Sir Robert De Hungerford (d. 1352)
Born: circa 1285 probably in Hungerford, Berkshire or Heytesbury, Wiltshire
Statesman
Died: 20th June 1352 at Hungerford, Berkshire

The Hungerford family were living in the town after which they were named as early as 1165. However, by the late 13th century they were more associated with the adjoining county of Wiltshire, where Walter Hungerford married Maud Heytesbury, the heiress of the Heytesbury estates near Warminster. Their eldest son, Sir Robert Hungerford, however, retained lands in Hungerford, and is thought to have lived at Standen Manor in the south of the parish. He was an important man, appointed bailiff for the Duchy of Lancaster in Berkshire and Wiltshire in 1313 and sitting for Wiltshire in parliament three years later. In 1322, Edward II made him keeper of the southern lands of the Earls of Lancaster and Hereford who had been executed for arranging the murder of the King’s favourite, Piers Gaveston. Sir Robert was later made a commissioner to inquire into the possessions of the Despensers after their attainder in 1328. He gave much land to the hospital at Calne in memory of his first wife, Joan, to the church of Hungerford - where he founded a chantry chapel in 1325 - and to other religious foundations. In 1331, he was, further, granted a licence to give the profits from certain lands for the support of a chaplain to pray for the souls of himself, his new wife, Geva the widow of Adam de Stock, and his friends. Sir Robert died in 1352 and was buried in his chantry in Hungerford Church, where an elaborate monument with a long inscription to his memory is still extant. He left no issue.