, near Wrexham, Wales. Former seat of the Wynns The first baronet served as
Speaker of the House of Commons from 1680 to 1681. The second baronet represented
Denbigh Boroughs in the House of Commons.
Sir Watkin, 3rd Baronet, sat as
Member of Parliament for
Denbighshire and was a prominent
Jacobite. He was the husband of Jane (née Thelwall), great-granddaughter of
Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet, of Gwydir. Sir John Wynn was the direct male heir descendant of the princely
House of Aberffraw through his ancestor
Owain Gwynedd, first
Prince of Wales. By the 18th century the Williams-Wynn family had become the largest landowners in north Wales. The fourth baronet represented Denbighshire in Parliament and was Custos Rotulorum for
Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire. The fifth baronet sat for
Beaumaris and Denbighshire and was also Lord-Lieutenant of Merionethshire. The sixth baronet was a Member of Parliament for Denbighshire from July 1841 for the rest of his life. However, the costs of maintaining the estates and the burden of death duties became too great, and Sir Watkin, 8th Baronet, was forced to sell Bodelwyddan Castle and estate by 1925 and Wynnstay in 1948. Llwydiarth estate in Montgomeryshire was also sold and the Glan-llyn estate in Merionethshire accepted by the government in lieu of death duties. The baronet retired to the Llangedwyn estate. The ninth baronet was
Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire, and the tenth baronet served as Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire and of
Clwyd. Today, the family is represented by Sir Charles, 12th Baronet. His father, the 11th Baronet, was active in
Welsh life in Denbighshire and Flintshire. In 2008 he was in the news because it was widely reported that his daughter Alexandra – a
sculptor and student at the
Royal Academy of Arts – had modelled nude for the famous artist
Lucian Freud. In the continued discussion of potential Welsh independence his name is sometimes brought forward as a theoretical candidate in Welsh monarchy scenarios. In the past, some
Plaid Cymru members have advocated that an independent Wales would be better served by a Welsh
constitutional monarchy, one which would engender the affection and allegiance of the Welsh people and legitimize Welsh
sovereignty. An hereditary constitutional monarch would, they argued, embody and personify Welsh national identity above party politics, while political parties formed governments in a
parliamentary system similar to those of
Denmark,
Norway, the
Netherlands, or
Spain. Among the criteria for consideration, argued Davies, was that the family had to have a history of contributing to
Welsh life and reside in Wales. Today's Plaid Cymru members, however, are largely republican and the idea is rarely revived. Through
primogeniture, Sir David Williams-Wynn, 11th Baronet, may have been heir to the Aberffraw legacy and claim as princes of Wales, and could
theoretically have used the appellation "Dafydd III of Wales". ==Williams, later Williams-Wynn baronets of Gray's Inn (1688)==