Thomas Wynne (July 20, 1627 – January 16, 1692) was personal

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...

and one of the original settlers of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

in the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...

. Born in Ysceifiog,

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, where his family dated back seventeen generations to

Owain Gwynedd Owain ap Gruffudd ( – 23 or 28 November 1170) was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great () and the first to be styled "Prince of Wales" and th ...

, he accompanied Penn on his original journey to America on the ship ''Welcome''.

Early life and education

According to church records, Thomas Wynne was the fourth of five sons of Thomas Wynne, Sr.; Thomas Wynne lost his father at the age of 11. While attracted to the study of

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

early on, heavy

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

es levied on his family originally made the acquisition of proper learning materials difficult. His trade was that of cooper. He was later able to make the acquaintance of an established surgeon by the name of Richard Moore, and soon he was able to apprentice until he was deemed worthy of licensing. He was licensed in

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

by Drs. Hollins, Needham and Moore. Wynne in turn, after the death of Dr. Richard Moore, apprenticed Moore's son Mordecai.

Immigration to Pennsylvania

Born into the

Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

, he in 1655 married

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

Martha Buttall (1627–1670) and found himself profoundly converted. Henceforth a devout Quaker and author of several pamphlets on Quaker doctrine, Wynne faced persecution and even six years' imprisonment in England in the 1680s. After Martha died, he married a woman twice widowed, Mrs. Elizabeth Rowden Maude (b. 1637; d. after 1691), on July 20, 1676, and she accompanied him as he joined Penn on his trip to America, leaving on August 30 and landing on October 27, 1682.

Career

Wynne was notable for erecting the first brick house in colonial-era

, on his "Liberty Lot" at Front and Chestnut streets, known as Wynne Street until renamed by Penn in 1684. He built a home at 52nd Street and Woodbine Avenue in 1690 named " Wynnestay", a reference to the

Wynnstay Wynnstay is a country house within an important landscaped park 1.3 km (0.75 miles) south-east of Ruabon, near Wrexham, Wales. Wynnstay, previously Watstay, is a famous estate and the family seat of the Williams-Wynn baronets. The house wa ...

estate in Wales owned by Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet, a collateral cousin), and several surrounding communities in the greater Philadelphia area now bear his name. He returned to England with Penn in 1684. He served as speaker for the first two Pennsylvania Assemblies of the Province in Philadelphia in 1687 and 1688 and acted as Justice of Sussex county, now a county in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

, from 1687 to 1691. He was appointed a justice of the peace in January 1690 and held the position of justice of the

provincial court The court system of Canada is made up of many courts differing in levels of legal superiority and separated by jurisdiction. In the courts, the judiciary interpret and apply the law of Canada. Some of the courts are Government of Canada, feder ...

from September 1690 until his death.

Death

His time in America lasted only nine years. His death is noted by the meeting of Radnor Friends Meetinghouse then at Duckett's Farm, which in 1950 was located at the

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the n ...

train station not far from his home at Wynnestay. Thomas Wynne's burial is noted in the Philadelphia Meeting records at Ducketts Farm Burial Ground.Joseph Jackson (1918) Market Street, ''Philadelphia: The Most Historic Highway in America, Its Merchants and Its Story''; page 197.

Family

Among his descendants, through Mary Wynne and Dr. Edward Jones,: John Cadwalader, Lambert Cadwalader,

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, Sally Wister; through his daughter Rebecca: Charles Dickinson; through his daughter Hannah Joshua Humphreys and Charles Humphreys; through his step daughter Margery Maude Joshua Fisher; great-grandsons, Thomas, and Warner Wynne, through his son Jonathan, son Jonathan all served in the Pennsylvania " Flying Camp" and were taken prisoner by the British at the

Battle of Fort Washington The Battle of Fort Washington was fought in New York on November 16, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain. It was a British victory that gained the surrender of the remnant of the garrison of ...

and Thomas was held on the prison ships in New York Harbor. His great-grandson Thomas through his son Jonathan, son Thomas died shortly after Washington's crossing of the Delaware from him Gustavus Wynne Cook. This Thomas is remembered on the Lower Merion Revolutionary War Memorial.

References

External links

Dr. Thomas Wynne's WillDr. Thomas Wynne's Biography in "The National Cyclopedia"Wynnestay homepageTown of Caerwys, Flintshire, North Wales websiteBiography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wynne, Thomas 1627 births 1692 deaths People from Caerwys Welsh Quakers Quakers from Pennsylvania Converts to Quakerism People from colonial Pennsylvania Members of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly English emigrants 17th-century Welsh medical doctors Welsh emigrants to the United States 17th-century American physicians Speakers of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly