Somerset, fourth earl of Worcester [q. v.], whom he married on 11 Aug. 1595 (Visitation of Gloucestershire, Harl. Soc. p. 279; cf. Hatfield MSS. v. 379–80). Sir William Winter [q. v.], the admiral, was his grandfather, and Thomas Winter [q. v.], the ‘gunpowder-plot’ conspirator, was a relative.
John's career was dominated by the influence of his first cousin, Edward Somerset, second marquis of Worcester [q. v.], whose addiction to Roman catholic ideas and mechanical experiments he shared; he seems to have been a ward of the king (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1619–23, p. 159). In June 1624 the government was informed of a great store of powder and ammunition kept at Raglan Castle (belonging to the Earl of Worcester) by John Winter and other papists (ib. 1623–5, p. 288). No importance was apparently attached to the report, for Winter was knighted on 7 Aug. following. He was mainly occupied in managing the ironworks and forestry in the Forest of Dean which he, like his father, leased from the king. They were evidently a source of great wealth, for during his eleven years' rule without parliamentary supplies Charles borrowed largely of Winter, who was also involved in prolonged litigation with his co-lessees (cf. ib. 1633–4 p. 576, 1635 p. 309, 1635–6 pp. 23–4, 77; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. App. pp. 26, 45, 71, 74, 86, 89, 5th Rep. App. pp. 69, 71). His position brought him into contact with the riots at Skimmington in 1631 against the king's enclosures in the Forest of Dean, and as a reward for his suppression of the movement he was made deputy-lieutenant (ib. 1636–7, p. 268). Finally, on 21 March 1640, he was granted eighteen thousand acres in the forest on consideration of paying 10,000l. at once, 16,000l. annually for six years, and a permanent fee-farm rent of 1,950l. 12s. 8d. Want of money was Charles's primary motive in parting with these lands, which, besides containing the ironworks, were also the principal source of timber for the navy.
Meanwhile, in 1633, Winter had become an adventurer in, and member of the council of, the Fishing Company, which was part of Charles's attempt to enforce his supremacy in the Narrow Seas against the Dutch. In May 1638 he was, although ‘a man never thought of,’ appointed secretary to Queen Henrietta Maria (Strafford Letters, ii. 166), his nomination being taken as a proof that Charles had yielded to the queen's demand for Roman catholic servants. He was also made master of requests to the queen with a salary of 200l., double that of an ordinary master; his function was probably not to decide matters in litigation, but to ‘investigate petitions for personal satisfaction’ (Leadam, Court of Requests, 1897, p. li).
Winter was one of the group, including Sir Kenelm Digby [q. v.] and Walter Montagu [q. v.], whose zeal for their faith was at least equal to their loyalty. During the troubles in the Forest of Dean his Roman catholicism had been charged against him, and Charles had in 1637 ordered that no indictment should be brought against him or his wife on account of their recusancy. In November 1640 in a popular squib his relationship to the gunpowder plotters was pointed out, and he was accused of having written for aid to the pope in the previous August (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640–1, pp. 126–7, cf. ib. 1639–40, p. 246). On 27 Jan. 1640–1 the House of Commons required his attendance to give an account of the money collected from Roman catholics for the war of 1639 (Commons' Journals, ii. 74; Gardiner, ix. 269), and on 16 March following petitioned for his removal from court. Charles paid no heed, and on 26 May a committee of the commons was appointed to administer to him the oaths of allegiance and supremacy (Journals, ii. 106, 158). On 15 Feb. 1641–2 his removal from court was voted, he being ‘of evil fame and disaffected to the public peace and prosperity of the kingdom’ (ib. ii. 433; Clarendon, Rebellion, bk. iv. § 222). On 16 March the house declared him unfit by reason of his recusancy to ‘hold his bargain in the Forest of Dean,’ and appointed a committee to examine his accounts; it failed to collect sufficient evidence for his indictment (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–3, p. 353), but on 22 July required his attendance at the painted chamber.
In that month, however, Winter appears to have joined Hertford and Sir Ralph (afterwards Lord) Hopton [q. v.] in Somerset, and accompanied them during their campaign in the west. He, Hopton, and Sir John Stawell [q. v.] are said to have been arrested at Falmouth, brought to the commons' bar on 14 Oct., declared delinquents, and committed to the Tower (The Examination of Sir Ralph Hopton, Sir John Winter, and Sir John Stowell, London, 1642, 4to). The commons' journals do not confirm this statement, nor is it clear how Winter obtained his liberty, for early in 1643 he was lieutenant-colonel of the Welsh force raised by the Marquis of Worcester to oppose the parliamentarians in Gloucestershire. He strongly fortified his house at Lydney, and ‘nimble in inferior businesses, and delighted rather in petty and cunning contrivances than in gallantry,’ he ‘maintained his den as the plague of the
