Thomas Wendy 1613-1673

Sir Thomas WENDY 1613-1673

Armorial stamp of Sir Thomas Wendy (British Armorial Bindings).

Biographical Note

Born at Lillingstone Lovell, Oxfordshire, son of Francis Wendy, a member of a well-connected Warwickshire gentry family. Matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford 1631, but did not graduate. Inherited family estates at Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire in the 1630s. Sheriff of Cambridgeshire 1638; commissioner for the collection of subsidies for the King, 1640-1. He spent some time abroad in the 1640s but continued to be recorded during that time as a tax commissioner. MP for Cambridgeshire 1660, re-elected in 1661; he served on various parliamentary committees, including ones concerned with conventicles and Roman Catholicism. He was made a Knight of the Bath in 1661.

Books

Wendy's library of ca.2000 volumes, then said to be valued at £600, was given to Balliol College in 1677. This was not a stated bequest, as books are not mentioned in his will, but the College was left farms, which it did not receive, and the library may have been negotiated as an alternative. The books cover a range of subjects and languages typical of the collection of a gentleman antiquary of the time. Examples: Balliol 470.c.15, 705.b.14, 685.e.7.

Characteristic Markings

Wendy used an armorial binding stamp which is found on many of his books.

Sources

• British Armorial Bindings.
• History of Parliament.
• Hindmarsh, L. Sir Thomas Wendy and his family, Notes & Queries 7 July 1951, 287-90, 18 August 1951 354-6.
• Carless Davis, H. W. A history of Balliol College, 1963, 148.