Hastings

This famous surname recorded as Hasting, Hastings, Hastin, Hustin, Hustings, and others, is generally regarded as Anglo-Scottish. However our research is that irrespective of any modern spelling or in which country it is found, its ultimate origin is the pre 5th century Norse-Viking. As such it derives from the personal name Hastein meaning violent! Certainly in later times it became locational from the town of Hastings, in Sussex, England, but this place itself is named after the Hastingas. They were almost certainly a Viking tribe, and probably sarcastically named by the local Anglo-Saxons, who were less than delighted at their arrival. The surname in Scotland may be pure Norse-Viking, since Scotland also suffered from the Viking raiders cum settlers, or locational from Hastings in England, but to add to the confusion both in England and Scotland it could also be Norman-French. It is known that a Robert de Hasting was a commander in the army of occupation of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, and later in the 12th century many Norman-French knights were granted estates by the King William of Scotland, known as 'The Lyon'. They provided him with a standing army. Hastings as a town, was first recorded in the Saxon Cartulary of 790 a.d, although the surname as we know it today, was not recorded in any form for another three hundred years. Amongst the very earliest examples of the surname recording are those of Robert de Hastin, in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Leicestershire, in the year 1130, whilst the first recording in Scotland is that of Johanne de Hastinge, Lord of Duns, and sheriff of the Mearns, in 1178. He was a Norman knight who pledged allegiance to the king of Scotland, and also married Isabella de Valence, the niece of King Henry 111rd of England.