Person:Thomas Hastings (8)

This Thomas de Hastings, the father of Hugh, is ancestor of the Earls of Huntingdon, and as Eyton mentions (p.138), the "genealogists" say it is the uncle of Henry de Hastings mentioned by Jocelin of Brakelond in 1182.^[1] If Thomas was Henry's uncle then he must be William's brother and not son.

In terms of chronology this also works better. Thomas seems to have been a knight already in the 1170s and the heir of Thomas, Hugh, was in his prime already in the 1190s, and dead not long after 1200.

Blomefield notes a Quo Warranto record of 1227 where one of Thomas's descendants claimed that his right to Gissing and Tibbenham came to him from his ancestor "William de Hastyng", "of the fee of St. Edmund, in the time of Henry II. and that he then peaceably enjoyed all these liberties, which were confirmed to him by the charter of King Richard I. in the seventh year of his reign" (1195/6). On the other hand, "ancestor" might be a translation of antecessor, which can simply mean predecessor. That Quo Warranto record has also not been found.^[2]

1. ↑ http://books.google.be/books?id=BPY9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA138
2. ↑ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=77106