Thomas Hungerford (speaker)

Sir Thomas de Hungerford (died 3 December 1397)[1] of Farleigh Castle in Somerset, was the first person to be recorded in the rolls of the Parliament of England as holding the office of Speaker of the House of Commons of England,[2][3] although that office had existed before his tenure.

Thomas's uncle was Robert Hungerford (d.1355), a Member of Parliament for Wiltshire in 1316 and a commissioner to inquire into the possessions of the Despensers after their attainder in 1328, and gave much land to the hospital at Calne in memory of his first wife, Joan, to the church of Hungerford, Berkshire, and to other religious foundations.

Sir Peter de la Mare preceded him in the post, without the title, in the Good Parliament of 1376.

In about 1384 he aroused the suspicion of King Richard II, who attached him, but he obtained a pardon and also a confirmation of his free warren at Farleigh.

His portrait was made in a stained-glass window, engraved in Hoare's Modern History of Wiltshire, Heytesbury Hundred, p. 90.

Effigies of Sir Thomas de Hungerford (1330-1398) and his second wife Joan Hussey (d. 1412), in the Chapel of St Anne (north transept chapel) of St Leonard's Chapel, Farleigh Hungerford Castle
Stained glass window of Sir Thomas Hungerford, Farley Church .
Arms of Hungerford: Sable, two bars argent in chief three plates
Arms of Hussey: Barry of six ermine and gules , as visible on the seal of Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford