[Illustration] The sole remaining branch in the male line of this
ancient family, said to be of Saxon origin, and descended from
"Ailwardus" of Wymondham, or Wyndham, in Norfolk, living soon after
the Norman Conquest. Felbrigge, in the same county, was for many
ages the seat of the Wyndhams, and afterwards Orchard, in
Somersetshire, which came from the co-heiress of Sydenham. The
present family, who succeeded to the representation on the death of
the fourth and last Earl of Egremont, in 1845, descend from Sir
Wadham, ninth son of Sir John Wyndham, of Orchard and Felbrigge.
They were seated at Norrington, in this county, about 1660. Dinton
was purchased in 1689.
See Parkins's Continuation of Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. iv. p. 309;
Hoare's Wiltshire, vol. iii. pt. i. 108, and vol. iv. p. 93;
Hutchins's History of Dorset, vol. iii. p. 330; Wotton's Baronetage,
vol. iii. p. 346; and Brydges's Collins, vol. iv. p. 401.
ARMS.--_Azure, a chevron between three lion's heads erased or_.
Present Representative, William Wyndham, Esq.