was considered. During the following years he was engaged in completing arrangements for
bishop
Williams
's gift of a library to the college — the one great monument of
Gwynn
's period as
Master
. In
1626
, at the request of
bishop
Neile
(and doubtless under the influence of
Williams
, now
Buckingham
's protégé), he supported
Buckingham
's election as
chancellor of the university
over the
Puritan
nominee — an event which caused a great political storm; but
Buckingham
did not live to return the favour.
Hacket
and
Baker
both speak slightingly of him as
Master
, the former describing him as ‘
a soft man and prone altogether to Ease
’;
William
Cole
on the other hand rates him as ‘sufficient’ for his post, in an age when the college could count among its alumni
Wentworth
,
Fairfax
, and
Falkland
, as well as
Williams
.
John
Owen
, the
epigrammatist
(q.v.)
, dedicated two
Latin
epigrams to him (I, iii, 166; II, 89), and
Wiliam Llŷn
(q.v.)
a
cywydd
(
Cynfeirdd Lleyn
, 94-5). He showed no great personal ambition, but he was solicitous for the interests of his
Welsh
‘cousins’;
William
and
Henry
Bodwrda
(q.v.)
were both Fellows under him, and benefited under his will, and if
Robert
Wynn
of
Gwydir
(whom he admitted as an undergraduate) missed his Fellowship, that was no fault of the
Master
, who saw to it that he was well to the fore when royalty was entertained in
1615
. On his death in
1633
he was buried in the college chapel; he left no important legacy to the college, but a
Welsh
Bible
which came into its possession on his death is believed to have been his.
The estate of
Berth-ddu
passed to
Owen
Gwynn
's elder brother,
