{{Short description|English merchant and civil servant}} {{Use British English|date=August 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Alexander Wynch | image = | order = | office = Governor of Madras | term_start = 2 February 1773 | term_end = 11 December 1775 | lieutenant = | predecessor = Josias Du Pré | successor = George Pigot (2nd time) | birth_date = 1721 | birth_place = | death_date = 1781 | death_place = | party = | spouse = Sophia<br>Florentia Cradock | profession = | signature = }}
'''Alexander Wynch''' (1721 – 1781) was an English merchant, a career civil servant of the East India Company who became Governor of Madras.<ref name="Love">{{cite book|author=Henry Davidson Love|title=Indian Records Series Vestiges of Old Madras|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h2nkEiSSDaYC&pg=PA1|accessdate=20 April 2012|publisher=Mittal Publications|pages=3–5|id=GGKEY:GE1U0JNYH0Q}}</ref>
==Life== He travelled to India at a young age and began to work, unpaid, for the East India Company at 13.<ref name="Love"/>
Wynch became governor of Madras in 1773. He was removed as governor in 1775, in the wake of his handling of the affair of Thuljaji, the Rajah of Thanjavur (Tanjore), who in fighting in south India had been dispossessed by Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah, the Nawab of Arcot. The company disapproved of the change in the previous policy of ensuring the Rajah and Nawab were bound by treaty. Wynch was replaced in 1775 by George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot, governor some years before, who was sent out from England.<ref name="Love"/>
In England, Wynch lived in Upper Harley Street in London, and then Gifford Lodge in Twickenham. He died at Westhorpe House in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire.<ref name=TM>{{Cite web |url=http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=370 |title=Twickenham Museum, ''Gifford Lodge''. |access-date=20 April 2012 |archive-date=24 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324104119/http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=370 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Family== Wynch was twice married, and had children by both marriages.<ref>{{cite book|author=John Burke|title=Burke's genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0NEKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA817|accessdate=20 April 2012|year=1847|publisher=H. Colburn|page=817 note}}</ref> His first wife was Sophia, daughter of Edward Croke and sister of Begum Johnson.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Love|first1=Henry Davison|title=Vestiges of Old Madras|year=1988|page=319|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bl9T4uJcBFAC&q=Alexander+Wynch,+Governor+of+Fort+George,+Madras&pg=PA319|accessdate=31 January 2018}}</ref> His second wife was Florentia Cradock, whom he married in 1755.<ref name=TM/>
He was father of George Wynch, and so grandfather of Florentia Sale, wife of Robert Henry Sale.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of Indian Biography|year = 1971|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8AKI2nqPBQC&pg=PA371|accessdate=20 April 2012|publisher=Ardent Media|page=371|id=GGKEY:BDL52T227UN}}</ref> His daughter Frances became notorious when she eloped with Sir William Jervis Twysden, 7th Baronet.<ref name=TM/>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{S-off}} {{Succession box | title= Governor of Madras | before= Josias Du Pré | after= George Pigot | years= 1773–1775}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wynch, Alexander}} Category:1721 births Category:1781 deaths Category:Governors of Madras Category:18th-century English merchants