Family and Education

b.c.1519, prob. 2nd s. of Sir Anthony Hungerford of Down Ampney, Glos. by 1st w. Jane, da. of Sir Edward Darrell of Littlecote, Wilts.; bro. of John. m.settlement June 1555, Dorothy, da. and coh. of Robert Allen of London, at least 1s. 5da.1

Offices Held

Commr. relief, Berks. 1550.2

Biography

Edward Hungerford of Weston had at least two namesakes who could have been of an age to have sat in the Parliament of 1554. One of these was his younger brother (or half-brother), the other his cousin (and brother-in-law) the son of Walter, Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury by his second wife Alice, daughter of William, 1st Lord Sandys. This cousin, a gentleman pensioner in the royal household, was in his old age to sit as a knight of the shire in 1601. Although he could have sat for Bedwyn in November 1554, presumably with the support both of the crown and of his kinsmen, the gap of nearly half-a-century between these two elections would have been most unusual. With the brother the question turns on his age. If he was a half-brother, a child of Sir Anthony Hungerford’s second marriage, he would have been barely old enough for election in 1554 and he could certainly not have been the recipient of a goblet from the 3rd Duke of Buckingham at his christening, the duke’s execution in 1521 having long predated Sir Anthony Hungerford’s second marriage. Only as a child of the first marriage, that is as a full brother of his namesake of Weston, could he have enjoyed that favour, and the two would then become practically indistinguishable. To give the preference, as is done here, to Edward Hungerford of Weston is thus to make a somewhat arbitrary choice on circumstantial grounds.3

Little enough has come to light about this Edward Hungerford. By 1538 his elder brother John had reached the age of 22, so that it was probably he who in that year was with Stephen Gardiner in France and who afterwards enjoyed an annuity of £6 13s.4d. from the bishopric of Winchester of which he was deprived in 1551. If the identity of the Edward Hungerford who, ‘being no priest’, was the incumbent of North Standen free chapel in Berkshire must remain doubtful (unless he was the graduate of that name), it was clearly Hungerford who in 1538 obtained the lease of a farm at Welford, hard by Weston, and who nine years later leased Welford church and its appurtenances from the parson for £25 a year and the obligation to find two priests to serve the cure. In 1555 he settled Weston on himself and Dorothy Allen, whom he intended to marry, and in 1564 he was distrained there for failing to do homage.4

Hungerford was one of six members of his family in its various branches who sat in Parliament under Mary. In his own branch his father had been a knight of the shire for Gloucestershire in October 1553 and his brother John had sat for Bedwyn in the same House; he himself was to be joined in the Commons by Sir Walter Hungerford of Heytesbury, one of the knights for Wiltshire. His own inclusion in this roll-call he almost certainly owed to his brother, who lived on the outskirts of Bedwyn and was a burgess there: he was to be succeeded in the seat by their brother-in-law Henry Clifford.

In the will which he made on 13 Sept. 1572 Hungerford asked to be buried in Welford church, to which he left £10 for repairs and the same amount for the poor. His wife was to have his house and lands in Weston and Purton, Wiltshire, for herself and ‘the education and virtuous upbringing’ of his children; the property was to descend to his male heirs and their issue and in default of these to his five brothers and their male heirs in succession. Of a provision of £500 his eldest daughter Dorothy was to receive £200, and £100 was to go to each of his daughters Jane and Frances and to the child which his wife ‘doth now bear in the womb’, evidently the daughter baptized on 6 Dec. 1572. Hungerford’s goods were valued at some £170 on 6 Nov. 1572. An inquisition found that 15 Oct. 1572 had marked the eighth anniversary of the baptism of his son and heir John in Welford church.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: R. L. Davids

Notes

• 1. Probably the Edward Hungerford aged 19 or under in February 1538, LP Hen. VIII, xiii, PCC 47 Welles; R.C. Hoare, Hungerfordiana, 15; Wilts N. and Q. ii. 306-7; Coll. Top. et Gen. vii. 70-72; London IPMs (Brit. Rec. Soc.), ii. 51-52; Bodl. wills Berks. F. 387.
• 2. CPR, 1553, p. 351.
• 3. J. E. Jackson, Guide to Farleigh Hungerford, 13; CP, v. 625-6; CPR, 1553-4, p. 133; PCC 47 Welles.
• 4. LP Hen. VII, xiii, xxi; VCH Berks. ii. 25; iv. 119, 198; E301/51/38; Emden, Biog. Reg. Univ. Oxf. 1501-40, p. 684; CPR, 1547-8, p. 21; 1550-3, p. 179; 1554-5, p. 257.
• 5. Bodl. wills Berks. F. 387; Coll. Top. et Gen. v. 359; C142/163/4.