Sir Wadham Wyndham, Serjeant-at-law, of Ilton, Somerset and Saint Edmund’s College, Salisbury, was an English judge.
Background
He was born at Orchard Wyndham, Somerset, the ninth son of Sir John Wyndham (1558–1645) of Orchard Wyndham, by his wife, Joan Portman, daughter of Sir Henry Portman of Orchard Portman, Somerset. He was named after the family of his grandmother, Florence Wadham (d1596), sister and in her issue co-heiress, of Nicholas Wadham (d1609), of Merryfield, Ilton, founder of Wadham College, Oxford. The estate of Merryfield and lands at Ilton became the inheritance of the Wyndham family, and Wadham Wyndham made his seat at Ilton.
Career
Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, he entered Lincoln"s Inn on 22 October 1628, being called to the bar on 17 May 1636. He was made a serjeant-at-law by royal authority in October 1660, and took part in the prosecution of the regicides. On 24 November 1660 he was named a judge of the King’s Bench, being knighted by Charles II on 4 December 1660.
The Court sat at Clifford"s Inn and focused primarily on deciding who would pay for a property to be rebuilt, and cases were heard and a verdict usually given within a day.
The judges worked for free, three to four days a week and without the Fire Court legal wrangles could have dragged on for months seriously delaying the rebuilding which was so necessary if London was to recover. As a reward for their efforts, the artist John Michael Wright (c 1617-1694), was commissioned to paint portraits of all 22 judges that had sat in the Fire Court.
While his brother"s portrait remains part of the Guildhall Art Gallery collection, Sir Wadham"s portrait was ironically destroyed by fire in The Blitz.