William Wynter Wynter was born at Brecknock , the son of John Wynter ( ob . 1546 - a merchant and sea captain of Bristol and treasurer of the navy , who was friendly with Sir Thomas Cromwell ) and Alice , daughter of William Tirrey of Cork . Naval career . Wynter ' s father John was Tresurer of Marine Causes , and William was schooled in the navy . He took part in the 260 ship expedition of 1544 , which burned Leith and Edinburgh , and held the office of Keeper of the King ' s Storehouse at Deptford Strand . In 1545 he served in Lord Lisle ' s channel fleet ; two years later he took part in Protector Somerset ' s expedition to Scotland and victory at Pinkie , and in 1549 an expedition to Guernsey and Jersey . In that same year , he was appointed Surveyor of the Navy , and as captain of the " Mynion " captured the prize of a French ship , the " Mary of Fécamp " laden with sugar in December . 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 , William 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 , which post he held along with the Surveyorship for the rest of his life . He was present at the burning of Conquet in 1558 . On 22 May 1558 Wynter brought ships from Dunkirk to Dover which were sailing on to Portsmouth . He was sent with a fleet to Scotland in January 1560 during the crisis of the Scottish Reformation . Mission to Scotland . 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 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 . The Duke of Norfolk , commander in the North , gave Wynter orders to hinder any French landings in the Firth of Forth , but to avoid battle , pretending he came up - river by chance without any official commission . At Coldingham bay , Wynter paused to send a copy of his log to London , which still survives , back to London . Eight ships including the " Antelope " and " Lyon " carried on into the Firth of Forth towards the fortress Island of Inchkeith on 21 January . Wynter ' s blockade was immediately effective in preventing communication by sea from Edinburgh to the French garrison at Dunbar Castle . Although he could not do as much as he wished because his small landing boats were lost in the storm , he captured two French ships loaded with armaments . At first the French had thought that Wynter ' s fleet were French ships bringing more troops , and their response was to send these boats loaded with munition for Henri Cleutin who was advancing on St Andrews . Instead , Cleutin was forced to race back to Stirling overland , and William Kirkcaldy of Grange delayed him by cutting the bridge over the Devon at Tullibody . On 24 January Wynter allowed the Scottish Snawdoun Herald John Patterson with the trumpet messenger James Drummond aboard the " Lyon " , who demanded to know his business in Scottish waters . As instructed , Wynter told Snawdoun he had been bound for Berwick , and came into the Forth expecting " friendly entertainment " as the nations were at peace . As the French forts had fired on him , and he had heard of the political situation in Scotland , he had taken it upon himself to aid the Lords of the Congregation against the " wicked practices of the French , " and so Elizabeth I of England knew nothing of it . Patterson and Drummond visited the English fleet four times . Wynter ' s actions and speech to the herald were reported to the Privy Council of England . To maintain the pretence he was instructed not to bring any ships he captured to England , but berth them in the friendly harbours of Dundee and St Andrews which were in Protestant hands . As late as 16 February , Norfolk sent the Chester Herald , William Flower , to Mary of Guise who declared the English fleet had arrived in the Firth by accident . She claimed that the Lords of the Congregation had revealed advance knowledge of Wynter ' s mission and were in communication with him . Flower replied that he had no knowledge of ships or letters . While this ineffectual diplomacy continued , the Lords of the Congregation concluded the Treaty of Berwick with Norfolk , which set conditions for English intervention . Some of the sons of the leading Protestants were given up as hostages to guarantee the treaty , and these boys were delivered to Wynter . Wynter continued to harass shipping and then supported the English army brought in by the Treaty of Berwick to the Siege of Leith . He burnt seven ships under d ' Elbouf ; not only that , all supplies were cut off from France . He kept up a naval bombardment of the town . On Saturday 7 May 1560 , Wynter waited for a signal to sail up the Water of Leith and land 500 men on the quayside called the Shore , but the signal never came as the English assault on the walls had failed . The siege was ended by the negotiation of the Treaty of Edinburgh of 1560 which was the effective conclusion to the ' Auld Alliance ' . Lord Burghley reported to the Privy Council that all spoke well of Wynter ' s conduct and he " was to be cherished . " In July , Wynter discussed his fleet ' s return to Gillingham for re - fitting in dry - dock , but " the most expert officers of the Admiralty " sent the fleet to active service at Portsmouth , on their way escorting the ships evacuating the French army from Scotland to Calais . In 1561 he purchased Lydney Manor in Gloucestershire as his residence . In that year , he helped save the Palace of the Bishop of London from fire by advising the Mayor of London , William Harpur to demolish the roof of the adjacent north aisle of St Paul ' s Cathedral when the church caught fire after being struck by lightning on 4 June 1561 . In 1563 he served in the fleet off Havre . Operations off Ireland . In 1571 , during the first of the Desmond Rebellions one of Wynter ' s ships was seized at Kinsale by James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald , the Irish rebel . On 12 August 1573 , Wynter was knighted , but in 1577 he was passed over for the post of treasurer of the navy in place of Sir John Hawkins , a promotion that would have doubled his income . Nevertheless , Sir William Wynter and his brother George , both received a handsome return on their investment in Sir Francis Drake ' s 1577 Voyage . In 1579 he commanded the squadron off Smerwick in Ireland , cutting off the sea - routes and seizing the ships of the papal invasion force , which was landed by Fitzmaurice in the company of Nicholas Sanders launching the Second Desmond Rebellion ; during this campaign he assisted in the siege of Carrigafoyle Castle . Spanish Armada . In 1588 , the year of the Spanish Armada , Wynter joined the main fleet of Lord Howard off Calais and proposed the fire - ship plan to drive the Spaniards from their anchorage ; he took a celebrated part in the battle off Gravelines on 29 July , which was the only time in his career when he had hard fighting . During the engagement , he received a severe blow on the hip when a demi - cannon toppled over . It is said that he was the only one to have understood the completeness of the navy ' s defence , assessing from his experience at Leith that the enemy army ' s transport would require 300 ships , while Howard and Drake thought that the invasion of England might still take place despite the naval repulse delivered to the armada . Vice - Admiral of England Sir William Wynter was granted the manor of Lydney in recognition of his services against the Spanish Armada . Having been created admiral , Wynter supported charges of dishonesty against the treasurer of the navy , Hawkins , and wrote critically of him to Sir William Cecil , Lord Burghley . Legacy . Wynter married Mary Langton ( died 4 November 1573 , Seething Lane , London , daughter of Thomas and Catherine ) and had issue : His grandson was John Winter who was an active royalist during the English Civil War . Wynter died on 20 February 1589 aged 68 . A Latin eulogy by William Patten was published in that year .