Sir Humphrey Winch, 1st Baronet


Sir Humphrey Winch, 1st Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1660 and 1689.
Winch was the eldest son of Onslow Winch of Everton, Huntingdonshire and his wife Judith Burgoyne, daughter of Roger Burgoyne, and grandson of Sir Humphry Winch, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Winch purchased the Hawnes estate in Bedfordshire in 1654 and by 1659 had sold the manor of Everton which he had inherited from his father.

Career

In 1660, Winch was elected Member of Parliament for Bedford in the Convention Parliament. He was created a baronet of Hawnes in the County of Bedford on 9 June 1660. In 1661 he was elected MP for Bedfordshire in the Cavalier Parliament and sat until 1679. He was a diligent MP who sat on numerous committees in the Commons, and was regarded as a reliable supporter of the Crown. He sold the estate of Hawnes in 1667 to Sir George Carteret, Bt, and moved to Harleyford Manor, near Great Marlow. He was MP for Great Marlow from 1679 to 1681 and from 1685 to 1689. He was a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty between 1679 and 1684.
Winch died at the age of 81.

Family

Winch married Rebecca Browne, daughter of Alderman Martin Browne of London. He had two daughters, Judith, who married Sir Humphrey Forster, 2nd Baronet, and the younger Rebecca, who married Sir Thomas Lawley, 3rd Baronet, but no sons, and the title became extinct on his death in 1703, although it was erroneously assumed by his nephew, Humphrey Winch, of Branston, Lincolnshire. He had settled his Lincolnshire estates on his brother Richard. His descendants through his grandson Sir Robert Lawley gained the title Baron Wenlock.
His widow died in 1713: her manuscript book of family recipes and herbal remedies has survived. It contains some useful information on the family's history, such as the early death of nearly all the Lawley grandchildren.