Family and Education

bap. 29 Oct. 1567, Anthony Hungerford of Down Ampney, Glos. by Bridget, da. of John Shelley of Mitchelgrove, Suss.; bro. of Sir John. educ. St. John’s, Oxf. 1583-7. m. (1) Lucy (d.1598), da. of Sir Walter Hungerford of Farleigh Castle, Som., wid. of Sir John St. John, 1s. 2da.; (2) 3 May 1605, Sarah, da. and coh. of Giles Crouch, haberdasher, of Cornhill, London, wid. of William Wiseman of Woolstone, Uffington, Berks., 4s. 2da. Kntd. 1608.1

Offices Held

Jt. (with Edward Beck, yeoman of the spicery) bailiff and receiver of the rents of the late monastery of St. Leonard’s, Yorks. 1598; dep. Lt. Wilts c.1610-24.2

Biography

Brought up by his Catholic mother, Hungerford was convened to ‘the religion established in the present Church of England’ about 1588. This was not a matter of conforming to avoid the penalties to which Catholics were subject, but, as his subsequent writings show, a genuine—and unusual—change. Though the Hungerfords were declining in importance in this period, their status was sufficient to obtain his return to Parliament for local boroughs. His name has not been found in the surviving records of the House, but he may have attended a cloth committee on 15 Mar. 1593 to which the burgesses for Marlborough were appointed. Hungerford created a trust in 1604, to provide £10 p.a. towards apprenticing two poor children of Great Bedwyn. He spent his later years at Blackbourton, which he acquired by purchase. He died 27 June 1627, and was buried at Blackbourton, his will dated 23 June being proved 21 July. His son Sir Edward, who had inherited the estate of Sir Edward Hungerford, was an executor.3

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes

• 1. Wilts. Arch. Mag. vi. 297; Wilts. Colls. ed. Aubrey and Jackson, 173; Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv, cvi), 93; Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 89; Vis. London (Harl. Soc. xv), 207; VCH Berks. iv. 549; PCC 16 Kidd; EHR, xvi. 292-307.
• 2. CSP Dom. 1598-1601, p. 82; VCH Wilts. v. 82.
• 3. A Davidson ‘Roman Catholicism in Oxfordshire’ (Bristol Univ. PhD thesis 1970), pp. 540-8; D’Ewes, 501; EHR, xvi. 292-307; Wilts. Arch. Mag. vi. 290, 297; Som. Wills, vi. 82; C142/437/89.