Francis Gwyn

Francis Gwyn PC (1648 – 14 June 1734), of Llansannor Court, was a Welsh Tory politician who sat in the English and British Houses of Commons at various times between 1673 and 1727.

[5] In return for the sum of £2,500 Sir Robert Southwell vacated for Gwyn the post of clerk of the council, and he was sworn in on 5 December 1679, holding the office until January 1685.

Until the death of Charles II he was a Groom of the Bedchamber, and he was twice under-secretary of state, from February 1681 to January 1683, under his cousin, Edward, Earl of Conway, and from Christmas 1688 to Michaelmas 1689.

From June 1711 to August 1713 he was a commissioner of the board of trade, and he was then secretary at war until 24 September 1714, when he received a letter of dismissal from Lord Townshend.

He accompanied James on his expedition to the west in November 1688, and his diary of the journey was printed by C. T. Gatty in the Fortnightly Review, xlvi.

Several letters by Gwyn dated 1686 and 1687, one of which was written when he was setting out with Lord Rochester and James Kendall on a visit to Spa, are printed in the 'Ellis Correspondence' (ed.

The constancy of his friendship with Rochester was so notorious that in the 'Wentworth Papers,' p. 163, occurs the sentence 'Frank Gwin, Lord Rotchester's gwine as they call him.'

By his marriage Gwyn eventually became owner of the property of that branch of the Prideaux family, including Forde Abbey.

In the grand saloon was hung the tapestry said to have been wrought at Arras, and given to Gwyn by Queen Anne, depicting the cartoons of Raphael, for which Catharine of Russia, through Count Orloff, offered £30,000; and this was sold to the new proprietor for £2,200.