Hungerford Dunch (20 January 1639 – 9 November 1680) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

in 1660 and from 1679 to 1680.

Early life

Dunch was born at

Down Ampney Down Ampney (pronounced ''Amney'') is a medium-sized village located in Cotswold district in Gloucestershire, in England. The population taken at the 2011 census was 644. It is off the A417 which runs between Cirencester and Faringdon (in ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, the son of Edmund Dunch (1602–1678) and his wife Bridget Hungerford, daughter of Anthony Hungerford of Down Ampney (nephew of

Anthony Hungerford of Black Bourton Sir Anthony Hungerford (1567–1627) of Black Bourton in Oxfordshire, Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire until 1624, was a member of parliament and a religious controversialist. Origins Hungerford was born in 1567 at Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, the ...

in Oxfordshire). In 1678, he inherited the title of ''de jure'' Baron Burnell of East Wittenham from his father, although he never used it as it had been created during the Commonwealth.

Career

In 1660, Dunch was elected MP for both Wallingford and

Cricklade Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire, England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester. It is the first downstream town on the Thames. The parish population at the 2011 census was 4,227. History Cricklade ...

for the Convention Parliament. He chose to sit for Cricklade for the duration of that parliament. He was an inactive member though he sat on a committee to bring in a bill for the abolition of

Court of Wards The Court of Wards and Liveries was a court established during the reign of Henry VIII in England. Its purpose was to administer a system of feudal dues; but as well as the revenue collection, the court was also responsible for wardship and liv ...

, through which his family had suffered. He was made a

Knight of the Royal Oak The Knights of the Royal Oak was an intended order of chivalry in England. It was proposed in 1660 at the time of the restoration of Charles II of England to be a reward for those Englishmen who had faithfully and actively supported Charles dur ...

by Charles II. In 1679 Dunch was elected again as MP for Cricklade, and sat in the

Habeas Corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

and

Exclusion Bill The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1679 until 1681 in the reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Three Exclusion bills sought to exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, Sco ...

parliaments until his death. In the latter he was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges but was probably inactive and did not vote on the

. Dunch died at the age of 41 in London on 9 November 1680, and was buried four days later in Little Wittenham.

Family

Hungerford married Katherine daughter of William Oxton of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. She was buried next to her husband on 26 March 1684. They were the parents of Edmund Dunch (1678–1719), who was also MP for Wallingford.

Notes

References

* *

External links