Edward Hungerford (died 1522)

Sir Edward Hungerford (died 1522), was a soldier and courtier in the court of King Henry VIII of England who was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.

Biography

Edward was the son and heir of Sir Walter Hungerford of Farleigh and his wife Jane, daughter of Sir William Bulstrode.^[1] He accompanied Sir Walter to Scotland in 1503. He served in the English army in France in 1513, when he was knighted at the siege of Tournai. He was Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1517, and Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset in 1518. In 1520 he attended Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. He died on 24 January 1522, survived by his second wife Agnes who was sole executrix of his will.^[2]

Family

Sir Edward married twice. His first wife was Jane de la Zouche daughter of John, 7th Lord Zouche. They had one child Walter (1503–1540) who was created 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury in 1536.^[3]

Sir Edward's second wife, was Agnes, widow of John Cotell. It appears that Agnes had strangled her first husband at Farleigh Castle on 26 July 1518, with the aid of William Mathewe and William Inges, yeomen of Heytesbury, Wiltshire, and seems to have married Sir Edward almost immediately after burning the body. Not until Sir Edward's death were proceedings taken against her and her accomplices for the murder. She and Mathewe were then convicted and were hanged at Tyburn on 20 February 1524;^[4] she seems to have been buried in the Grey Friars' Church in London.^[5][6]

Notes

1. Lee 1891, p. 257.
2. Harrison 1891, p. 260 cites: cf. Gent. Mag. 1858, pt. i. p. 122.
3. Harrison 1891, pp. 259, 260
4. New Style (Julian calendar start of year adjusted to 1 January)
5. Harrison 1891, p. 260 notes: Stow, Chronicle, p. 517; Grey Friars' Chronicle, Camd. Soc., ed. Nichols, pp. 43, 100, where the attempts at identification are hopelessly wrong; Antiquary, ii. 233.
6. An inventory of Agnes's goods, taken after her trial, is printed in "Archæologia", vol. 38, pp. 353 et.seq (Harrison 1891, pp. 259, 260)

References

•  Lee, Sidney (1891). "Hungerford, Robert". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 256, 257.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Harrison, William Jerome (1891). "Hungerford, Walter (1503-1540)". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 259–261. Endnotes
  • Dugdale's Baronage;
  • Burke's Extinct Peerage;
  • Hoare's Hungerfordiana, 1823;
  • Jackson's Guide to Farleigh-Hungerford, 1853, and Sheriffs of Wiltshire; Burnet's Hist. of Reformation, i. 566–7;
  • Hall's Society in the Elizabethan Age;
  • Hoare's Modern Wiltshire, Heytesbury Hundred, pp. 110 sq.;
  • Brewer and Gairdner's Letters and Papers of Henry VIII; Antiquary, ii. 233.

Further reading

• Ashton, D. J. (January 2008) [2004]. "Sir Walter Hungerford (d. 1595x7)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14184. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Hicks, Michael (May 2010) [2004]. "Hungerford, Sir Walter (b. in or after 1441, d. 1516)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14182. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)