Sir Thomas de Hungerford (died 3 December 1397) [1] of Farleigh Castle in Somerset, was the first person to be recorded in the rolls of the Parliament of England as holding the office of Speaker of the House of Commons of England, [2] [3] although that office had existed before his tenure.
Hungerford was the son of Walter de Hungerford of Heytesbury, Wiltshire, thrice a Member of Parliament for Wiltshire, in 1331/2, 1333/4 and 1336. His mother was Elizabeth FitzJohn, daughter and heiress of Sir Adam FitzJohn of Cherhill in Wiltshire. The Hungerford family had been seated in Wiltshire since at least the twelfth century.
Thomas's uncle was Robert Hungerford (d.1355), a Member of Parliament for Wiltshire in 1316 and a commissioner to inquire into the possessions of the Despensers after their attainder in 1328, and gave much land to the hospital at Calne in memory of his first wife, Joan, to the church of Hungerford, Berkshire, and to other religious foundations. He was buried in 1355 in Hungerford Church, where an elaborate monument long existed above his grave. An inscription to his memory is still extant in the church. His second wife was Geva, widow of Adam de Stokke, but he left no issue. [4]
Hungerford was Sheriff of Wiltshire from 1355 to 1360 and served several times as a Member of Parliament for Wiltshire: in April 1357, in 1360, 1362, January 1376/7, twice in 1380, in 1383, 1384, 1386, January 1389/90, and in January 1392/3. He served as a Member of Parliament for Somerset in 1378, 1382, 1388, and 1390. He was returned for both constituencies in 1384 and January 1389/90. He was knighted in February 1375. He was closely associated with John of Gaunt and acted for some time as steward of Gaunt's household. [3]
Owing to Gaunt's influence, he was chosen in January 1376/7, in the last of Edward III's parliaments (the Bad Parliament), to act as Speaker of the House of Commons. [5] According to the Rolls of Parliament (ii. 374) Hungerford "avait les paroles pur les communes d'Angleterre en cet parliament" ('[he] spoke for the commons of England in this Parliament'). He is thus the first person formally mentioned in the Rolls of Parliament as holding the office of speaker. Sir Peter de la Mare preceded him in the post, without the title, in the Good Parliament of 1376. [6] In 1380 Hungerford was appointed Forester of Selwood. In 1369 he purchased from Walter Pavely, de jure Baron Burghersh, the manor of Farleigh Montfort, now called Farleigh Hungerford, which served as the chief residence of his descendants, and in 1383 obtained licence to crenellate his manor house there, which thus became Farleigh Castle. In about 1384 he aroused the suspicion of King Richard II, who attached him, but he obtained a pardon and also a confirmation of his free warren at Farleigh. [7]
He married twice:
Hungerford died at Farleigh on 3 December 1397, and was buried in the Chapel of St Anne (north transept chapel) of St Leonard's Chapel, Farleigh Hungerford Castle, [8] [9] where his chest tomb with effigies of himself and his wife survive. His portrait was made in a stained-glass window, engraved in Hoare's Modern History of Wiltshire, Heytesbury Hundred, p. 90.
Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford was an English knight and landowner, from 1400 to 1414 a Member of the House of Commons, of which he became Speaker, then was an Admiral and peer.
John Tiptoft, 1st Baron Tiptoft was a Knight of the Shire for Huntingdonshire and Somerset, Speaker of the House of Commons, Treasurer of the Household, Chief Butler of England, Treasurer of the Exchequer and Seneschal of Landes and Aquitaine.
Sir James Pickering was Speaker of the House of Commons of England in 1378 and again from 1382 to 1383. The protestation which, as Speaker, he made for freedom of speech, and declaring the loyalty of the Commons, was the first recorded in the rolls.
Eleanor de Bohun was the elder daughter and co-heiress, of Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (1341–1373) and Joan Fitzalan, a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster.
Sir Edward Hungerford, KB, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1659 and 1702. He was famous for his profligate ways and sold thirty manors, including the family seat at Farleigh Hungerford, to fund his extravagant lifestyle. He founded Hungerford Market at Charing Cross as a commercial venture.
Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury, was created Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury in 1536.
Sir Nicholas Brembre was a wealthy magnate and a chief ally of King Richard II in 14th-century England. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1377, and again from 1384–5,6. Named a "worthie and puissant man of the city" by Richard Grafton, he became a citizen and grocer of London, and in 1372-3 purchased from the Malmains family the estates of Mereworth, Maplescomb, and West Peckham, in Kent. His ties to Richard ultimately resulted in his downfall, as the anti-Richard Lords Appellant effectively took control of the government and imprisoned, exiled, or executed most of Richard's court. Despite Richard's efforts, Brembre was executed in 1388 for treason at the behest of the Lords Appellant.
Farleigh Hungerford Castle, sometimes called Farleigh Castle or Farley Castle, is a medieval castle in Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset, England. The castle was built in two phases: the inner court was constructed between 1377 and 1383 by Sir Thomas Hungerford, who made his fortune as steward to John of Gaunt. The castle was built to a quadrangular design, already slightly old-fashioned, on the site of an existing manor house overlooking the River Frome. A deer park was attached to the castle, requiring the destruction of the nearby village. Sir Thomas's son, Sir Walter Hungerford, a knight and leading courtier to Henry V, became rich during the Hundred Years War with France and extended the castle with an additional, outer court, enclosing the parish church in the process. By Walter's death in 1449, the substantial castle was richly appointed, and its chapel decorated with murals.
Sir Edward Hungerford (1596–1648) of Corsham, Wiltshire and of Farleigh Castle in Wiltshire, Member of Parliament, was a Parliamentarian commander during the English Civil War. He occupied and plundered Salisbury in 1643, and took Wardour and Farleigh castles.
Sir Walter Hungerford, Knight of Farley was an English landowner. In his lifetime he was popularly referred to as the "Knight of Farley" for his renowned sporting abilities. In his youth he recovered the lands forfeited by his father's attainder, and was favoured by Queen Mary, whose Maid of Honour, Anne Basset, was his first wife. In 1568, he sued his second wife, Anne, for divorce. He failed to prove the scandalous grounds he alleged against her, but chose to be imprisoned in the Fleet rather than support his wife or pay the costs awarded against him by the court.
Sir Anthony Hungerford (1567–1627) of Black Bourton in Oxfordshire, Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire until 1624, was a member of parliament and a religious controversialist.
Robert Hungerford, 3rd Baron Hungerford was an English nobleman. He supported the Lancastrian cause in the War of the Roses. In the late 1440s and early 1450s he was a member of successive parliaments. He was a prisoner of the French for much of the 1450s until his mother arranged a payment of a 7,966l ransom. In 1461, after defeat on the Towton battlefield on 29 March, he fled with Henry VI to Scotland. In 1461 he was attainted in Edward IV's first parliament, and executed in Newcastle soon after he was captured at the Battle of Hexham.
Sir Thomas Hungerford of Rowden was an English nobleman. He supported the Lancastrian cause in the War of the Roses and was executed for supporting a conspiracy to restore Henry VI.
Sir Walter Hungerford of Farleigh fought for Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth. He served on the Privy Council for both Henry VII and Henry VIII.
Robert Hungerford, 2nd Baron Hungerford (1409–1459) was an English landowner. The second but eldest surviving son of Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford, he served in the Hundred Years' War, and was summoned to parliament as Baron Hungerford from 5 September 1450 to 26 May 1455. He died 14 May 1459, and in accordance with his will was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. He was succeeded by his son Robert Hungerford, 3rd Baron Hungerford (1431–1464).
Sir Maurice Russell, JP of Kingston Russell, Dorset and Dyrham, Glos. was an English gentleman and knight. He was a prominent member of the Gloucestershire gentry. He was the third but eldest surviving son and heir of Sir Ralph Russell (1319–1375) and his wife Alice. He was knighted between June and December 1385 and served twice as Knight of the Shire for Gloucestershire in 1402 and 1404. He held the post of Sheriff of Gloucestershire four times, and was Coroner and Justice of the Peace, Tax Collector and Commissioner of Enquiry. His land holdings were extensive in Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. He was descended from an ancient line which can be traced back to 1210, which ended on the death of his son Thomas, from his second marriage, as a young man without male issue. Most of his estates, despite having been entailed, passed at his death into the families of his two daughters from his first marriage.
Anne, Lady Hungerford was an English lady of the royal court during the reign of Queen Mary I, and poet.
Sir Edward Hungerford was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1601.
Sir Edward Hungerford, 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.
Sir John Berkeley, of Beverston Castle, Gloucestershire was an English politician. He was knighted before 1383.
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