Henry Hastings of Woodlands (c.1551-1650)

NEEDS EDITING - add Shaftesbury's description

The pages here are transcripts of extracts from the Christchurch Estate papers of Henry Hastings of Woodlands, Dorset, which are held in the Dorset County Record Office [D1/PUD/E2/1]. Henry Hastings had acquired the manor of Christchurch in 1597 from his father, George, 4^th Earl of Huntingdon, but had sold much of it within 4 years.

The transcripts in Section A refer to land in Somerford, Hinton, Northington, Muscliff, Muckleshell, Throope, Holnest, Iver, Tuckton and Week, and Burton, and almost certainly date from before 1601 (tenants' names do not correspond at all closely with those listed in Baltimore's 1647 survey), and perhaps even from the period before Henry Hastings owned the manor. Among the papers is a survey headed “A note how many years’ rent the tenants of Christchurch would willingly grant me”. The result of this survey might have been rather disappointing, because although many of the tenants offered up to 5 years, a roughly equal number pledged “nothyng". The residents of Tuckton and Week were particularly unprofitable, and the survey might well have been undertaken to help Hastings decide whether to sell the estate.

When Hastings sold most of the estate to Thomas Arundell (later Lord Arundell of Wardour) in 1601, he retained his former home at North Hinton (Northington), which later passed to his son Ralph, a house next to Christchurch Priory now known as Church Hatch, and also Holdenhurst Wood and Hurn Marsh – the subject of the transcripts in Section B.

These papers cover the period 1645-6, a very troublesome period in this corner of Hampshire as the first English Civil War drew to a close. Arundell’s estates had been sequestered by Parliament in 1642, and were only returned to him in 1660 by virtue of a private act of Parliament. Hastings, too, was a royalist, and his estates were sequestered in 1645. These papers probably date from immediately after the sequestration, and detail among other things Contribution Money (which seems to have been a tax on the Hundred of Christchurch instituted in September 1644 for the upkeep of Hurst Castle) and the supply of timber to the parliamentary garrison at Christchurch.

On 15th January 1644/5, Goring's cavaliers attacked Christchurch, forcing 200 men in Major Philip Lower's garrison into the church, the castle, and Henry Hastings's house, Church Hatch. On 5th April following, the House of Lords passed an Ordinance for the felling of £1000 of timber on sequestrated Hampshire estates, the proceeds to be used for the fortification and the garrison of Christchurch. No oak, elm or ash was to be felled, except 30 tons of oak required for the defences of Christchurch. Holdenhurst Wood appears almost entirely to have been felled by 1695, when the land was referred to as "Holdenhurst Farm, otherwise known as Holdenhurst Wood Farm", and it could be that it was a casualty of the 1645 Ordinance.[1]

The will written in 1649 (the year appears twice in the Will, in both words and numerals) of "Henry Hastings of Woodlands" (this must refer to Henry Hastings senior, because he is still referred to as such in the 1650 document D/PUD/C1/2[2]) was not proved until January 1661. Henry had died in 1650, and perhaps his executors decided to wait for the anticipated Restoration before applying for probate.

D/PUD/C1/2 shows that in August 1650 Henry Hastings senior gave a messuage (previously part of Christchurch Priory) and Hurn Marsh to his son Sir George. It seems (though the catalogue entry is ambiguous) that at the same time he granted Woodlands to his son Henry. Calendars of the Committee for Compounding indicate that he settled Holdenhurst Wood on his son William in 1629, subject to retaining possession until his death. So all three properties remained in control of Henry senior until shortly before his death. Even then, Holdenhurst Wood and Hurn Marsh remained in the hands of sequestrators until at least April 1651.

The 1805 map produced after the Inclosure Award (right, north at the bottom) indicates areas in Holdenhurst known as Great Wood and Little Wood, along with Wood Mead – presumably the area cleared of trees  that provided the pasture for sheep and horses referred to in the 1645 Survey. This area, corresponding roughly to the extent of Wood Farm in the 19^th century, is shown in green on the 19^th century map below.

What is referred to in a catalogue as an 18th century map of Hurn Marsh is redrawn on the left. The basic shape and area of the plots corresponds very well with the area shaded brown on the map below, which, lying between the Stour and Moors rivers, is likely to have been marshland.

Lying adjacent but on opposite banks of the Stour, it seems almost certain that the shaded areas below indicate the extent of Hurn Marsh and Holdenhurst Wood.

The lease of the manor of Hurn was granted at the dissolution of Christchurch Priory to Thomas Wriothesley, later Earl of Southampton. Edward Hooper of Shaftesbury acquired Hurn Court some time between 1645[3] and 1666[4]. He also purchased the lease of Hurn Marsh, with Waymore and Batcombe, in 1654 from the Freke family (who had acquired it from Henry Hastings's widow[5]), and appears to have bought the property outright in 1682 for £2,050 from Samuel Rolle (who may have inherited it through his wife, Frances Roy[6]).

A dispute arose in 1695 over the ownership of "Holdenhurst Farm, otherwise known as Holdenhurst Wood Farm". It had been acquired by James Dewy of St. Martin in the Fields, London (also some time mayor of Christchurch), who in the 1670s assigned it to his daughter, Martha, on her marriage to William Bulkeley. From them it passed to their son, Sir Dewy Bulkeley, and eventually, by 1805, to Sir John Coventry. Sir Peter Mews referred to his own ownership of the freehold in 1712[7].

In 2004 the site of Holdenhurst Wood is bisected by the Ringwood-Bournemouth Spur Road, the south-eastern part making up much of a golf course in which most of the old field boundaries can still be seen.

Hastings Family

• Henry Hastings 3rd Earl Of Huntingdon = Catherine Dudley
• George Hastings 4th Earl Of Huntingdon (c.1540-1604) = 1557 Dorothy Port
  • Francis Hastings Lord Hastings = Sarah Harington
    • 1 Henry Hastings 5th Earl Of Huntingdon (1586-1643)= 1601 Elizabeth Stanley
    • 2 Sir George Hastings (?-1641) = Seymour Pryn
    • 3 Edward Hastings R.N.
    • 4 Catherine Hastings = Philip Stanhope 1st Earl Of Chesterfield
    • 5 Theodosia Hastings = Francis Bodenham Knt.
  • Henry Hastings of Woodlands (c.1551-5/10/1650). Christchurch estate settled on him in 1597 m.1594 Dorothy Willoughby (c.1564-4/12/1638), through whom he came by his Woodlands seat. A famous sportsman, whose character has been delineated by the 1st earl of Shaftesbury (see L. Howard, A Collection of Letters, &c., I753). Portrait in collection of Society of Antiquaries, London. Granted Puddletown by James I in 1614. Married Ann Langton about 6 months after Dorothy's death [1].
    • Sir George Hastings (c.1588-25/10/1651) (of Christchurch?) m. cir.1615  Alice Freke
      • John Hastings of Woodlands (d. Burnham 1656) m. Elizabeth[2]
      • Edward Hastings of Woodlands (probate 1655)[3]
      • Frances Hastings m. John Roy of London (d.1668)
        • John Roy (inherited Woodlands) (d.1684?)
        • Frances Roy (inherited Puddletown, and probably Woodlands too after John’s death) m . Samuel Rolle (he sold Woodlands in 1710)
      • Dorothy Hastings m. Henry Eyre of Woodlands
    • Ralph Hastings (d. bef. 1663/4) of North Hinton = Joan
      • Ralph Hastings (d. bef. 9/1702?, probate 1706) m. Betty
      • Ferdinando Hastings
    • Henry Hastings of Newington Butts, Surrey (bap. Christchurch 17/4/1594, probate 21/10/1668,  m.1619 when manor of Woodlands was conveyed into trust. Subsequent legal battle with nephew Edward, presumably after the death of Sir George in 1651: see D/PUD/C1/2 and D/PUD/D1/1
    • William Hastings (b. circa 1599)
      • William Hastings (inherited Holdenhurst Wood on the death of his grandfather in 1650. It had been settled on his father in 1629 but reserved for grandfather’s use.  See Calendars of the Committee for Compounding p.2349)
    • Dorothy Hastings m . Thomas Tregonwell – ancestors of Lewis Tregonwell, “founder” of Bournemouth. Thomas’s brother John married a Jane Freke – perhaps the sister of Dorothy’s brother’s wife.
  • Edward Hastings Knt.
  • Catherine Hastings = Edward Unton Knt
  • Catherine Hastings = Walter Chetwynd Knt.
  • Dorothy Hastings = James Stuart K.B.
• Sir Francis Hastings (d.1610), M.P., prominent puritan.
• William Hastings
• Edward Hastings = Barbara Devereux
  • Henry Hastings = Mabel Faunt
    • 1 Henry Hastings = Jane Goodhall
  • Walter Hastings

Under the Belfry at Horton Church, Dorset

The Honorable Henry Hastings of Woodland seconde sonne to George Hastings Earl of Huntingdon Departed this life the 5th of October 1650 Aetat:99 & Dorothy his wife one of the coheirs of Sir Francis Willobye Knight of Wollaton in the County of Notingham Departed this life the 4th of December 1638 Aetat: 84 & Sir George Hastings Kt. their son & heire who died 25th October 1651 Aetat: 63 Parish registers indicate that Dorothy was buried 10th December 1638, Henry was buried 8th October 1650, and George was buried 27th October 1651.