HUNT, Richard

Hunt’s first return to Parliament for Portsmouth was an early event in his career, and it is uncertain whether he then lived in the town. Of obscure background, he had previously come to the notice of Thomas Chaucer* (d.1434), the royally-appointed keeper of the forests of Woolmer and Alice Holt, who had perhaps been responsible for his appointment as one of the forest rangers in the 1420s. Where he received his training in the law has not been discovered, but for most of his life he was employed at Winchester, initially in the service of the prior of St. Swithun’s and then by the diocesan, Chaucer’s cousin Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, and his successor William Waynflete. For at least 33 years (certainly from 1433 almost until his death) he was employed by the priory as bailiff of its liberties, and in September 1437 the prior and convent granted him confraternity.9 Reg. Common Seal, no. 241. Hunt undoubtedly owed much to the patronage of Beaufort, most notably his position for over 20 years as bailiff of the Soke at Winchester, but he proved to be a capable and loyal administrator, willing to undertake a variety of tasks for others. For instance, he served Beaufort’s master of the hunt, Thomas Uvedale*, as his under sheriff in 1438-9, in the course of this term, on 12 Apr., receiving from the steward of Southampton a gift of 3s. 4d. for his assistance in undertaking official matters at the Exchequer. It looks likely that he again held this post in 1447-8, during a later shrievalty of Uvedale’s, for he acted as attorney in the Exchequer on the sheriff’s behalf at Michaelmas 1448 when he made his final account. Yet Hunt was no stranger to the Exchequer, where he regularly presented accounts on behalf of St. Swithun’s, and he also appeared there for two other sometime sheriffs of Hampshire, Sir Stephen Popham* and Richard Dallingridge*.10 Stewards’ Bks. 78; E368/214, Mich. attorneys rot. 8d; 221, rot. 5; 223, Hil. attorneys rot. 1. He had attested Popham’s election as a shire-knight to the Parliament of 1442. How long he officiated as a coroner in the county is difficult to determine.

Hunt’s social standing was enhanced by his marriage, which perhaps took place in the late 1430s, to Alice Inkpen, the widow of Ralph Chamberlain, whose brother, William Chamberlain*, was not only recorder of Southampton but also a well-to-do landowner in the shire. Jure uxoris Hunt held three tenements and a cottage situated in English Street and elsewhere in Southampton, which had previously belonged to Alice’s former husband,11 Southampton Terrier 1454 (Soton. Rec. Ser. xv), nos. 162-3, 214-15; SC11/596-7. but this was not all, for his wife came from a wealthy family, and on the occasion of her first marriage her father had settled on her and Chamberlain his property at Freemantle in the parish of Millbrook near Southampton, together with the manor of Woolston in St. Mary Extra, where the Itchen flowed into Southampton Water. There was also the possibility (not to be realized in the event) that Alice might inherit very considerable estates elsewhere in the county and also in Berkshire and Wiltshire, for these had been settled on her in tail, subject only to the death without issue of her brother, Robert Inkpen.12 Winchester Coll. muns. 17868; CPR, 1422-9, pp. 195-6; CCR, 1447-54, p. 140; Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 482; CP25(1)/13/85/21. Hunt’s marriage must have significantly increased his income, although what this amounted to is not recorded.

In June 1444 Hunt assisted Henry Keswick (William Chamberlain’s stepson) with transactions regarding the manor of Hinton Daubeney, leading to its enfeoffment to the use of William Port, a servant and future executor of Cardinal Beaufort, and three years later he and his co-feoffees transferred the manor and that of Yabington to Port and his wife.13 CCR, 1441-7, p. 456; 1447-54, p. 237. Meanwhile, at an unknown date between Michaelmas 1442 and October 1445, Beaufort had appointed him bailiff of the Soke, thus making him responsible for holding the burghmoots and courts, and for raising and recovering rents and fines due to him. That his performance in the post proved entirely satisfactory is clear from the grant of the bailiffship for term of his life which Beaufort, close to death, made to him on 5 Feb. 1447 as a reward for his good service.14 Reg. Common Seal, no. 294. The cardinal had already shown Hunt personal favour on the previous 31 May, when he confirmed to him and his wife certain thirteenth-century charters conferred by his episcopal predecessors regarding the passagium of ‘La Heia’ on the Itchen, whereby Alice’s ancestors had been allowed freedom from tolls and assigned an area of marshland near Woolston in return for a fixed annual rent.15 Ibid. no. 306; VCH Hants, iii. 298.

While bailiff of the Soke, Hunt was usually resident in Winchester, where he lived in St. Lawrence’s parish,16 D.J. Keene, Surv. Winchester (Winchester Studies 2), ii. 1267-8. and it was as a ‘gentleman of Winchester’ that in June 1447 he received a ‘gift’ of the goods and chattels of a Southampton merchant.17 CCR, 1447-54, p. 352. Following Beaufort’s death he was kept on as bailiff by Bishop Waynflete (honouring his predecessor’s grants), and that summer he lent valuable assistance to the new bishop following a revolt of the tenants on the episcopal estate at East Meon.18 Bp. of Winchester’s pipe rolls, 11M59/B1/184 (formerly 159438). A measure of his standing in the locality came in February 1455 with appointment on the quorum for an official inquiry into the management of Winchester gaol. He duly presided over a formal hearing along with Henry Smart*.19 C145/315/10. A few months later both men were returned to Parliament, Smart as a representative for Winchester and Hunt once more sitting for Portsmouth, his election no doubt recommended by his association with Waynflete and his reputation in the county town.

Hunt paid 4s. towards a subsidy collected in Winchester in March 1464, by which date he was the city’s recorder. Quite how long he had occupied this position is not known, although his promotion may have pre-dated his second Parliament.20 Winchester subsidy roll W/E4/5. Although he was replaced as bailiff of St. Swithun’s liberty shortly before Easter 1466 he probably remained in office at the Soke until his death, which occurred at an unknown date not long after the following October.21 Winchester Coll. muns. 1023-4. In July 1470 his widow conveyed to her son Robert Chamberlain her lands in Freemantle. She then had in her possession six dozen silver spoons which Hunt had left as a bequest to his stepson, but his will has not survived.22 Ibid. 16443, 17869.