certainly not murdered by his wife in 1523, because he was beheaded in 1541. But it will be observed that our Chronicle merely records the fact of the lady's execution, and that the crime for which she is stated to have suffered was inserted by Stowe from some other authority. Stowe relied, perhaps, on traditional information, which may easily have varied in some degree from the truth It is probable that the lady may have been tried and condemned on a charge of attempt to murder, instead of having actually caused death. With this variation of the fact as stated by Stowe being granted, there are circumstances in the domestic life of this Sir Walter Hungerford which lead to the conclusion that the story refers to him.
In the first place, as we have seen, he was a knight at the time, and moreover the only one in the family then existing to whom it can refer.
In the next place, he was married three times: 1st, to Susanna Danvers; 2dly, to Alice, daughter of the Lord Sandes; and 3rdly, to Elizabeth (or Isabella), daughter of Lord Hussey. The date of the first wife's death has not been ascertained, but he was certainly married to the third wife before the year 1532. So far, circumstances favour Mr. Jackson's conclusion.
In a very curious letter, written about the year 1536, to Cromwell Lord Privy Seal, Elizabeth Hussey, the third wife, applies for justice and protection against her husband, on account of his cruelty. He had charged her, most falsely as she declares, with incontinence; had arbitrarily shut her up and kept her close prisoner for four years in one of the towers of his castle, without money, and with only such food as was brought to her by a chaplain, a creature of his, who, she says, "had undertaken to get rid of her out of his lord's way." That she was afraid to eat what this person brought her, and was secretly supplied by the poor women of the village at the window. She goes on to say "that she could tell, if she dared, many detestable and urgent crimes on the part of her husband, as he well knew," and especially of his notorious cruel conduct "always to his wives."
With this letter to illustrate the character of Walter lord Hungerford, considering also that names and dates are all consistent, it may at all events be admitted as a fair suggestion that the lady executed at Tybourn may have been the second wife, Alice Sandys; that his cruelty to her may have driven her to attempt to get rid of him by poison, or that he, wishing to get rid of her (as he did afterwards of his third wife), may have brought some accusation against her, and procured her condemnation. Such things were done in those days. Above all, when the reader is referred to p. 42, and is apprised of the crime for which this wretched man at last suffered the extreme penalty of the laws there is so much reason to conclude he had long outraged, it will not be thought unjust that the stigma should at length, in the pages of history, be removed from one of his victims to himself.
P. 31, 1. 14. For "master George Monop," read Monoux. A large MS. volume of vellum, filled with transcripts of deeds and other documents relating to the estates of Sir George Monoux, was sold in the auction room of Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, Dec. 4, 1851, Lot 163, for 5l. 10s. and has since taken its place among the Addit. MSS. of the British Museum.
