Arms: Quarterly: 1st and 4th, Barry of ten Or and Sable (Botteville); 2nd and 3rd, Argent, a Lion rampant with tail nowed and erect Gules (Thynne). Crest: A Reindeer statant Or. Supporters: Dexter: A Reindeer Or, gorged with a plain Collar Sable. Sinister: A Lion with tail nowed and erect Gules.[1]
The Thynne family descends from the soldier and courtier
Sir John Thynne (died 1580), who constructed
Longleat House between 1567 and 1579. In 1641 his great-grandson Henry Frederick Thynne was created a Baronet, of
Caus Castle, in the
Baronetage of England (some sources claim that the
territorial designation is "Kempsford in the County of Gloucester"). He was succeeded by his son, the second Baronet. He represented
Oxford University and
Tamworth in the
House of Commons and also served as Envoy to Sweden. In 1682 he was raised to the
Peerage of England as Baron Thynne, of
Warminster in the
County of Wilts, and Viscount Weymouth, in the
County of Dorset, with remainder to his younger brothers James Thynne (who died unmarried) and Henry Frederick Thynne and the heirs male of their bodies.[2]
Lord Weymouth died without surviving male issue in 1714 (one of his three sons, the Honourable
Henry Thynne, represented
Weymouth and Melcombe Regis and
Tamworth in Parliament but had died in 1708, leaving only daughters) and was succeeded in the peerages (according to the special remainders) by his great-nephew, the second Viscount. He was the grandson of the aforementioned Henry Frederick Thynne, brother of the first Viscount. He married as his second wife Lady Louisa Carteret, daughter of
John, Earl Granville, a female-line grandson of
John, 1st Earl of Bath of the second creation (a title which had become extinct in 1711). Lord Weymouth was succeeded by his eldest son, the third Viscount. He was a prominent statesman and served as
Secretary of State for the Northern Department and as
Secretary of State for the Southern Department. In 1789 the Bath title held by his ancestors was revived when he was created Marquess of Bath.[3] Unusually, the
Earldom of Bath was revived during the Marquess's lifetime for
Laura Pulteney, the heiress of the Earl of Bath of the fourth creation. Place names used by existing peerages are normally avoided when new ones are created. This earldom went extinct on her death in 1808.
The 6th Marquess's second son,
Alexander, the 7th Marquess, succeeded in 1992. He was a well-known politician, author and artist. In 2015 the Times described him as "a steaming pile of ancient kaftans and one of our wuffliest and weirdest mad-hatter aristocrats. He is best known for swanning around Longleat, his enormous Elizabethan pad in Wiltshire, entertaining his 75 concubines, or as he called them, "wifelets".
The wifelets have included former
Bond girls and Sri Lankan teenagers, as well as housewives and, according to some, prostitutes. The deal is simple: the wifelets get to hang out with Lord Bath in a jewel of a palace and in return he gets unlimited sex."[4]
The titles are currently held by
Ceawlin Thynn, the son of the 7th Marquess.
Other family members
The Honourable
Henry Thynne, second son of the second Viscount, succeeded to the Carteret estates through his mother and assumed the surname of Carteret in lieu of Thynne. In 1784 he was created Baron Carteret with remainder to the younger sons of his brother the first Marquess of Bath (see the
Baron Carteret for more information on this title). Several other members of the Thynne family have also gained distinction. The Reverend
Lord John Thynne, third son of the second Marquess, was sub-Dean of
Westminster Abbey; his seventh son was
Major-General Sir Reginald Thomas Thynne (1843–1926).
Lord Henry Thynne, second son of the third Marquess, was a Conservative politician and notably served as
Treasurer of the Household from 1875 to 1880.
Lord Alexander Thynne, third son of the fourth Marquess, represented Bath in the House of Commons from 1910 to 1918.
The arms borne by the Thynne family are: Quarterly: 1st and 4th, barry of ten Or and Sable (Botteville); 2nd and 3rd, Argent, a lion rampant with tail nowed and erected Gules (Thynne).[1] This can be translated as: a shield divided into quarters, the top left and bottom right made of ten horizontal bars alternating gold and black (for the Boteville family); the top right and bottom left quarters white with a red lion rampant with a knotted tail (for the Thynne family).
^
abMontague-Smith, P. W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p. 119
^Pugh, R. B.; Crittall, Elizabeth, eds. (1957). "Parliamentary history: 1529–1629".
A History of the County of Wiltshire. Vol. 5. London: Victoria County History – via British History Online.
^Mosley, Charles, ed. (1999). "Bath". Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage. Vol. 1 (106th ed.). Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books). pp. 212–214.
ISBN2-9400-8502-1.