Anne Hungerford

{{Short description|English lady of the royal court}}

{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}

{{ infobox noble

| name = Anne, Lady Hungerford

| image =

| occupation = Courtier, poet

| father = Sir William Dormer

| mother = Mary, Lady Dormer (née Sidney)

| spouse = Sir Walter Hungerford (m. 1558–1596); 4 children

| issue = Edmund Hungerford
Susan Hungerford
Lucy Hungerford
Jane Hungerford

| birth_name = Anne Dormer

| birth_date = 1525

| birth_place = England

| death_date = 1603

| death_place = Louvain, Flemish Brabant (present-day Belgium)}}

Anne, Lady Hungerford (née Dormer; 1525–1603) was an English lady of the royal court during the reign of Queen Mary I, and poet.{{sfn|Stevenson|Davidson|2001|p=113}}

Biography

Anne was a daughter of Sir William Dormer by his first wife, Mary, daughter of Sir William Sidney and Anne (née Pakenham).{{sfn|Rylands|1909|p=41}}{{sfn|Dunlop|1897|p=210}} She was the sister of Jane Dormer, a lady in waiting to Queen Mary I, and later wife of the Duke of Feria.{{sfn|Lundy|2011}}{{sfn|G.Q.B.|2003|p=138}} Both Anne and Jane were prominent recusants.{{sfn|Stevenson|Davidson|2001|p=113}}

In 1558 Queen Mary gave permission for Sir Walter Hungerford, who had earlier been married to the Queen's Maid of Honour, Anne Basset, to marry Anne Dormer as his second wife.{{sfn|Bindoff|1982|p=414}} In 1568 Hungerford sued for divorce, alleging that his wife had tried to poison him some years earlier, and that she had committed adultery with William Darrell (of Littlecote, Wiltshire),{{sfn|W.J.J.|1981}} and had had a child by him.{{sfn|Harding|1982}}

Hungerford failed to prove the allegations in court, and subsequently spent three years in Fleet Prison for his refusal to support his wife or to pay the £250 in costs awarded against him in the divorce suit.{{sfn|Ashton|2004}}{{sfn|Harding|1982}} Two letters from Lady Hungerford, written in 1570, speak of her impoverished circumstances.{{sfn|Hardy|1881|pp=239–40}} Through the offices of the Earl of Leicester, Lady Hungerford obtained licence in 1571 to visit her dying grandmother, Jane Dormer (née Newdigate), who was living in the English Catholic expatriate community at Louvain.{{sfn|Harding|1982}} She never returned to England, choosing to remain in Belgium herself. On 29 March 1586,Hardy dates the letter to 1589. she wrote from Namur to Sir Francis Walsingham, requesting that he protect her daughters from her husband's attempts to disinherit them.{{sfn|Lemon|2005|p=316}}{{sfn|Harding|1982}}

In his will, dated 14 November 1595, Hungerford left two farms to his mistress, Margery Bright, and the residue of his estate to his half brother, Sir Edward Hungerford,{{sfn|Harding|1982}} with remainder to the [male] heirs ... of 'any woman' he [Edward] should 'afterwards marry'.{{sfn|Hardy|1881|p=242}} After making his will, having heard rumours that his wife was dead, Hungerford married Margery Bright.{{sfn|Ashton|2004}}{{sfn|Harding|1982}}

Sir Walter Hungerford died in December 1596 in Farleigh Hungerford Somerset, and was succeeded by his half brother, who was sued by both Lady Anne Hungerford and Margery Bright, for dower. Lady Hungerford was granted [a] 'generous' dower',{{sfn|Harding|1982}} and died at Louvain in 1603.{{sfn|Harrison|1891|p=260}} It is unclear if Bright received a dower.

Marriage and issue

Sir Walter and Lady Anne Hungerford had a son and three daughters:{{sfn|Harding|1982}}{{sfn|Burke|1866|p=282}}

Notes

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

References

  • {{Cite ODNB |last=Ashton |first=D.J. |year=2004 |title=Hungerford, Walter, Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury (1503–1540) |publisher=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |id=14183 }}
  • {{Cite book |last=Bindoff |first=S.T. |year=1982 |title=The House of Commons: 1509–1558 |volume=II |publisher=Secker & Warburg |isbn=0-436-04282-7 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=u_eIrJpc_T0C&dq=Anne+Dormer+1603&pg=PA414 414] }}
  • {{Cite book|last=Burke|first=Bernard|year=1866|title=A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire|location=London|publisher=Harrison|page=292|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3MaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA292}}
  • {{Cite DNB |last=Dunlop |first=Robert |wstitle=Sidney, Henry (1529-1586) |volume=52 |pages=210–217 }}
  • {{Cite book |author=G.Q.B. |year=2003 |chapter=Dormer, Jane (1538–1612) |title=A historical dictionary of British women |editor-first=Cathy |editor-last=Hartley |edition=2 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=1-85743-228-2 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=pDtEe4FKolUC&dq=Jane+Dormer&pg=PA138 138] }}
  • {{Cite book|last=Harding|first=Alan|year=1982|chapter=Hungerford, Sir Walter (by 1527-95/97), of Farleigh Hungerford, Som.|editor1-last=Bindoff|editor1-first=S.T.|title=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558|location=London|publisher=Secker & Warburg|volume=II|pages=413–14|url=http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1509-1558/member/hungerford-sir-walter-1527-9597|access-date=1 August 2013}}
  • {{Cite journal|last=Hardy|first=William John|year=1881|title=Sir Walter Hungerford of Farley|journal=The Antiquary|location=London|publisher=Elliot Stock|volume=IV|pages=238–43|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0F7Zyrd37wUC&q=Sir%20Walter%20Hungerford%20Anne%20Dormer&pg=PA239|access-date=1 August 2013}}
  • {{Cite book |editor-last=Lemon |editor-first=Robert |year=2005 |title=Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series of the Reign of Elizabeth 1581–1590 |location=Burlington, Ontario |publisher=TannerRitchie Publishing |edition=CD-ROM |page=316 }}
  • {{cite web |last=Lundy |first=Darryl |date=16 January 2011 |title=Person Page – 17795: Sir William Dormer |url=http://thepeerage.com/p17795.htm#i177949 |publisher=ThePeerage.com }} cites Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, USA: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 1168.
  • {{Cite book |editor-last=Stevenson |editor-first=Jane |year=2001 |editor2-last=Davidson |editor2-first=Peter |title=Early modern women poets (1520–1700): an anthology |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-924257-7 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EynvtQmeW-kC&pg=PA113 113, 134] }}
  • {{Cite book |last=Rylands |first=W. Harry |year=1909 |title=The Visitation of the County of Buckingham |location=London |publisher=Harleian Society |volume=LVIII |pages=40–42 |url=https://archive.org/stream/visitationofcoun5859byuphil#page/40/mode/2up |access-date=1 May 2013 }}
  • {{Cite book |author=W.J.J. |year=1981 |chapter=Darrell, William (1539–89), of Littlecote, Wilts.; later of Warwick Lane, London |editor-first=P.W. |editor-last=Hasler |title=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558–1603 |publisher=Boydell and Brewer |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/darrell-william-1539-89}}

;Attribution

  • {{DNB |last=Harrison |first=William Jerome |year=1891 |wstitle=Hungerford, Walter (1503-1540) |volume=28 |pages=259-60}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hungerford, Anne}}

Category:1525 births

Category:1603 deaths

Category:English Roman Catholics

Category:English women poets

Category:English expatriates in Belgium

Category:Court of Mary I of England

Category:Wives of knights