great seal in March 1426-7 placed Gloucester in supreme power. He acted as carver at Henry VI's coronation in Paris in December 1430 (Waurin, Chron., Rolls Ser.,iv.11), but on the change of ministry which followed Henry VI's return from France in February 1431-2, he ceased to be treasurer. He attended the conference at Arras in 1435 (Wars of Henry VI in France, Rolls Ser., ed. Stevenson, ii. 431). He died on 9 Aug. 1449, and was buried beside his first wife in Salisbury Cathedral, within the iron chapel erected by himself, which is still extant, although removed from its original position. By his marriages and royal grants Hungerford added largely to the family estates. He was a man of piety, and built chantries at Heytesbury and Chippenham, and made bequests to Salisbury and Bath cathedrals. In 1428 he presented valuable estates to the Free Royal Chapel in the palace of St. Stephen at Westminster. He also built an almshouse for twelve poor men and a woman, and a schoolmaster's residence at Heytesbury. The original building was destroyed in 1765, but the endowment, which was regulated by statutes drawn up by Margaret of Botreaux, wife of Hungerford's son Robert, still continues (Jackson, Anc. Statutes of Heytesbury Almshouses, Devizes, 1863). Hungerford's will is printed in Nicolas's `Testamenta Vetusta,' pp. 257-9. He left his 'best legend of the lives of the saints' to his daughter-in-law, Margaret, and a cup which John of Gaunt had used to John, viscount Beaumont.
Hungerford married first, Catherine, daughter of Thomas Peverell; and secondly, Alianore, or Eleanor, countess of Arundel, daughter of Sir John Berkeley, who survived him. By the latter he had no issue. By his first wife he was father of three sons, Walter, Robert, and Edmund. Walter was made a prisoner of war in France in 1425, was ransomed by his father for three thousand marks, was in the retinue of the Duke of Bedford in France in 1435, and died without issue. Edmund was knighted by Henry VI after the battle of Verneuil on Whit-Sunday 1426 (Metcalfe, Book of Knights, p. 1), married Margaret, daughter and coheiress of Edward Burnell, and by her had two sons, Thomas, ancestor of the Hungerfords of Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, of the Hungerfords of Windrush, Oxfordshire, and the Hungerfords of Black Bourton, Oxfordshire; and Edward, ancestor of the Hungerfords of Cadenham, Wiltshire.
Robert Hungerford, Baron Hungerford (1409–1459), the second but eldest surviving son of Walter, lord Hungerford, served in the French wars, and was summoned to parliament as Baron Hungerford from 5 Sept. 1450 to 26 May 1455. He died 14 May 1459, and in accordance with his will was buried in Salisbury Cathedral (Nicolas Testamenta Vet. p. 294). His son Robert, lord Moleyns and Hungerford (1431-1464), is noticed separately. Through his mother (Catherine Peverell) and his wife Margaret, the wealthy heiress of William, lord Botreaux, he added very largely to the landed property of his family in Cornwall (Maclean, Trigg Minor, i. 357). His wife lived till 7 Feb. 1478, surviving all her descendants, excepting a great-granddaughter, Mary [see under Hungerford, Robert, 1431-1461]. Her long and interesting will, dated 8 Aug. 1476, is printed in Nicolas's 'Testamenta Vetusta,' pp. 310 sq., and in Hoare's 'Modern Wiltshire, Hundred of Heytesbury.' A list of the heavy expenses she incurred in ransoming her son Robert appears in Dugdale's 'Baronage,' ii. 204 sq.
[Authorities cited; Dugdale's Baronage; Burke's Extinct Peerage; Collinson's Somerset, iii. 354; Hoare's Hungerfordiana, 1823; Maclean's Trigg Minor, i. 358 sq.; Hoare's Mod. Wiltshire, Heytesbury Hundred; Rymer's Fœdera; Stubbs's Const. Hist.; Nicolas's Battle of Agincourt, 1832; Monstrelet's Chroniques, ed. Doüet d'Arcq (Soc. de l'Hist. de France), 1862, ii. 404, iv. 93, vi. 314; Manning's Lives of the Speakers.]
HUNGERFORD, WALTER, Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury (1503–1540), was the only child of Sir Edward Hungerford (d. 1522). His father, son and heir of Sir Walter Hungerford [see Hungerford, Robert, (1431–1464), ad fin.], accompanied Sir Walter to Scotland in 1503; served in the English army in France in 1513, when he was knighted at Tournai; was sheriff for Wiltshire in 1517, and for Somerset and Dorset in 1518. In 1520 he attended Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold; died on 24 Jan. 1521–2, and left his surviving wife sole executrix (cf. Gent. Mag. 1858, pt. i. p. 122). Walter's mother was his father's first wife, Jane, daughter of John, lord Zouche of Haryngworth. His father's second wife was Agnes, widow of John Cotell. She had (it afterwards appeared) 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 Feb. 1523–4; she
