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Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth (1640 – 28 July 1714) was a British peer in the peerage of England. ==Biography== He was born the son of Sir Henry Frederick Thynne of Caus Castle, Shropshire, and Kempsford, Gloucestershire, and his wife, Mary, daughter of Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry of Aylesborough. He succeeded his father as 2nd baronet (1681) and married Frances, daughter of Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea. He was descended from the first Sir John Thynne of Longleat House. He was educated at Kingston Grammar School and entered Christ Church, Oxford on 21 April 1657. He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Society on 23 November 1664. He held the office of Envoy to Sweden between November 1666 and April 1669. He was returned as Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Oxford University between 1674 and 1679 and for Tamworth between 1679 and 1681. He succeeded to the title of 2nd Baronet Thynne, of Kempsford on 6 March 1679. He was High Steward of Tamworth from 1679 and also High Steward of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield from 1679 until his death. He was created 1st Viscount Weymouth, on 11 December 1682, with a special remainder failing male heirs of his body to his two brothers, James and Henry Frederick. He was created 1st Baron Thynne of Warminster on 11 December 1682. On 13 December 1688 he carried an invitation to the Prince of Orange at Henley on Thames, along with the Earl of Pembroke, after the flight of King James II. He held the office of First Lord of Trade and Foreign Plantations between 30 May 1702 and April 1707. In this role he is reputed to have introduced the Lord Weymouth Pine (Pinus strobus), in 1705 and planted it extensively on the estate at Longleat. The Lord Weymouth Pine was useful for ship masts in that it grew tall and slender, but in truth this was a bit of a cheat, in that the name really derived from George Weymouth, totally unrelated, who first discovered this pine growing in Maine. All Thomas did was to arrange for its importation, and prefix a Lord in front of the Weymouth in the tree's official appellation. He was invested as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.) on 18 June 1702. In May 1707 he was relieved of the role of Privy Counsellor. In 1707, Thomas Thynne founded a grammar school for boys in the nearby market town of Warminster, with 23 free places for local boys. The first Master was Rev R. Barry. Over time this became known as the Lord Weymouth School. In 1973 this school merged with St Monica's Girls' School to become Warminster School which continues to this day. The 1st Viscount is remembered at Warminster School by the naming of a boarding house, later converted to classrooms, after him. A strong link remains between the school and his successors. He held the office of Warden of the Forest of Dean in 1712. He was re-invested as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.) on 8 March 1711. Lord Dartmouth wrote that "Lord Weymouth was a weak , proud man, with a vast estate... He was very liberal to non-jurors, though he always took the oaths himself; which occasioned his house being constantly full of people of that sort, who cried him up for a very religious man; which pleased him extremely, having affected to be thought so all his life; which the companions of his youth would by no means allow." Thomas had his bouts of ill health. In fact in 1667, when he was laid low with the gout, he was never expected to recover - though he did. And in any case he managed to outlive all his male relatives, both his own and the succeeding generation, leaving him sadly without any grandsons from male issue. Family legend has it that he was twice offered an earldom during his final years. Yet without there being any male heir from his own loins, and with the inheritance of Longleat required by family entail to pass through the male line of descent from Sir John Thynne, he didn't really feel there was much point in accumulating any additional honours. He was more inclined to suppose that the whole line would soon be extinct, or too distant in blood ties for him to trouble himself. He had four sons, including Henry Thynne (1675–1708), all of whom predeceased him. He has an extensive article in the ''Dictionary of National Biography''. ==Longleat House and the Thynnes== Longleat was purchased by Sir John Thynn in 1541. He was the first of the Thynne 'dynasty' - the family name was Thynn or Thynne in the 16th century, later Thynne only, but the present head of the family reverted to the spelling Thynn in the 1980s. Sir John Thynne (1515–1580) purchased Longleat which was previously an Augustinian priory. He was a builder with experience gained from working on Syon House, Bedwyn Broil and Somerset House. In April 1567 the original house caught fire and burnt down. A replacement house was effectively completed by 1580. Adrian Gaunt, Alan Maynard, Robert Smythson, the Earl of Hertford and Humpfrey Lovell all contributed to the new building but most of the design was Sir John's work. Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth (1640–1714) started the house's large book collection. Formal gardens, canals, fountains and parterres were created by George London with sculptures by Arnold Quellin and Chevalier David. The Best Gallery, Long Gallery, Old Library and Chapel were all added due to Wren. What changed most of all, were the general surroundings to the house, for Thomas was impassioned by the idea of gardens, and inspired in particular by Versailles. He employed George London to lay out a vast complex of ornate terraced flower beds, with symmetrical paths and avenues, to furnish Longleat with a decorative environment, which stretched for the most part eastwards, across the leat (having diverted 'the long lete' with a canal), and on up into what is now the safari park. The whole family, when gathered, took much delight in the home-grown fruit to be harvested at Longleat. The house is still used as the private residence of the Thynn family. The Viscountcy of Weymouth has been held by the Marquesses of Bath since 18 Jun 1789. Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath (born 1932) is an artist and mural painter with a penchant for mazes and labyrinths (he created the hedge maze, the love labyrinth, the sun maze, the lunar labyrinth and King Arthur's maze on the property). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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