Hastings family.

Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, noted Puritan politician and a heir presumptive to the crown. During the Northern Rebellion (1569-1570), he was appointed a custodian of Mary Queen of Scots (1569), and made Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire and Rutland and, in 1572 Lord President of the North. In 1573 he was constituted Lord Lieutenant of the counties of Leicester and Rutland and York, Northumerland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, and bishopric of Durham. In 1580 he was appointed to a commission that inquired into the recusancy of the gentry. His younger brother George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntington (ca. 1540-1604) held local offices in Derbyshire, and played little role in national politics.

Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon (1586-1642), was Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire in 1607-1642, and Rutland in 1614-1642.

Henry Hastings, Baron of Loughborough (d. 1667) supported the royalist cause during the Civil War. In 1642 he was appointed by Charles I the sheriff of Leicestershire, and raised a troop of horse and held Ashby for king until 1646. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire in 1661-1667.

Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntington (1650-1701) was appointed the Colonel of 13th Regiment on Foot, raised in Leicestershire to suppress the Monmouth Rebellion (1685); in 1687-1688 he was Lord Lieutenant of this county. A staunch Royalist, the 7th Earl was briefly imprisoned at Plymouth in 1688 for an alleged attempt to seize the citadel for James II, and in again in May 1690 on a suspicion of aiding sympathizers of the deposed king.

Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquis of Hastings and 2nd earl of Moira, fought in America (1773-1781), taking part in battles of Bunker Hill, Monmouth, siege of Charleston, and Camden, and later was a noted politician and colonial administrator in Bengal.