Sir John de Wingfield was chief administrator to Edward the Black Prince

Edward, the Black Prince

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England....

. He and both his brothers fought at Crecy

Battle of Crécy

The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 near Crécy in northern France, and was one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years' War...

 in 1346. He fought in the Normandy campaign from 1347-48. He was appointed 'governor of the prince's business' (in effect business-manager) to Edward the Black Prince round about 1351. In 1356 Wingfield fought at Poitiers capturing the head of the French King John II's bodyguard, Sire D'Aubigny. Edward III purchased this captive from Wingfield for £833 . Wingfield died round about 1361, possibly of the second outbreak of the Black Death.

His will provided for the founding of Wingfield College in 1362. The college was endowed by the Black Prince

Edward, the Black Prince

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England....

. Sir John Wingfield's only child, his daughter and heiress, married Michael de la Pole

Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk

Michael de la Pole, 1st Baron de la Pole, later 1st Earl of Suffolk was an English financier and Lord Chancellor of England.- Life :...

, later 1st Earl of Suffolk and lived at Wingfield Castle

Wingfield Castle

Wingfield Castle, Wingfield, Suffolk, England was the ancestral home of the Wingfield family and their heirs, the De La Poles, Earls and Dukes of Suffolk, but is now a private house....

 in Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

.

Sources

[Wrottesley, Staffs, II, 33,38].

[P.H.W. Booth, The Financial Administration of the Lordship and County of Chester, 1272-1377, Chetham Society, third series, 38 (1981), pp. 73-9, 133, 136].