Thomas Hastings (colonist)
| Thomas Hastings | |
|---|---|
| Member, General Court of Massachusetts | |
|
In office 1673–1673 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1605 England |
| Died | c. September 15, 1685 (aged 80) Watertown, Massachusetts |
| Spouse(s) |
Susan(na) _____ (1600-1650) Magaret Cheney (1628-c1690) |
| Profession | Farmer, Deacon, Public Official |
| Religion | Puritanism |
| Signature |  |
Susan(na) _____ (1600-1650)
Thomas Hastings (c. 1605 – c. September 15, 1685) was a prominent English immigrant to New England, one of the approximately 20,000 immigrants who came as part of the Great Migration. A Deacon of the church, among his many public offices he served on the Committee of Colony Assessments in 1640 and as Deputy for Watertown to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1673. He held property in nearby Dedham between 1636 and 1639, although there is no evidence that he ever lived there.
Hastings and his wife Susan left Ipswich, Suffolk, on The Elizabeth on April 30, 1634. Although his home in England is unknown, the make-up of their ship's company strongly suggests that he was from East Anglia and perhaps from the counties of Suffolk or Norfolk.
The only major genealogy to treat the family, The Hastings Memorial (Boston, 1866), states that he was of noble birth by descent from the illustrious family that included the Earl of Huntingdon line. He is not known to have claimed such a connection in his lifetime and there is no record to substantiate this supposed connection and much to argue against it. The surname is generally habitational and may derive from the English town of Hastings, Sussex.
After the death of his first wife in 1650, Hastings married Margaret Cheney of Roxbury and together they had eight children. Remarkably for the day and given such a large brood, they all survived their parents.
In 1671, their 19-year-old first son, Thomas, Jr., was accused of fathering a child out of wedlock and the Hastings and Woodward families (who came to America together on the same ship 37 years before) became embroiled in a highly embarrassing paternity suit before the Middlesex County Court. Intimate relations outside of marriage were not simply frowned upon but potentially criminal. The social and political ramifications were foreboding too for Deacon Thomas, who was not only a leader in the church but serving as a selectman, town clerk and town meeting moderator during the controversy. While the younger Thomas denied the relationship and asserted another was the father, Susannah Woodward was quite forthright about their alleged liaisons and “for all of which miscarriages ... she craved forgiveness.” Although paternity could not be established, circumstantial evidence and hearsay led to an order that Thomas, Jr., pay for maintenance of the child and his father assumed the financial responsibility. Then, like today, his father’s standing in the community brought relative leniency.
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Wikipedia