BARON

See also:

• WALTER, HUBERT (d. 1205)
• WALTER, JOHN (1738/9-1812)

WALTER

See also:

• HUNGERFORD
• BARON WALTER HUNGERFORD HUNGERFORD (d. 1449)

HUNGERFORD HUNGERFORD (d. 1449)  , English soldier, belonged to a Wiltshire family . His father, Sir Thomas Hungerford (d . 1398), was speaker of the House of Commons in 1377, a position which he owed to his friend John of Gaunt, and is the first person formally mentioned in the rolls of parliament as holding the office . Walter Hungerford also served as speaker, but he is more celebrated as a warrior and diplomatist, serving in the former capacity at Agincourt and in the latter at the council of Constance and the congress of Arras . An executor of Henry V.'s will and a member of the council under Henry VI., Hungerford became a baron in 1426, and he was lord treasurer from 1426 to 1431 . Remains of his benefactions still exist at Heytesbury, long the principal residence of the family . Hungerford's son Robert (c . 1400–1459) was also called to parliament as a baron; he was very wealthy, both his mother and his wife being heiresses . Like several other members of the family, Robert was buried in the cathedral at Salisbury . Robert's son and heir, Robert, Lord Moleyns and Hungerford (c . 1420-1464), married Eleanor, daughter of Sir William de Moleyns, and was called to parliament as Lord de Moleyns in 1445 . He is chiefly remembered through his dispute with John Paston over the possession of the Norfolk manor of Gresham .

After losing this

case he was taken prisoner in France in 1452, not securing his release until 1459 . During the Wars of the Roses he fought for Henry VI., with whom he fled to Scotland; then he was attainted, was taken prisoner at the battle of Hexham, and was executed at Newcastle in May 1464 . His eldest son, Sir Thomas Hungerford (d . 1469), was attainted and executed for attempting the restoration of Henry VI.; a younger son, Sir Walter Hungerford (d . 1516), who fought for Henry VII. at Bosworth, received some of the estates forfeited by his ancestors . Sir Thomas, who had no sons, left an only daughter Mary (d. c . 1534) . When the attainders of her father and grandfather were reversed in 1485 this lady became Baroness Hungerford and Baroness de Moleyns; she married into the Hastings family and was the mother of George Hastings, 1st earl of Huntingdon . Sir Walter Hungerford's son Edward (d . 1522) was the father of Walter, Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury (1503–1540), who was created a baron in 1536, but was attainted for his alleged sympathy with the Pilgrimage of Grace; he was beheaded on the 28th of July 1540, the same day as his patron Thomas Cromwell . As his sons Sir Walter (1532–1596) and Sir Edward (d . 1607) both died without sons the estates passed to another branch of the family .

Sir Edward Hungerford (1596–1648), who inherited the estates of his kinsman Sir Edward in' 1607, was the son of Sir

Anthony (1564–1627) and a descendant of Walter, Lord Hungerford . He was a member of both the Short and Long Parliaments in 164o; during the Civil War he attached himself to the parliamentary party, fighting at Lansdowne and at Roundway Down . His half-brother Anthony (d . 1657) was also a member of both the Short and the Long Parliaments, but was on the royalist side during the war . This Anthony's son and heir was Sir Edward Hungerford (1632–1711), the founder of Hungerford market at Charing Cross, London . He was a member of parliament for over forty years, but was very extravagant and was obliged to sell much of his property; and little is known of the family after his death . See Sir R . C . Hoare, History of Modern Wiltshire (1822–1844) .