Wynn was also a general collector of Welsh antiquities, especially such as related to his own family. Partly with the object of showing his descent from Owen Gwynedd, and partly to serve as an abstract of title to his property, he wrote a ‘History of the Gwydir Family,’ the manuscript of which was so prized in North Wales during the next 150 years that ‘many in those parts thought it worth while to make fair and complete transcripts of it.’ It was at last published by Daines Barrington in 1770 (cf. Nichols, Lit. Illustrations, v. 582–3; Lit. Anecdotes, iii. 5), and reprinted with additional notes in his ‘Miscellanies’ in 1781. For these editions Dr. Thomas Percy (1768–1808) [q. v.] contributed genealogical tables and notes. A third edition by Angharad Llwyd appeared in 1827, and another, for which William Watkin Edward Wynne [q. v.] contributed numerous notes, was published in 1878 (Oswestry, 4to). Its chief interest is that it is the only work extant which gives an account of the state of society in North Wales in the fifteenth and the earlier part of the sixteenth centuries. A transcript of the ‘Record of Caernarvon,’ with Wynn's notes thereon, forms volume No. 4776 in the Harleian collection at the British Museum. He also made a survey of Penmaenmawr, and his manuscript was quoted by Gibson in his additions (under Carnarvonshire) to Camden's ‘Britannia.’ It subsequently came into the possession of Thomas Wright (1810–1877) [q. v.], and thirty copies of it, edited by J. O. Halliwell, were privately printed in 1859.
Besides being himself a good scholar, Wynn, like his father, was a generous patron of learning. In 1594 he joined several of the gentry of North Wales in petitioning for a royal commission to hold an eisteddfod similar to that held in 1568 at Caerwys (Gwenogyryn Evans, Report on Welsh MSS. i. 293). To his encouragement was due much of the literary work of his kinsman, Thomas Williams (1550?–1620?) [q. v.], whose Latin-Welsh dictionary he sought to get published during the author's lifetime. Another work, a collection of Welsh proverbs, being Mostyn manuscript No. 204 (op. cit. p. 276), Williams dedicated to Wynn.
Wynn died at Gwydir on 1 March 1626–1627, and was buried at Llanrwst on the night of the day following (Peter Roberts, Cwtta Cyfarwydd, p. 117). His portrait engraved by Robert Vaughan is now extremely rare. There are prints of it at Peniarth and Wynnstay, and there was another formerly in the possession of James West. It is also reproduced in the third and fourth editions of the ‘History,’ and in the first edition of Pennant's ‘Tours in Wales’ (1781), ii. 140. Another engraving by Vertue is mentioned by Granger (Biogr. Hist.) Wynn's memory is preserved at Llanrwst by the fact that in 1610 he founded a hospital and endowed a school there. Owing to what was regarded as much sharp practice on his part, or, according to another version, his persecution of Roman catholics, his spirit is believed to lie under the waterfall of Rhaiadr y Wennol, there to be purged of all his offences (cf. Watts-Dunton, Aylwin, p. 86).
Wynn married Sidney, daughter of Sir William Gerard [q. v.], chancellor of Ireland. She died on 8 June 1632, and was buried at Llanrwst. By her Wynn had eleven sons and two daughters. The eldest son, John, died without surviving issue at Lucca in 1614 (cf. Pennant, Tours in Wales, ed. Rhys, iii. 373), and Wynn was succeeded in the baronetcy by his next surviving son,
Sir Richard Wynn (d. 1649), groom of the chamber to Charles I while Prince of Wales, in which capacity he accompanied him to Spain in 1623. An account of the expedition written by him for Charles I was published by Hearne in the same volume as ‘Historia Vitæ et Regni Ricardi II’ (pp. 297–341). He subsequently became treasurer to Queen Henrietta. From designs by Inigo Jones he built in 1633 the beautiful Gwydir chapel in Llanrwst church, and also in 1636 the bridge over the Conway close by. His portrait by Jansen is preserved at Wynnstay, and an engraving of it by Bartolozzi was given in Pennant's ‘Tours in Wales’ and the last edition (1878) of ‘The Gwydir Family.’ He married Anne, daughter of Sir Francis D'Arcie of Isleworth, but died without issue on 19 July 1649, and was buried in Wimbledon church, leaving the title and estate to his next surviving brother, Owen (1592?–1660), third baronet, whose son Richard, fourth baronet, died without male issue. The baronetcy then passed to Sir John Wynn, whose father Henry (younger brother of Owen) had been judge of the Marshalsea, steward of the Virge, solicitor-general to Queen Henrietta, secretary to the court of the marches, prothonotary of North Wales, and M.P. for Merionethshire. John, the fifth baronet, married the heiress of Watstay, near Ruabon, and changed its name into Wynnstay, but died without issue on 11 Jan. 1718–19 (in his ninety-first year), when the baronetcy became extinct. He left the Wynnstay estate to his kinsman, Sir Watkin Williams, who adopted the addi-
