Contents:
An Australian Hungerford Christmas Letter, by Minna Hales;
Christmas at Corsham: Hungerfords in Verse, by Nicholas Oldisworth;
The Gatehouse at Down Ampney, by Bruce V. Jones;
Brief Notes from HAFS Members:
Monmouth Harry, by Ron Prentice;
Mitford – Hungerford links, by Loane Lilley;
Thompson-Hungerford associations, by Loane Lilley;
Ernest Wykeham Chapman, by Loane Lilley;
The Naming of the City of Sydney, by Stanley Wayne Hungerford;
What Does Heraldry Mean? Part II, by Ron Mathieson;
Hungerford Lists (5): New Zealand BDMs, by Peter Sherlock.
Editorial:
by Peter Sherlock
This issue of the Journal completes ten years of production – five volumes comprising twenty separate issues. It also marks the end of an important phase in my own life, for at the end of November 2000 I returned to Melbourne, Australia, after just over three years in Oxford. I trust members will be pleased to know I finished my thesis at the end of August, was examined three months later, and have successfully completed my degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The next year should be more relaxed than the last three, as I work on publishing my thesis and seek an academic post in Australia: hopefully there will be more time for Hungerford work too.
A range of topics is covered in this Journal. Christmas features highly in the poetry of Nicholas Oldisworth, describing the festivities and lord and lady of Corsham, Wiltshire in 1632, while a letter of 1926 from an Australian to an American Hungerford also sounds a Christmas note.
Ron Mathieson continues his informative series on heraldry. Also writing from England is Bruce Jones, the owner of Down Ampney House, this time accounting for the history of that manor’s gatehouse with its Hungerford insignia.
Further pieces of interest are provided by Loane Lilley, responding to items in the last few Journals, and by Ron Prentice, our Overseas Correspondent who visited many friends in England last September. Stanley W. Hungerford, a Hungerford historian of several decades’ standing, visited Sydney for the 2000 Olympics and provides us with some family background to that city’s very name.
As a prelude to the forthcoming sixth edition of Hungerfords of the Hunter, which should include the New Zealand Hungerfords for the first time, this issue’s ‘list’ details the registered births, deaths and marriages of Hungerfords in that country from 1840 to 1950.
Finally, a Merry Christmas to all from your editor, with hopes for an energetic year in research and publication in 2001 on my part and yours!