Katherine Hungerford (born Peverell) (c.1382 - c.1438) Katherine (aka Eleanor) Peverell was the younger daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Peverell and his second wife Margaret de Courtenay. Sir Thomas and Margaret had one son, George, and two daughters, Eleanor (wife of Otes Trenewith alias Bodrugan, John Raleigh, and William Talbot, Knt.) and Katherine, who married Walter Hungerford on 8 Oct 1396, in Penhale, Cornwall.
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| Hungerford Arms |
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The marriage of SIr Walter Hungerford and Katherine Peverell is symbolised in the heraldic badge showing Hungerford knot uniting Hungeford sickle and Peverell garb.
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Walter was the 1st Baron Hungerford Knight of the Garter, Knight of the Bath, of Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset, Heytesbury and Mildenhall, Wiltshire, etc., and, in right of his wife, of South Cadbury, Somerset, King's knight, Constable of Malborough Castle, 1399-1403, Knight of the Shire for Wiltshire, 1401, 1404, 1407, 1411, 1413, 1414, Chanberlain of the household of Princess Philippe, 1406, Knight of the Shire for Somerset, 1410, Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, 1413-14, Chief Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster south of Trent, 1413-37, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1414, Steward of the King's Household, 1417-21, 1424-26, Constable of Windsor Castle, 1417-38, Chamberlain of the Duchy of Lancaster, and 1425-44, Lord High Treasurer, 1426-32.
Katherine and Walter had at least 6 children:
- Elizabeth (c.1400 - 1476)who married Sir Philip Courtenay (1404-1463) of Powderham.
- Walter Hungerford - born c.1402 and his father's heir. Walter was a prisoner of war in France in 1425 and his father paid three thousand marks for his ransom. He later returned to France in the retinue of John of Lancaster, the Duke of Bedford in 1435, where he was killed. Walter predeceased his father and died without issue.
- Robert (c.1403–1459) who became heir after his brother Walter died and became 2nd Baron Hungerford on the death of his father. He married Margaret, 4th Baroness Botreaux. He served in the Hundred Years' Wars and served in parliament from 1450 to 1455. He is buried in Salisbury Cathedral.
- Edmund our ancestor(c.1409 - 1484, see below)
Margaret - born c. 1410. Married Sir Walter Rodney.
- possibly Thomas, ancestor of the Hungerfords of Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, of the Hungerfords of Windrush, Oxfordshire, and the Hungerfords of Black Bourton, Oxfordshire.
- and possiby Edward, ancestor of the Hungerfords of Cadenham, Wiltshire.
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A renowned warrior, Walter Hungerford is said to have defeated the King of France in a duel outside Calais in in 1401 when there with the English army. He fought in many engagements in the Hundred Years War - including Agincourt in 1415. Walter can probably be identified correctly as the officer who on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt expressed regret that the English had not ten thousand archers, which drew a famous rebuke from the king. In Shakespeare's Henry V, however, this officer is the Earl of Westmoreland. In 1417, he was made an Admiral of the Fleet under John of Lancaster and fought in 1418 with Henry V at the seige of Rouen. In November 1418, Walter was designated Steward of the King's Household. He was an executor of King HenryV's will, and was a member of the House of Lords 1436 - 1449 (his death). Our ancestor Walter was clearly a busy man, with a close eye and ear - and possiby influence - on the powerful end of the country's management.
Walter died on 9 August 1449. He is buried in Salisbury Cathedral alongside Katherine, within the iron chapel erected by himself, which is still extant, although removed from its original position.
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| Garter stall plate, Windsor Castle, of Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford. |
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| Walter Lord Hungerford and his second wife Catherine Peverell. The table tomb was constructed on the site of the chantry chapel in 1779 with fragments from that chapel and elsewhere. The top consists of two cut to size Purbeck floor slabs with brass indents. |
Katherine died sometime between November 1432 and May 1439 and is buried alongside her husband Walter in Salisbury Catherdal.
Walter Hungerford added largely to the family estates, including extending Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset which had been constructed by his father Sir Thomas Hungerford. Walter was a man of piety, and built chanteries 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). In his will, 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.
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| Farleigh Hungerford Castle as it used to look |
Our family ancestry continued through Edmund Hungerford (c.1409 - 26 March 1484) who was the fourth son of Walter, 1st Baron Hungerford and his wife Katherine (born Peverell). (More on Edmund in Part 4, coming soon)
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