HUNGERFORD, Edward (1596-1648), of Down Ampney, Glos.; later of Corsham, Wilts.; St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster and Farleigh Hungerford, Som.

At the age of 11 Hungerford inherited the estates of his great uncle, Sir Edward, having spent part of his childhood as a member of the latter’s household at Farleigh Hungerford. C142/306/159, 160; VCH Wilts. ix. 61; Lansd. 901, f. 25v. Under the terms of the will Hungerford was to receive £100 annually until his majority, and then £300 each year for the following five years. PROB 11/112, f. 295v; C66/1145/34; 66/1168/20; 66/1262/14; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 105; CP, vi. 626; L. Stone, Fam. and Fortune, 196, 207, n. 12; Oliver, 15. By 1609 this arrangement had led to an acrimonious legal dispute during which Hungerford’s father sued the executors for £3,600 of unpaid monies, including the profits from the sale of certain manors, and sought £600 from the 6th earl of Rutland, who had recently married Sir Edward’s widow. C2/Jas.I/H112/50; Som. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Procs. iii. 121; J. Jackson, Farleigh Hungerford, 8; VCH Wilts. vii. 218; J. Aubrey, Top. Collections, 309. A further £600 was sought from Hungerford’s uncle, Sir Carew Reynell*, for refusing to relinquish two manors in Cornwall that were part of Sir Edward’s legacy. C2/Jas.I/H2/52; Add. 23690, f. 87. The complicated sequence of inheritances and conveyances was still being disputed in the courts as late as 1626, when Hungerford sued Sir Giles Estcourt* for the return of Maddington manor, Wiltshire. C2/Chas.I/H74/55.

Hungerford was returned on the strength of his family’s local standing for Wootton Bassett in 1614, while still under-age. He left no trace on the records of the Addled Parliament. In 1620, by which time he was resident in the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, he married the daughter of William Halliday, a wealthy London alderman. Her dowry comprised £14,000, together with the manor of Corsham and properties in Chippenham, Stanton St. Quentin, and Monkton Farleigh. PROB 11/143, f. 411v; Add. 33412, f. 79; CLRO, Reps. 50, f. 123; Aubrey, 287; F.H. Goldney, Recs. of Chippenham, 2, 3. Hungerford immediately made Corsham, within three miles of Chippenham, his principal residence, and consequently was able to get himself returned to the 1621 Parliament for Chippenham. His principal reason for seeking election may have been to defend his kinsman by marriage, (Sir) Giles Mompesson*, whose activities as a patentee for inns, gold and silver thread and concealed Crown lands subsequently incurred the wrath of the Commons. On 3 Mar. Hungerford met with Mompesson and tried to help him secure his estates; however, he played no recorded role in the debates about how to punish Mompesson, who was expelled from the House. Hungerford’s only committee appointment was to consider a bill against swearing (10 Mar. 1621). CJ, i. 548b. In the following July, Hungerford, with his stepbrother Sir John St. John*, was assigned the £10,000 fine imposed upon Mompesson, together with his household effects. Ibid. 535b, 536a; LJ, i. 72v; C66/2246/27; CSP Dom. 1619-23, p. 273; Aubrey, 170. Hungerford and St. John subsequently became involved in a series of lawsuits to try to recover debts and rents owed to Mompesson. Add. 34566, ff. 19, 129. Nevertheless, Hungerford remained on good terms with the Mompesson family, his near neighbours at Bathampton. Som. Wills (ser. 4) ed. F. Brown, 28.

By 1624 Hungerford was both a magistrate and deputy lieutenant for Wiltshire, and was returned for the county at the general election for James’s last Parliament. Although not appointed to the privileges committee, Hungerford closely followed the Chippenham election controversy, in which John Pym* had secured the votes of seven burgesses for the junior seat, and Sir Francis Popham* had won the support of the bailiff, five burgesses and up to 30 townsmen, resulting in a double return. The case sparked a franchise dispute; but Hungerford, seconded by Sir Robert Phelips, successfully moved on 25 Feb. 1624 that Popham should be admitted to the House. ‘Pym 1624’, ii. f. 6. Hungerford’s appointments included private bill committees concerning the 2nd earl of Hertford (William Seymour*) and his brother Sir Francis Seymour* (10 Mar.), and the sale of Thomas Redferne’s Wiltshire lands for debts (17 March). CJ, i. 681a, 688a. He was also nominated to consider bills to regulate the actions of customs collectors (24 Mar.), and weirs on the River Wye (3 April). Ibid. 747b, 753a. After the prorogation a warrant was issued allowing Hungerford to purchase a barony; he probably could have comfortably afforded an Irish title, for which the going rate was around £1,500, but despite rumours of his elevation there is no evidence that he actually bought one. CSP Dom. 1623-5, p. 369; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 600; C.R. Mayes, ‘The Sale of Peerages in early Stuart Eng.’, JMH, xxix. 35.

Hungerford’s ownership of a house in Bath presumably facilitated his election for the borough in 1625. He was appointed to one committee, to examine Exchequer debts (25 June), but left no other trace on the records. Procs. 1625, p. 229. He appears not to have stood for election to the 1626 Parliament, although he did travel to the capital for Charles’s coronation, at which he was dubbed a knight of the Bath. His election in 1628 for Cricklade, where he also held property, may have been assisted by his uncle, Sir John Hungerford*, who had himself represented the borough in 1604 and whose seat at Down Ampney was only three miles distant. J.F. Meehan, Famous Houses of Bath, 5; Wilts. N and Q, v. 319; Eg. 2552, f. 15. Hungerford’s sole appointment was to attend the public fast conference (21 Mar. 1628). CD 1628, ii. 42.

In 1634 Hungerford became embroiled in a protracted lawsuit involving the marriage of his mother-in-law Susan Halliday to the 2nd earl of Warwick (Sir Robert Rich*). Hungerford, along with (Sir) Henry Yelverton* and Susan’s brother Sir Henry Roe, had been executor to William Halliday’s estate, and he was also a signatory to an indenture allowing Warwick a marriage portion of £7,000 for her maintenance in the event of his death. Hungerford and Yelverton had each been entrusted with £1,500 of this portion, and sued Warwick after discovering that he had given the money to his son and daughter without consulting the trustees. C2/Chas.I/H41/50; 2/Chas.I/H74/55; 2/Chas.I/W75/7; J. Burke, Commoners, ii. 129. Hungerford also undertook numerous leases, purchases and exchanges to consolidate his holdings near Corsham. C2/Chas.I/H78/25; 2/Chas.I/H100/48; 2/Chas.I/H107/58; Wilts. RO, 212B/3617; Add. 34566, ff. 21v-23v, 133; R.C. Hoare, Wilts. iii. 50. He sat for Chippenham in the Short and Long Parliaments, and was able to offer £1,000 for a proposed parliamentary loan in 1640, plus a promise of £2,000 towards a similar loan in July 1641. Longleat, Thynne Pprs. (IHR microfilm XR71/4), viii. ff. 127, 133; Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, iii. 915; CJ, ii. 222; M.F. Keeler, Long. Parl.

Throughout the Civil War, Hungerford used Corsham as a base for his activities as the commander of parliamentary forces in Wiltshire. CJ, ii. 92b, 932a, 954a, 955a; LJ, v. 543a; Waylen, 187; VCH Wilts. v. 138, 139; Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxvi. 343; Som. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Procs. xxiv. 62; HMC Bath, iv. 279. In the summer of 1645 he laid siege to Farleigh Castle, which surrendered to him in September. Hoare, Wilts. i. 16; Collinson, Som. i. 146. He had a reversionary right to the property, although it remained part of his great aunt’s jointure until her death in 1653. In July 1648 Parliament entrusted him with a garrison in the castle to prevent it falling to the royalists. Som. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Procs. iii. 123; CSP Dom. 1648-9, pp. 150, 156, 159. He died three months later, having made his will on 1 August. After assigning generous legacies to servants and relatives, and bequests to the poor of Corsham, Trowbridge, Farleigh Hungerford, Great Bedwyn, and St. Martin-in-the-Fields, he arranged for £40 to be provided annually for ‘an able, pious and orthodox teaching minister’ at Maddington, a curacy which he had already been supporting for a decade. PROB 11/205, ff. 283v-284v; CSP Dom. 1637-8, p. 205. Hungerford substantially rebuilt parts of Corsham church, while his widow was later to build an almshouse in the town. Wilts. RO, 334/20, f. 8; Subscription Bk. of Bps. Tounson and Davenant ed. B. Williams (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xxxii), 81; Wilts. Arch. Mag. xii. 292. He had originally stipulated that he be buried in St. Lawrence Jewry, London, adjacent to his father-in-law, William Halliday; but in accordance with a codicil later added to his will he was interred in the chapel at Farleigh Castle, where a commemorative plaque was erected. PROB 11/205, f. 284v. He had no children, and consequently his estates passed to his half-brother, Sir Anthony Hungerford† of Black Bourton in Oxfordshire.