Adam de Harvington

His path to high office lay through the patronage of Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick (died 1315).

It was probably Warwick who obtained for him the position of Deputy Chamberlain of the Exchequer in 1298 and persuaded Edward I to grant him the manor of Talton, Worcestershire, in 1303.

Adam was given the living of Awre, Gloucestershire in 1305 and of Hanslope, Buckinghamshire, in 1316; he was presented to the latter benefice by Warwick's widow, Countess Alice.

In 1304 Margaret de Fiennes, widow of Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer, authorised him to act as her attorney, together with Walter de Thornbury (later Lord Chancellor of Ireland), who was executor of her husband's will: they were required to recover her dowry and the properties which had belonged to her late husband Edmund.

[2] Any setback he may have suffered in his career after Lancaster's downfall and execution for treason in 1322 was temporary: he seems to have been regarded as a valued and hard-working Crown official.

Walter, who faced charges of fraud and corruption, was sentenced to forfeiture of his goods and chattels (he later received a royal pardon).