Name John Hungerford | ||
John Hungerford (c. 1658 – 8 June 1729) was an English politician and lawyer. He was Member of Parliament for Scarborough from 1692 to 1695 (when he was expelled for receiving a bribe), 1702 to 1705, and from 1707 until his death. He was legal counsel for the East India Company, and also defended several of those accused of being Jacobites in the years following the Rebellion of 1715.
Biography
John Hungerford was in 1677 admitted a student at Lincoln's Inn, being then described as the son and heir-apparent of "Richard Hungerford" of Wiltshire. A claimed connection with the family of Farleigh, according to William Hardy writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, has not been ascertained. He graduated Master of Arts (MA) at Cambridge per literas regias in 1683. He entered parliament on 28 April 1692 as member for Scarborough, and soon after was appointed chairman of the committee of the house to whom the Orphans Bill was committed. On 23 March 1694 he received from the promoters of the bill a bribe of twenty guineas "for his pains and services" in that capacity, and was consequently expelled the house on 26 March 1695.
On a vacancy occurring in the representation of Scarborough in November 1707 he was again elected for that borough, and continued to represent it till his death. In December 1709 he introduced a bill to prevent excessive gaming. He was one of the commissioners of alienation; standing counsel to the East India Company; and cursitor of the counties of York and Westmoreland. He defended three persons, Francis Francia (22 January 1717), John Matthews (1719), and Christopher Sayer (1722), charged with treasonable relations with the Old Pretender. Francia was acquitted, but Matthews and Sayer were convicted. Hungerford died on 8 June 1729. By his will, dated 24 May 1729, and proved by his widow Mary 13 June following, he left bequests to King's College, Cambridge, and to many relatives.