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she died for murdering her husband. Stow cites in his margin the Register of the Grey Friars, meaning a volume now preserved in the British Museum, and including a London Chronicle which was printed for the Camden Society in the year 1852. We find that the body of the convicted lady was buried in the Church of the Grey Friars, in the middle of the nave; and that circumstance evidently occasioned the notice taken of the execution in the chronicle. In a side-note, written by a later but old hand, is, 'Suspendit apud Tyborne.' The passage is as follows : 'And this yere in feverette the xxti day was the lady Alys Hungerford lede from the Tower unto Holborne, and there put into a carte at the churchyard with one of her servanttes, and so caryed unto Tiborne, and there both hongyd, and she burryed at the Grayfreeres in the nether end of the myddes of the church on the North syde.'

Sir Richard Colt Hoare, in his Hungerfordiana, already mentioned, connects this tragic event with that branch of the Hungerfords which resided at Cadenham, in Wiltshire; but the Rev. Mr. Jackson, F.S.A., who has formed large collections relative to the Hungerfords, corrects the statement of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, and adds: 'There were no knights in the Cadenham branch of the Hungerfords before a Sir George, who died in the year 1712; and the only knights of the family living at the date of the execution in 1523 were Sir Walter Hungerford of Farley Castle and Heytesbury, and Sir John Hungerford and Sir Anthony his son, both of Down

Ampney, whose wives had other names, and are otherwise accounted for.'

No other Alice Lady Hungerford identifiable with the culprit could be discovered but the second of the three wives of Sir Walter, who was summoned to Parliament as Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury in 1536; and considering that the extreme cruelty of that person to all his wives is recorded in a letter written by the third and last of them, and that his career was eventually terminated with the utmost disgrace in 1540, when he was beheaded (suffering at the same time as the fallen minister Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex), it was deemed not improbable that the unfortunate lady might have been condemned for some desperate attempt upon the life of so bad a husband, which had not actually effected its object, or even that her life and character had been sacrificed to a false and murderous accusation. In the survey of his lands he is described as Sir Walter Hungerford, Knight, late Lord Hungerford, ' of hyge treason attaynted' (Hoare's Modern Wiltshire). It is also stated that part of his offence was maintaining a chaplain named William Bird, who had called the king a heretic, and that he had procured certain persons by conjuration to know how long the king should live (Dugdale's Baronage, ii. p. 242). Holinshed states that at the hour of his death he seemed unquiet, as manie judged him rather in a frenzie than otherwise.'

In the above state the mystery remained until the discovery, a few years since, of an 'Inventory of the goods

belonging to the king's grace by the forfeiture of the Lady Hungerford, attainted of murder in Hilary term, anno xiiij. Regis Henrici VIII.;' where, although the particulars of the tragedy remain still undeveloped, we find that the culprit must have been a different person from the lady already noticed; and the murdered man, if her husband, of course not the Lord Walter.

It is ascertained by the inventory before us, that the Lady Hungerford who was hung at Tybourn on the 23d of February 1523, was really a widow, and that she was certainly convicted of felony and murder; moreover, that her name was Agnes, not Alice, as stated in the Grey Friars Chronicle. This inventory further shows, by the mention it contains of Heytesbury, Farleigh Castle, and other places, as well as by the great amount of personal property described, that the parties were no other than the heads of the Hungerford family. The initials E. and A. placed upon some of the articles point to the names of Edward and Agnes. In short, it is made evident that the lady was the widow of Sir Edward Hungerford, the father of Walter Lord Hungerford already mentioned; and we are led to infer that it was Sir Edward himself who had been poisoned or otherwise murdered by her agency.

It is a remarkable feature of the inventory, that many items of it are described in the first person, and consequently from the lady's own dictation; and towards the end of it is a list of the rayment of my husbond's, which is in the keping of my son-in-law.' By this expression is

understood that the person so designated was Sir Walter Hungerford, Sir Edward's son and heir.

From this conclusion it follows that the lady was not Sir Walter's mother, who appears in the pedigree as Jane, daughter of John Lord Zouch of Horryngworth, but a' second wife, whose name has not been recorded by the genealogists of the family.

To this circumstance must be attributed much of the difficulty that has hitherto enveloped this investigation. The lady's origin and maiden name are still unknown; but the Rev. Mr. Jackson has favoured Mr. J. G. Nichols with some particulars which clearly identify her as the widow of Sir Edward Hungerford. His observations are as follow:

That Agnes Lady Hungerford was the second wife of Sir Edward Hungerford of Heytesbury, may now be safely declared upon the evidence following. Of this Sir Edward very little is known. But it is quite certain that he was twice married, and that his first wife was a Zouch. The pedigrees uniformly call her Jane; and the arms of Hungerford impaling Zouch were found some years ago on stained glass in a cottage near Farleigh Castle, and were transferred to the church of that parish. By this first wife Sir Edward had only one son, Walter, afterwards created Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury. The date of the first wife's death is not known. The name of the second wife is found in Sir Edward's last will. He resided chiefly at Heytesbury; and from the circumstance of the eleven witnesses' names all belonging to that immediate neigh

bourhood, it is most likely that he died there. After bequeathing small legacies to various churches and friends, the will concludes thus: "The residue of all my goodes, debts, catalls, juells, plate, harnesse, and all other moveable, whatsoever they be, I freely give and bequeth to Agnes Hungerforde, my wife. And I make, ordeyn, and constitute, of this my present last wille and testament, the said Agnes, my wife, and sole executrice." Sir Edward must have died soon afterwards, as the will was proved on the 29th of January 1521-2.

'After an interval of twelve months comes the fact, supplied by the heading of the present inventory, that "Lady Agnes Hungerford, wydowe, was attaynted of felony and murder in Hillary Term xiiij. Henry VIII.," i. e. between January 11 and January 31, A.D. 1523. And on the 20th February following (as the Grey Friars Register and Chronicle state), Lady Hungerford, whom those documents. call Alice, was executed at Tybourn. Five months after, Walter Hungerford, only son and heir of Edward Hungerford, Knight, obtained the royal licence to enter upon all lands and tenements of which the said Sir Edward was seised in fee, or which Agnes, late wife of Sir Edward, held for term of her life.

'The inventory agrees with the will in another point. By the will, all goods, debts, chattels, jewels, plate, harness (i. e. armour), and all other moveables whatsoever, were "freely given" to Agnes the wife. These are precisely the articles specified in the inventory; and that they were the

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