We have seen that the original seat of the family was at Heytesbury, in Wilts, distance from Farleigh about twelve miles, and here Sir Edward commonly lived. In addition to Farleigh Castle, Sir Edward possessed a great London house, standing with its gardens where now is Charing Cross station. From this house were named Hungerford Street and Hungerford Stairs. On the site of the house and garden was built by a later Hungerford, in the reign of Charles II, Hungerford Market, which continued till the site was taken for the railway station. The foot-bridge over the Thames, starting from this point, was known as Hungerford Bridge, a name still sometimes given to its successor, the existing railway bridge. It was in Hungerford Street that Charles Dickens, a child of ten, began life by sticking labels on blacking bottles. Sir Edward made his will on 14 December 1521. By it, after leaving legacies to certain churches and friends, ‘the residue of all my goods, debts, cattails, juells, plate, harnesse, and all other moveables whatsoever they be, I freely geve and bequeth to Agnes Hungerforde my wife’. She was also appointed sole executrix. Sir Edward died on 24 January 1522, six weeks after making this will. The husband murdered was not Sir Edward Hungerford, but a first husband, John Cotell. The outlines of the story are given by Mr Hardy from the Coram Kege Roll for Michaelmas term, 14 Henry VIII: ‘On the Monday next after the feast of S. Bartholomew, in the 14th year of the now king (25 August 1522), at Ilchester, before John Fitz James and his fellow- justices of oyer and terminer for the county of Somerset, William Mathewe, late of Heytesbury, in the county of Wilts, yeoman, William Inges, late of Heytesbury, in the county aforesaid, yeoman, [were indicted for that] on the 26th July, in the 10th year of the now Lord the King (1518), with force and arms made an assault upon John Cotell, at Farley, in the county of Somerset, by the procurement and abetting of Agnes Hungerford, late of Heytesbury, in the county of Wilts, widow, at that time the wife of the aforesaid John Cotell. And a certain linen scarf called a kerchier ( quandam flameam lineam vocatam ‘a kerchier’ ) which the aforesaid William and William then and there held in their hands, put round the neck of the aforesaid John Cotell, and with the aforesaid linen scarf him, the said John Cotell, then and there feloniously did throttle, suffocate, and strangle, so that the aforesaid John Cotell immediately died, and so the aforesaid William Maghewe [Mathewe] and William Inges, by the procurement and abetting of the aforesaid Agnes, did then and there feloniously murder, &c., the aforesaid John Cotell, against the peace of the Lord the King, and afterwards the aforesaid William, and William, the body of the aforesaid John Cotell did then and there put into a certain fire in the furnace of the kitchen in the Castle of Farley aforesaid, and the body of the same John in the fire aforesaid in the Castle of Farley aforesaid, in the county of Somerset aforesaid, did burn and consume.’ The indictment charged that Agnes Hungerford, otherwise called Agnes Cotell, late of Heytesbury, in the county of Wilts, widow, late the wife of the aforesaid John Cotell, well knowing that the aforesaid William Mathewe and William Inges had done the felony and murder aforesaid, did receive, comfort and aid them on 28 December 1518. Such was the indictment, ‘which said indictment the now Lord the King afterwards for certain reasons caused to come before him to be determined, &c.’ All three accused were committed to the Tower of London: ‘and now, to wit, on Thursday next after the quinzaine of St Martin [27 November 1522], in the same term, before the Lord the King at Westminster, in their proper persons came the aforesaid William Mathewe, William Inges, and Agnes Hungerford, brought here to the bar by Sir Thomas Lovell, Knight, Constable of the Tower of London, by virtue of the writ of
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