John Hastings (abt. 1412 - 1477)

Born about 1412 in England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 9 Apr 1477 at about age 65 in England

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Biography

John Hastings, Esquire (armiger), is considered to have been Lord Hastings, as shown in Complete Peerage. However, in his own lifetime his family's claim to that title was not accepted and he was not known this way.^[1] He was age 26 in 1438, when his father died. He was Sheriff of Norwich, and constable of Norwich Castle and gaol. He was lord of Elsing, Gressenhall, and Weasenham, all in Norfolk. He was Captain of Saint-Lô in the Cotentin in Normandy in February 1437/8 (near the end of the period in the 100 years war when England held significant parts of France after the victories of Henry V). He left a will on 8 April 1477.

Family

He and Anne Morley obtained a marriage license on 21 April 1434 (date of Papal Dispensation for being related in the 3rd and 4th degrees of kindred). They had 3 sons (Sir Hugh; Sir Edmund; & Robert) & 2 daughters (Isabel, wife of Sir Thomas Bosvile; & Elizabeth, wife of Sir Robert Hildyard).

Children:

• Sir Hugh
• Sir Edmund, 2nd son. m. Elenor Woodhouse, daughter of Edward of Kimberley
• Robert, 3rd son. m. Elizabeth Thwaytes
• Isabel, wife of Sir Thomas Bosvile
• Elizabeth, wife of Sir Robert Hildyard

The version of the Yorkshire visitation "D2" held by the college of arms also shows sons named John and Charles, and a daughter Meryall who married a Pierpoynt and had no children.^[2]

Burial of John Hastings and wife Anne

He died on 9 April 1477 at Elsing, Norfolk, England, and was buried in Gressenhall Church, Norfolk. This date and place is given in his inquisition post mortem which is transcribed in Latin by Carthew (p.209 "obiit apd Elsyng p'dict' die Marcurii in septia Pasche ultio jam p't'io").

His wife Anne had died in 1471.

Both were buried in the parish church of Gressenhall, Norfolk which was St. Mary's Church (Church of St. Mary the Virgin). The parish church of St. Mary's still exists and has a 15th century font and tower similar to that of the church at Castle Rising.^[3]

Blomefield reports:^[4]

In Hastings chantry on the pavement, lies a large marble stone, disrobed of its effigies, brass shields and ornaments; on a brass plate remaining,

Nobilitas gen'is quid p'dest, o'ia solvit, Mors que sub lapide ho. p'cerum duo corpora volvit; Morib; insigni comitu de sanguine natus, Pembrochie jacet hic John Hastyng pulv'e strat; Uxor et Anna sibi que sangui'e filia scitur De Morley, d'no moriens p. eum sepelitur. Quisquis et ista legas fusa prece siste, rogatus, Ut Deus amborum velit indulgere reatus. Ann. erat Christi poliando co'gru; isti Mill. quadringen; uno plus septuagenus.

[...]

On the gravestone of Sir John Hastings abovementioned, in the chapel of Hastings, there was, I find, these following verses which began the epitaph;

Hic stratus, si quo sit natus sanguine, quœris; A proavo genitam noscas cui nupserat heres Pembrochie Comitum Vallensis origine nata. Huic comites plures donec crudelia fata Extulerant pestem (Woodstock) te convoco testem Qui nece sub mœstâ cecidit dum frangitur hasta Hugo successit miles sibi qui sociavit Lordani Foliot natam, de qua generavit Hugonem sed huic Everingham nata potentis Nupsit, et Hugonis sit mater ad arma valentis Nata cui D'ni Spencer tedis generavit Edwardum, cui John Dinham natam sociavit. E quibus hoc tumuto stratus sit origo Johannes Cui requies detur cunctis viventibus annis Hugo, Roberte, quibus Edmundus frater habetur Poscatis precibus celis requiescere detur.

Sources

1. ↑ Complete Peerage, 2nd ed., vol. 6, under Hastings
2. ↑ Flowers Visitation p.156
3. ↑ St. Mary's Rector John Belham, "We do have a chapel in our church known as the "Hastings Chapel" and within it is a glass-covered tombstone of a knight and his wife dating from the 15th century.", March 6, 2008;
   St. Mary's Church Warden Erich Driebholz, "the burial plaque on the floor of the chancel is that of John Hastings, 9th Baron Hastings, and that of his wife Anne", April 8, 2008.
4. ↑ Francis Blomefield, 'Launditch Hundred: Gressenhale', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 9 (London, 1808), pp. 510-520. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol9/pp510-520 [accessed 30 August 2018].

• Foster, Joseph. Pedigrees of the county families of Yorkshire. 1874. Vol 3. Pg. 55-6. Archive.org. [1]
• Flower, William. The visitation of Yorkshire in the years 1563 and 1564. 1881. Pg. 155. Archive.org. [2]
• Glover, Robert. The visitation of Yorkshire, made in the years 1584/5. 1875. Pg. 373. Archive.org. [3]
• The Publications of the Surtees Society. 1835. Vol 41. Pg. 73. Archive.org. [4]
• Raine, James. Testamenta Eboracensia, Or Wills Registered at York. Pg. 273-8. Archive.org. [5]
• Carthew, George Alfred. The hundred of Launditch and Deanery of Brisley. 1877. Vol 1. Pg. 199. Google Books. [6]
• Surtees Society. Visitations of the North, Part IV. 1932. Pg. 45. Google Drive. [7]
• Carthew The hundred of Launditch and deanery of Brisley p.209
• see notes for his daughter
• Richardson 2013 Royal Ancestry Vol. II p.499
• Cockayne et. al., Complete Peerage. Vol 6 p. 360

See also:

• Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, pp. 289-290.
• Richardson 2011 Magna Carta Ancestry 2nd ed. Vol. II pp. 116-117, Vol. III p.183
• http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p1072.htm#i32199
• from p 159 of "The History and Genealogical Tables of the Boswells" Pt1, by Jasper John Boswell, privately published 1906, held by Alan Boswell, and Yale University Library.