Admiral Sir William Wynter (c. 1521 – 20 February 1589) held the office of Surveyor and Rigger of the Navy for 40 years, from 1549 until his death in 1589, and combined that with the office of Master of Navy Ordnance from 1557. He was an admiral and principal officer of the Council of the Marine under Queen Elizabeth I of England and served the crown during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). He was returned four times to parliament in Elizabeth's time.
Personal
Wynter was born at Brecknock, the second of five sons of John Wynter (died 1545), a merchant and sea captain of Bristol and second Treasurer of the Navy (1544-1545), a friend of Thomas Cromwell's. His mother was Alice, daughter of William Tirrey of Cork, Ireland. His sister Agnes Winter (died 1574) in her second marriage became the first wife of the diplomat Thomas Wilson (1524-1581), and was the mother of his children. William's brothers Arthur Wynter and George Wynter also held important positions in relation to the Navy.
Naval career
William was schooled in the Navy. He took part in the 260 ship expedition of 1544, which burned Leith and Edinburgh, and in 1545 he served in Lord Lisle's channel fleet. In July 1546 he held the office of Keeper of the King's Storehouse at Deptford Strand. In 1547 he took part in Protector Somerset's expedition to Scotland and victory at Pinkie, and in 1549, in an expedition to Guernsey and Jersey.
In April 1549 Wynter was appointed Surveyor of the Navy, succeeding his colleague Benjamin Gonson, who was simultaneously appointed Treasurer of Marine Causes. Gonson held his post until his death in 1577, and Wynter his until 1589, so that this partnership was a constant feature of the naval administration through the third quarter of the sixteenth century.
In December 1549, as captain of the Mynion, he captured the prize of a French ship, the Mary of Fécamp, laden with sugar. A reward of £100 was to be shared out among the crew of 300. In 1550, he superintended the removal of the ships from Portsmouth to Gillingham in the Thames Estuary; Edward VI owed him £471 for a voyage to Ireland in 1552, and, in 1553, he went on a voyage to the Levant. In 1554, Wynter spent several months in the Tower of London under suspicion of involvement in Thomas Wyatt's rebellion against Mary I of England, until he was pardoned in November.
In 1557, Wynter was appointed Master of Navy Ordnance, a post he held along with the Surveyorship for the rest of his life. On 22 May 1558, Wynter brought ships from Dunkirk to Dover which were sailing on to Portsmouth. He was present at the burning of Le Conquet in July 1558.
At about this time William Wynter married Mary Langton, one of the daughters of the London merchant Thomas Langton, citizen and Skinner (died c. 1550) and his wife Mary Matthew of Colchester. The marriage reflected civic and mercantile interest: Mary Matthew, Wynter's mother-in-law, became Dame Mary Judde (died 1602), as the third wife of the Lord Mayor Sir Andrew Judde, a leading representative of the Muscovy Company, who died in 1558: she afterwards married the London alderman, citizen and Clothworker James Altham of Mark Hall, Latton, Essex (died 1582). Mary Langton's sister (Wynter's sister-in-law) Jane Langton was the wife of John Barne, son of the leading Muscovy merchant and Lord Mayor, George Barne (died 1558). Edward Wynter, eldest son of William and Mary, was born in 1560.
Mission to Scotland, 1559-1560
Wynter was sent with a fleet to Scotland in January 1560 during the crisis of the Scottish Reformation commanding the Irish Squadron. In Scotland, Protestant lords, known as the "Lords of the Congregation" challenged the Catholic Regent Mary of Guise who was supported by French forces. Wynter commanded a fleet to guard against French landings in Scotland in 1559, while diplomatic efforts were made to negotiate sending an English army to aid the Scottish Protestants. After a briefing at Gillingham, Wynter left Queenborough in the Lyon on 27 December, and sailed from the Lowestoft sea road on 14 January with 12 men-of-war followed by two supply ships, the Bull and the Saker. After the fleet was dispersed by a storm off Flamborough Head on 16 January, the damaged Swallow, Falcon, and Jerfalcon were left at Tynemouth, and the rest of the fleet passed Bamborough Castle to Berwick upon Tweed, where 600 hand gunners were embarked.