According to the inquisition afterwards taken, on the 30th of September, 1607, the details of which furnish a curious exemplification of the increased value of landed property, the Earl of Huntingdon "died possessed of one-ninth of the manor of Winton, held (with the office of the bailiwick of Carleton) of the King in capite, by the hundredth part of a knight's fee; the hundred of Framland, &c.; Alton Grange; the manor of Ashby de la Zouch, worth 307. 14s. 4d. and the rectory and vicarage, 137. 6s. 8d. held of the King as of the manor of Castle Donnington, in socage; the manors of Barrow and Segrave, worth 661. 3s. 91⁄2d. held of the King as part of the fee of Chester, by fealty only; the manor of Evington, worth 451. 138. Od. held of the King in capite, by the hundredth part of a knight's fee; the manor of Loughborough, worth 331. 6s. 8d. held of the King in capite, and by an annual rent of 51. 6s. 8d. ; the manors of Packington, &c. &c. worth 57. 10s. Od. held by the twentieth part of a knight's fee, and the rectory of that Church, then held of the King in free socage as parcel of the manor of Donnington; Donnington Park, containing 300 acres of pasture, worth 131. 6s. 8d. held of the King, but by what tenure unknown;* the manor of Gopshall, worth 5. 3s. 4d. tenure unknown; and the manors of Belton, (with the vicarage,) Thringston, Osgathorpe, &c. held in fee farm, as of the manor of East Greenwich in free socage."

By his wife Lady Dorothy aforesaid, his Lordship had issue three sons: 1. Francis Lord Hastings, heir apparent, but who died in his father's life-time, leaving issue; 2. Henry, who was of Woodlands; and, 3. Edward, who died at Vienna unmarried; and also two daughters, Catharine, married, first to Sir Edward Unton,

* His Lordship, it appears by other accounts, purchased Donnington Park, and the demesnes belonging to it, from the unfortunate Earl of Essex, who held them by grant from Queen Elizabeth.

of Wadley, in Berks, Knt. and secondly to Sir Walter Chetwynd, of Ingestry, Knt. and Dorothy, wedded first to Sir James Stuart, K. B. eldest son and heir apparent to Walter Lord Blantyre in Scotland, and godson to James the First, and after his death, (which took place in 1609, in the memorable duel fought at Islington, between him and Lord Wharton's son and heir, Sir George, in which both the combatants unfortunately lost their lives,) to Robert Dillon, Earl of Roscommon, in Ireland.

Before we proceed to Francis Lord Hastings, the eldest son, whose son Henry continued the succession, it becomes necessary in this place to interpose the history of Henry, of Woodlands, the second son, and his issue, to their extinction, the more especially as a presumed surviving branch of them was for some time attempted to be set up as a bar to the present Earl's claim.

Henry, commonly, but erroneously styled Sir Henry, Hastings of Woodlands, second son of George, fourth Earl of Huntingdon, was distinguished in his day by the peculiarities of his character, and his manners and habits in domestic life. His time was almost exclusively devoted to hunting, and other sports of the field, but he does not appear to have been, in other respects, a very rigid disciple of Diana, and if he "led the rural life in all its joy," it must be confessed, following Lord Shaftesbury's description, it was not precisely "such as Arcadian song transmits from ancient uncorrupted times." He had the manor of Piddleton, in Dorsetshire, from his father, who, however, reserved the advowson of the living to himself, and afterwards married Dorothy, daughter, and one of the coheirs, of Sir Francis Willoughby, of Woollaton, in the county of Nottingham, Knt. by whom he had issue, five sons and one daughter. Jacob and Dugdale make mention of a second wife of this

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Henry, a Mrs. Jane Langton, who, according to some accounts,

*

bore him a natural son, named Henry, but had no children after marriage, if ever such an union really took place, which seems not altogether certain. By his first wife he obtained the manor of Woodlands, in the parish of Horton, Dorsetshire, where he had a capital mansion, and principally resided, spending, however, a part of every hunting season at his lodge in the New Forest, of which he was appointed one of the Keepers. He granted a lease to R. and L. Wareham, during their lives, of the office of Constable of Christ Church Castle, and that of Sturville Chace. His estate at Woodlands, which, in 1641, was valued at 3007. a year, was sequestered in 1645. All the peerages have fallen into an error in designating this singular personage a Knight, a mistake which might probably at first have arisen from confounding him with his cousin, Sir Henry Hastings, of Humberston, who was knighted by King James, at Belvoir Castle, in 1603. Lord Chancellor Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury, was one of his nearest neighbours at Woodlands; and, though no two men could easily be more opposite in their dispositions and pursuits, as well as in their politics, yet occasional visits and civilities passed between them. His Lordship was the survivor; and the following ingenious, but somewhat too familiar, description of this eccentric character, ascribed to his masterly pen, still remains in gold letters under an original portrait of Mr. Hastings, preserved at Winbourne St. Giles, the seat of the present Earl of Shaftesbury.

"In the year 1638 lived Mr. Hastings, by his quality son, brother, and uncle to the Earl of Huntingdon. He was, peradven

Harl. MSS. 4774. p. 137.

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Bretherton!