Family and Education

b. 1560, 1st s. of Sir George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon, by Dorothy, da. and coh. of Sir John Port of Etwell, Derbys. educ. at Basle; Trinity Coll. Camb. 1572. m. 1585, Sarah, da. of James Harington I of Exton, Rutland, 4s. 2da.

Offices Held

J.p. Leics. by 1594.

Biography

Having no children of his own, the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon looked upon Hastings as his heir, sending him to Beza at Basle for part of his education. In 1593, circumstances were right for Hastings to take a Leicestershire seat in Parliament: his father, Sir George, seems no longer to have wished to stand, and his uncle, Francis Hastings I, was settled in Somerset and was elected to one of its county seats. The journals of the House do not mention him by name, but he may have taken advantage of his position as knight of the shire to attend the subsidy committee (26 Feb.) and a legal committee (9 Mar.). He died in London 17 Dec. 1595, three days after his uncle, the 3rd Earl. During the interval, he was styled ‘Lord Hastings’, being heir apparent to the earldom to which his father had succeeded. Hastings was buried with the 3rd Earl at Ashby-de-la-Zouch. No inquisition post mortem survives; administration of the estate was granted to the widow.

CP; Nichols, Leics. iii. 590, 608; C66/1421; T. Beza, Psalmorum Davidis et Aliorum Prophetarum Libri Quinque(1580); D’Ewes, 474, 496; HL, Hastings mss, ex inf. Dr. Claire Cross; SP12/256/25.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.E.M.

Notes