Hastings is a surname of English and Irish origin, and is used also as a given name.
As a surname Hastings may sometimes be a patronymic surname from the Anglo-Norman personal name Hasting (also Hastain), but is usually a toponymic surname from Hastings in Sussex. [1]
Separately also a common surname in Connacht Ireland, where it is thought to often be a rough phonetic Anglicization of the Irish Gaelic sept of Ó hOistín who were followers of the MacDermots of Moylurg, [2] first Anglicized as Hestin and Histon, then later Hastings. [3] [4] [5] John O'Hart in his work "The origin and stem of the Irish nation" published 1892, states the Irish Hastings origin is from the ancient Irish Gaelic name O'h-Uisgin, [6] other possible Irish sources may derive from a Norse Gaelic personal name Oistín or a phonetic version of Ó hOissín another old Connacht Irish surname, a family name that can sound regionally similar when said in original Irish. This family are most prominent in County Mayo, County Limerick, County Kerry and County Clare.
Earl of Loudoun, named after Loudoun in Ayrshire, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1633 for John Campbell, 2nd Lord Campbell of Loudoun, along with the subsidiary title Lord Tarrinzean and Mauchline. The 1st Earl's wife Margaret was the granddaughter and heiress of Hugh Campbell, who had been created Lord Campbell of Loudoun; he resigned the peerage in favour of his grandson-in-law, who was later created an earl.
Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The medieval title was associated with the ruling house of Scotland.
Baron Hastings is a title that has been created three times. The first creation was in the Peerage of England in 1290, and is extant. The second creation was in the Peerage of England in 1299, and became extinct on the death of the first holder in c. 1314. The third creation was in the Peerage of England in 1461, and has been in abeyance since 1960.
Baron Hungerford is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created on 7 January 1426 for Walter Hungerford, who was summoned to parliament, had been Member of Parliament, Speaker of the House and invested as Knight of the Order of the Garter before and was made Lord High Treasurer one year before he became a peer. The man who would later succeed as third baron was created Baron de Moleyns on 13 January 1445 by writ of summons; both titles merged when he succeeded as Baron Hungerford in 1459. The third baron was attainted and the peerage forfeit in 1461. This attainder was reversed in 1485 for the then 4th baroness of Hungerford, and so it came into the Hastings family of Earls of Huntingdon until 1789, when it came into the Rawdon(-Hastings) family of the Marquesses of Hastings until 1868 when it fell into abeyance. This abeyance was terminated three years later for a member of the Abney-Hastings family and an Earl of Loudoun. In 1920 it again fell into abeyance, which was terminated one year later for the Philipps family of the Viscounts of St Davids where it has remained since.
Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings,, styled The Honourable Francis Rawdon from birth until 1762, Lord Rawdon between 1762 and 1783, The Lord Rawdon from 1783 to 1793 and The Earl of Moira between 1793 and 1816, was an Anglo-Irish politician and military officer who served as Governor-General of India from 1813 to 1823. He had also served with British forces for years during the American Revolutionary War and in 1794 during the War of the First Coalition. In Ireland, he was critical of the policy of coercion used to break the United Irish movement for representative government and national independence. He took the additional surname "Hastings" in 1790 in compliance with the will of his maternal uncle, Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon.
Marquess of Hastings was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 6 December 1816 for Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd Earl of Moira.
Baron Grey of Ruthin was a noble title created in the Peerage of England by writ of summons in 1324 for Sir Roger de Grey, a son of John, 2nd Baron Grey of Wilton, and has been in abeyance since 1963. Historically, this branch of the Grey family was seated at Ruthin Castle in Wales.
Edith Maud Rawdon-Hastings, 10th Countess of Loudoun was a Scottish peer. She died aged 40 after caring for Rowallan Castle. Sir George Gilbert Scott designed an Eleanor Cross style monument to her which was erected in Ashby de la Zouch.
Baron Donington, of Donington Park in the County of Leicester, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 4 May 1880 for Charles Frederick Abney-Hastings. Born Charles Frederick Clifton, he was the widower of Edith Mary Abney-Hastings, 10th Countess of Loudoun. He and his wife had in 1859 assumed by Royal licence the surname of Abney-Hastings on succeeding to the Abney-Hastings estates after the death of his wife's kinsman Sir Charles Abney-Hastings, 2nd Baronet in 1858. They were both succeeded by their eldest son Charles Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 11th Earl of Loudoun and 2nd Baron Donington. However, on his death in 1920 the titles separated. The Scottish earldom was inherited by his niece Edith, daughter of his second brother the Hon. Major Paulyn Francis Cuthbert Rawdon-Hastings. The barony of Donington, which could only be inherited by male heirs, passed to his third brother Gilbert Theophilus, who became the third Baron. He had four daughters but no sons, and on his death in 1927 the barony became extinct.
Loudoun Castle is a ruined country house nicknamed the "Windsor of Scotland" located near Galston, in the Loudoun area of Ayrshire, Scotland. The majority of the building was constructed from 1804 to 1811 around existing structures dating to the 15th and 17th centuries. The building was destroyed by fire in 1942 and never rebuilt, while the rest of the property was converted into the Loudoun Castle theme park in 1995 and closed in 2010. The ruins are protected as a category A listed building.
British history provides several opportunities for alternative claimants to the English and later British Crown to arise, and historical scholars have on occasion traced to present times the heirs of those alternative claims.
George Augustus Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd Marquess of Hastings, styled Lord Rawdon from birth until 1817 and Earl of Rawdon from 1817 to 1826, was a British peer and courtier.
Edith Maud Abney-Hastings, 12th Countess of Loudoun was a British peeress.
Sir Charles Abney Hastings, 2nd Baronet of Willesley Hall, Derbyshire was both High Sheriff of Derbyshire and an MP for Leicester from 1826 to 1831.
Francis Hastings, Lord Hastings was the son of George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon and Dorothy Port. He married Sarah Harington, daughter of Sir James Harington and Lucy Sydney. They had five children:
Charles Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 11th Earl of Loudoun was a Scottish peer.
The Hastings, later Abney-Hastings Baronetcy, of Willesley Hall in the County of Derby, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 28 February 1806 for the soldier Sir Charles Hastings. He was the illegitimate son of Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon. Hastings married Parnel Abney, daughter and heiress of Thomas Abney, of Willesley Hall, Willesley, Derbyshire, and granddaughter of Sir Thomas Abney, Justice of the Common Pleas. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles, the second Baronet, who assumed, by Royal Licence dated 1 December 1823, the additional surname of Abney, before that of Hastings, on succeeding to the Abney estates through his mother. Abney-Hastings represented Leicester in Parliament between 1826 and 1831. The title became extinct on his death in 1858. Abney-Hastings's Blackfordby and Packington estates passed to his kinsman Henry Rawdon-Hastings, 4th Marquess of Hastings, while Willesley Hall was left to Lady Edith Maud Rawdon-Hastings, later Countess of Loudoun, the Marquess's eldest sister and wife of Charles Frederick Clifton, who in 1859 assumed the surname Abney-Hastings.
Abney-Hastings is a double-barrelled surname created from the surnames Abney and Hastings.
George Forbes, 5th Earl of Granard PC was an Anglo-Irish politician and peer.
Countess of Loudoun is the title which may be held by a woman in her own right or given to the wife of the Earl of Loudoun. Women who have held the title include: