(1710 - 63), s. and h. of Sir William Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham, Som.; educ. Westminster and Ch.Ch. Oxf. 1725; suc. fa. 1740 as 4th Bt; MP 1735 - 50; Dilettanti 1742; suc. uncle 1750 as 2nd E. of Egremont; m. 1751 Hon. Alicia Maria Carpenter, dau. of 2nd B. Carpenter [I].
1729 - 30 [dep. Paris Sep. 1729] Turin (4/6 Nov. 1729), Genoa (26 Nov.), Milan (9 Dec.), Padua (20 Dec.), Venice (21 Dec. 1729 - after 11 Feb. 1730), Rome (by 8 Mar. - 13 Apr.), Naples (Apr.), Rome ( - 4 May), Florence (by 19 May)
Charles Wyndham left England in 1727 with his tutor, a Mr Campbell, first spending two years at an academy in Paris. He left Paris for Lyons with Benjamin Bathurst in September 1729,1 while Campbell (having met up with Lady Ferrers) alleged that he was too ill to travel and stayed on in Paris. Tutor and charge met at Lyons, and then early in November in Turin.1 There Wyndham attended a Ball given by the French Ambassador to celebrate the birth of the Dauphin and danced 'all night long' with the Princess Francavilla (16 Nov. 1729). He had met George Lyttelton in Lyons2 with whom he then visited Genoa and Milan (9 Dec. 1729), and by the end of December they were among a number of English tourists ('about thirty') enjoying the Carnival in Venice. He saw the celebrated singer Farinelli, 'the greatest prodigy in the world', and told his father that Mr Brown [Neil Brown, the British consul at Venice] 'claims an old acquaintance with you' (6 Jan. 1730).3
He met Campbell and Lady Ferrers again in Venice and told his father of his own bewilderment at their behaviour; he also explained that he was very shortly leaving for Rome and, 'as soon as the Carnival is over there I propose to make a trip for four or five days to Naples, & then return for the holy week after which according to your desires & commands I will make the best of my way homewards'; he gives his address in Rome as 'chez Monsieur Jean Ange Belloni Banquier' (28 Jan. 1730). He was detained in Venice and Lyttleton departed on his own on 12 February. They were again together in Rome in March, at the time of the Conclave and Wyndham, finding Campbell still attached to Lady Ferrers, proposed to return home with Bathurst (8 Mar. 1730). He may have been the 'Carlo Vinder' listed as living by the Strada della Croce in Rome at Easter 1730 with a 'Gugliemo Russel/Russet'[?].4
On 13 April 1730 he told his father from Rome that he had broken with Campbell, that he was taking 'all precautions' to avoid the Pretender and his court, and that he was leaving that day for Naples 'where after five days stay, I shall return [to Rome] to prepare for moving homewards by Florence'. He had left Rome on his return journey by 4 May when Stosch reported him 'much attached to King and government'.5 On 19 May Colman in Florence reported that 'Mr Lyttelton set out last Monday for Paris in company with Mr Wyndham'.6
1. Petworth House archive 6320 (Lyons, 24 Sep. 1729); dates of other letters to his father in brackets. 2. Geo.Lyttelton, Works, 3:708. 3. SP 99/63, f.123 (Burges, 20 Jan. 1730). 4.
AVR sa, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 5. SP 98/32, f.62. 6. SP 98/31.