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).[1]
Career
He was born in Buckinghamshire, son of Nicholas le Hunt of Fenny Stratford.[2] 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).[3] The following year he became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, but served for only a year, and returned to England soon afterwards.[4]
Family
He married Margaret (or Margery) de Wolverton, daughter and eventual co-heiress of Sir John de Wolverton junior of Wolverton.[5] They had one daughter, Joan, who married John Longueville of Billing, Northamptonshire.[6] 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.[7]
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.[8]
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.
References
- ^ Samuel Lysons and Daniel Lysons Magna Britannia
- ^ Francis Elrington Ball The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 John Murray London 1926 Vol. 1 p.78
- ^ Ball p.78
- ^ Ball p.78
- ^ Ball p.78
- ^ George Baker History of Northamptonshire Vol. II 1826 p.241
- ^ "Calendar of Patent Rolls of Edward III 1354-1358"
- ^ Baker p.241