Edward Hungerford (spendthrift)

Drawing c.1832 of bust of Sir Edward Hungerford (d.1711) formerly in Hungerford Market. Latin inscription: Forum utilitate publicae per quem necessarium Regia Caroli (Secun)di annuente Majestatae propriis sumptibus erexit perfecitq(ue) D(ominus) Edoardus Hungerford Balnei Miles anno MDCLXXXII ("This market for the use of the public, with the royal consent of His Majesty Charles the Second, Lord Edward Hungerford, Knight of the Bath, erected and completed at his own expense in the year 1682"). He wears on his breast the ancient badge of the order of the Bath.^[1]

Arms of Hungerford: Sable, two bars argent in chief three plates

Another drawing c.1832 of the bust of Sir Edward Hungerford (d.1711) formerly in Hungerford Market, published in Gentleman's Magazine 1832

Sir Edward Hungerford, KB, (20 October 1632 – 1711), 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.

Origins

Hungerford was the son and heir of Anthony Hungerford (1607/8-1657) by his wife Rachel Jones, daughter of Rice Jones of Asthall, Oxfordshire^[2] and was baptised at Black Bourton, Oxfordshire.^[3] His father was a supporter of the royalist cause in the Civil War. Hungerford was a student of Queen's College, Oxford in 1649. He succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father in 1657.^[2]

Career

In 1658 Hungerford was elected Member of Parliament for Chippenham in the Third Protectorate Parliament. He was elected MP for Chippenham in 1660 for the Convention Parliament.^[2] He was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of King Charles II on 23 April 1661.^[4] In 1661 he was elected for Chippenham again in the Cavalier Parliament but the election was declared void. He was then re-elected in the by-election later in 1661 and also in the two elections in 1679. In January 1680 he presented a petition for the summoning of a parliament,^[5] and his avowed opposition to the court party of King Charles II led to his removal as Lord Lieutenant of his county in May 1681.^[6] He settled in Spring Gardens, Whitehall, in 1681^[4] and was elected MP for Chippenham again in the Oxford Parliament of 1681. He was implicated in the 1683 Rye House Plot and his home at Farleigh Castle was searched for arms.^[2] He was elected MP for New Shoreham in 1685, 1688, and 1690, and for Steyning in 1695, 1698, 1700, and 1702.

Hungerford obtained some reputation as a patron of archery, and was lieutenant-colonel of the Regiment of Archers in 1661, and colonel in 1682. However, he was best known for his reckless extravagance. He is said to have disposed of thirty manors in all. By way of restoring his waning fortunes, he obtained permission in 1679 to hold a market, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays on the site of the demolished Hungerford House and grounds. The house, which stood on the site of the present Charing Cross railway station, had been his family's London town house and had been destroyed by fire in April 1669.^[7]).^[4] In 1682 a market-house was erected there, apparently to the design of Sir Christopher Wren. A bust of Sir Edward was placed on the north front, with an inscription stating that the market had been built at his expense with the king's sanction.^[8] In 1685 Sir Stephen Fox and Sir Christopher Wren purchased the market and received the tolls. The market-house was rebuilt in 1833, and was removed in 1860, when Charing Cross railway station was built on the site,^[9] Hungerford sold the manor and his seat at Farleigh Castle in 1686 to Henry Baynton of Spye Park for £56,000,^[10] so ending centuries of ownership by the Hungerford family. In about 1700 it was purchased by Joseph Houlton of Trowbridge, in the possession of whose descendants it remained until July 1891, when it was bought by Lord Donington.^[4]

Marriage & progeny

Hungerford married thrice:

• Firstly to Jane Hele (d.18 May 1664), daughter of Sir John Hele of Devonshire. She was buried at Farleigh. By her he had an only son, Edward Hungerford (1661-September 1681), who married in 1680, at the age of 19, Lady Alathea Compton, and died in September 1681. A daughter from the first marriage, Rachel (c1662-1731/32 in Co. Antrim), married, in March 1679/80, Clotworthy Skeffington, third Viscount Massereene, and left to her eldest son portraits of her father, of her granduncle (another Sir Edward Hungerford), and of other relations. In her will she mentions a brother and a sister as still living,^[11]

From this sprang: Hon. Rachael Skeffington (d.13/14 April 1739), she married firstly (1699) Randal (Mac Donnell), 4th Earl of Antrim (1680-1721), and secondly (1728) Robert Hawkins Magill (1704-1745 at Seaforde,'during a great hunting party'); High Sheriff Co. Down 1732; Trustee of the Linen Board for Munster 1736-1745; foundation member of the Dublin Society 1731; MP for County Down (1724-45); of Gill Hall, county Down; and her brother Clotworthy, 4th Viscount Massereene.

Robert Hawkins-Magill, by his second wife Anne Bligh, daughter of John (Bligh), first Earl of Darnley by Theodosia Bligh, 10th Baroness Clifton (1695–1722), he had a daughter and heir Theodosia Meade, Countess of Clanwilliam.

• Secondly to Jane Culme (d. 1674), daughter of Hugh IV Culme (1601-1643/4) of Canonsleigh Abbey and Molland-Champson in Devon and heiress of her brother Richard II Culme (d.1658/9),^[12] and by whom he seems to have left issue.^[13]
• Thirdly to Jane Digby, perhaps the Lady Hungerford who died on 23 November 1692^[14] and by whom he seems to have left issue.^[13]

Death

In his old age Hungerford is stated to have become a poor knight of Windsor. He died in 1711 and was buried in the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.^[15] With the death of Sir Edward, the notable history of the family of Hungerford of Farleigh practically closes.^[13]

Notes

References

• Hayton, D. W.; Lancaster, Henry (1983). "Hungerford, Sir Edward (1632-1711), of Broadwater, Suss.". The House of Commons, 1660–1690. 1. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 163–164. ISBN 0-436-19274-8. 

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney (1891). "Hungerford, Edward (1632-1711)". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 255–256. 
  • Hoare's Hungerfordiana, 1823;
  • Jackson's Guide to Farleigh-Hungerford, 1853;
  • Gent. Mag. 1832, pt. ii. 113-15;
  • Burke's Extinct Peerage, s.v. 'Hungerford of Heytesbury;' Burke's Vicissitudes of Families, 1st ser.;
  • Notes and Queries, 5th ser. ii. 293.

Further reading

• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
• Burke, Sir Bernard, Vicissitudes of Families, relates the downfall of the Hungerford family