John le Hunt

John le Hunt, or Hunter (died after 1351) was an English-born judge who served briefly as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He was the ancestor of the prominent Longueville family of Wolverton (which is now part of Milton Keynes).

Career

He was born in Buckinghamshire, son of Nicholas le Hunt of Fenny Stratford. He accompanied the Justiciar of Ireland, Ralph d'Ufford, to Ireland in 1344 and became a justice of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland). The following year he became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, but served for only a year, and returned to England soon afterwards.

Family

St. Martin's Church, Fenny Stratford- John le Hunt was born in the village.

He married Margaret (or Margery) de Wolverton, daughter and eventual co-heiress of Sir John de Wolverton junior of Wolverton. They had one daughter, Joan, who married John Longueville of Billing, Northamptonshire. John was probably a son or brother of the Sir George de Longueville who was murdered in 1357. The Crown was sufficiently concerned about the killing to set up a judicial commission of inquiry, headed by William de Notton, who was himself to be Lord Chief Justice of Ireland from 1361 to about 1365, but its outcome is unclear.

Le Hunt was still alive in 1351 when, on the death of her brother Ralph, his wife Margaret and her sister Joan jointly inherited the Wolverton estates; these passed to John and Margaret's daughter Joan, and by descent into the Longueville family (later generations used the spelling Longville), who remained at Wolverton until 1712.

After Hunt's death his widow remarried three times: firstly to Roger de Louth, then Richard Imworth, and finally John Howes; but she is not known to have had any further children by her later husbands.