 His maternal grandmother, Lucy Hungerford, had been a daughter of Sir Walter Hungerford of Farleigh Castle.Apart from being a nephew of Buckingham, the young Villiers had two other uncles at court, John Villiers, 1st Viscount Purbeck, and Kit Villiers, 1st Earl of Anglesey, and an aunt, the Countess of Denbigh, who was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Henrietta Maria.His grandfather, Sir George Villiers, had died in 1606, but as a child he knew his step-grandmother Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham (c. 1570–1632).