Goadby’s History of Loughborough, Chapter 9, Part 1

We’re again picking up the story of Loughborough as presented by journalist Edwin Goady, in his serialization in the ‘Loughborough Monitor’, a newspaper of which he was editor, which ran from 1864 to 1866.

We’re now onto Chapter 9, in which Goadby tells the story of Lord Hastings.

Goadby’s paragraphs are rather long, so in order to make reading the chapter a little easier, I have added a few spaces and created new paragraphs. This particular chapter seems fairly straightforward, so I’ve not added any notes this time. Other than that, I’ve changed nothing, so do bear in mind that this text is now about 160 years old, and may no longer be accurate, as there are many more discoveries that have been made that illuminate the history of Loughborough, and some terminology will have changed, so some of the information in this article will be wrong. I have not tried to amend these in any way, so reader, beware!

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THE HISTORY OF LOUGHBOROUGH

In: ‘Loughborough Monitor’ 8 June 1865, pg.3

CHAPTER IX.

THE GREAT LORD HASTINGS.

Part I.—Origin of the Family—Historical Importance of the Lord Hastings—Services and Rewards—A Military Indenture. His local influence—Saint Leonard's, at Leicester—A Letter of his—Gloucester's Character of him.

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We must now retrace our steps a little for the purpose of continuing the manorial history of the town. We have already stated that the manor was granted to Lord Hastings in 1461, and confirmed in 1467. It was not restored, along with other possessions, to Henry, the fifth Lord Beaumont, until 1483, so that Lord Hastings held the manor during the greater portion of his life.

The family of the Hastings were descended from Robert de Hastings, the Portreeve, or principal magistrate of the town of that name, who was also steward to William the Conqueror. William, Lord Hastings, was the eldest son of Sir Leonard Hastings, Knight, of Kirby Muxloe, in this county. Both father and son were retainers of Richard, Duke of York, the father of Edward IV., and a most intimate attachment was early formed between the young prince and the future baron. History and the drama record alike the excellencies and defects of this handsome, courtly, chivalrous, and somewhat unscrupulous nobleman.

It is quite beyond our province to sketch his career, or give anything like an original analysis of his character. A few details of local interest are all that we can give, and the only digression we shall make will but serve the more fully to bring out the social and national usages of the time.

In 1470, Edward IV. returned from exile, landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, and marched thence to York, Wakefield, Sowdal, Doncaster, and Nottingham. In passing from Nottingham to Leicester, through Loughborough, Edward IV. was joined by a large number of adherents collected by Lord Hastings from his tenantry at Kirby Muxloe, Ashby, Loughborough, and other places, "so that he had then," says Leland, "a 4 M men or mo."

For these and other services Lord Hastings obtained, four years later, permission to enclose and impark 3,000 acres of land and wood at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 2,000 acres at Bagworth and Thornton, and 2,000 acres at Kirby Muxloe. In all three places he was also allowed to build a military stronghold. The one at Ashby was both a palace and a fort, with roomy halls, chambers, and a lofty keep, the ruins of which are now so familiar to every one who knows anything of county relics and county history.

His retinue consisted of two Lords, nine Knights, fifty-eight Esquires, and twenty gentlemen, and some of their names are now familiar enough to most of us, as Montfort, Harcourt, Chaworth, Danvers, Green, Sacheverell, Curzon, Neville, Vernon, Shirley, Babington, Bassell, Turville, &c. In 1475, he executed an Indenture with one "John Gryffyne, gentillman," which is of great interest in revealing the military system of those days. The great Barons used to contract with the King to supply him with a certain number of men for a given number of days' service, and upon a certain scale of remuneration; as one mark per day for a Duke, 6s. 8d. for an Earl, 4s. for a Baron, 2s. for a Knight, and 6d. for an archer, these sums being equivalent to ten times the amount in modern money. The Barons then made sub-contracts with smaller men, and usually managed to make money by the transaction. The indenture in question set forth that

"the said John is reteyned and withholden with the said Lord Hastynges to do him service of werre with the Kyng our soverain lord, now on his viage over the see for one hole year at his spere wele and sufficiently horsed, armed, and arrayed as it apperteneth to a man of armes, and iiii archers wele and sufficiently horsed, hernessed, habilled, and arrayed as it apperteneth to an archer, taking for hym selfe xviii d. a day, and for every archer vi d. by the day, of the wiche wages the said John hath receyved the first quarter of the said hole yere the day of sealyng these presentis, at which day the said lord hath yeven (given) knowledge to the said John that he shall make monstres (musters) of hym self and his said retenue, at Portes-downe in Hampshire, the xxiiiith day of May next comencyng, or the same day at any other place upon resonnabil warning."

Some of the other stipulations are rather curious. After "the said monstresse and payment" of the second quarter the men are "with goddis grace (sic) to go to shipp at such tyme as the Kyng and the said lord shall commande them, and for the other halfe of the said yere the said John shall be paid by the said lord, for him selfe and his said retenue on the yonder side of the See, monethly in English money, or in money there rynnyng (running) to the value of English money."

Another clause in this long and curious document shows us other sources of enrichment for the Baron. "Also the said lorde shall have the iiide parte of the wynnynges of werre as well of the said John as the iiide of iiides whereof yche (each) of his retenue shall be answeryng unto him of their wynnynges of werre duryng the tyme above said, be it prisoners, prayes (preys), or other goodes or cattall what so ever thei be, and the said John, or he, or thei that shall so take such prisoners or prayes shall show unto the said lorde within six days after the so takyng as well the names of the said prisoners as their astate, degre, or condicionn, and the quantite and value of the said gettyngis by estimacionn upon payn of forfiture the said prisoners and wynnyngis above said."

The indenture is signed by Hastings himself, and it is easy to comprehend the stir and excitement such enrollments would make in the neighbourhood, and the wasteful expenditure that any considerable army thus raised necessarily entailed upon the crown. We have only to conceive of a modern army of even 40,000 men so raised and paid, to understand the difficulty, expense, jobbing, and unscrupulous dealings that war entailed then, as now, in spite of our notions that people were honester formerly than they are now and avoided many of our supposed red-tapeisms and vicious practices.

The influence Lord Hastings exerted throughout the whole neighbourhood of his properties was very great, and very beneficent. At Leicester, he was a notable person, having obtained from the king a grant of the hospital of St. Leonards, and given the same to the Abbey of Leicester. The dean and chapter, to show their sense of this favour, covenanted by an instrument under their common seal, that

"Whensoever he should fortune to depart this life, they would keep a special obit for him in their church, on the day of his funeral; as also every year to celebrate his anniversary for the health of his soul and of the lady Katherine his wife."

And further to commemorate this gift, the Provost was to pay yearly on that day, at the end of the mass, the sum of 3s. 4d. to the Dean of the Chapter, 2s. to every canon then present, 12d. to every vicar of the choir, 6d. to every clerk, 4d. to every chorister, 4d. to the verger, and 1d. each to every poor man and woman then living in the almshouse belonging to the abbey.

By his will Lord Hastings commanded his executors to give him even greater honours. A thousand priests were to be selected by them to say a thousand Placebos and Dirigls, and a thousand masses for the safety of his soul, and every priest was to receive the sum of sixpence for his trouble. The following letter is characteristic, and exhibits his kindliness and gentleness.

To Richard Butler, Esq., on behalf of his servant Thomas Myles

Trusty and rygth well beloved friend;

I commend me to you, and praye you, insomuch as I am informed ye bend youre labors to vexe a servante of myne, Thomas Myles, of Everden, whom I love wel, withoute caws, reasonable; that ye vouchsaf, because of this my prayer, to have hym the rather in your favor as he be'nt so vexede hereafter, but that he may sit in rest; for I am loth that any of my servantes shulde have cause to complene upon you, or I, to have anything againste you.

Written at London, the 17th day of March (no date)

Your friend, HASTYNGS.

The melancholy end of this brilliant man, is a matter of common history, and even the wicked Gloucester when he has had him executed is made by Shakespeare to say of him, no doubt cunningly and perhaps truly:

"So dear I lov'd the man, that I must weep.

I took him for the plainest harmless creature

That breath'd upon the earth a Christian;

Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded

The history of all her secret thoughts:

So smooth he daub'd his vice with show of virtue,

That, his apparent open guilt omitted,

I mean, his conversation with Shore's wife,

He liv'd from all attainder of suspects."

The end of Chapter 9, Part 1!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Dyer, Lynne (2026). Goadby’s History of Loughborough, Chapter 9, Part 1.

Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2026/07/goadbys-history-of-loughborough-chapter.html  [Accessed 5 July 2026]

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