Biography

Elizabeth (Stanley) Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon is the author of five Huntington Library manuscripts: four copies of prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, dated 1633 (HM 15369, EL 6871, Hastings Literature, Box 1, Folder 6, and Hastings Religious, Box 2, Folder 8 ), and one volume of sermon notes, c.1625-1633 (Hastings Religious, Box 1, Folder 13). She was the third and youngest daughter of Ferdinando Stanley, fifth Earl of Derby and Alice Spencer. She and her sisters Anne and Frances were coheirs to her father, who died in 1594. Elizabeth was baptized at Knowsley, Lancashire on 6 January 1587 (Complete Peerage, vol. 4, pp. 212-13 and vol. 6, p. 658).

Elizabeth Stanley married Henry Hastings, fifth Earl of Huntingdon on 15 January 1601 (James Knowles, "Stanley, Elizabeth, Countess of Huntingdon (bap. 1587, d. 1633)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ). They had four children, Alice, b. 1606, Ferdinando, 1609-1656 (who married Lady Lucy Davies, compiler of several Huntington Library manuscripts), Henry, 1610-1677, and Elizabeth, b. 1612 (James Knowles, "Hastings, Henry, fifth Earl of Huntingdon (1586-1643)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Elizabeth Hastings probably lived for much of her married life in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, where the earls of Huntingdon had their seat.

Forty-six of Elizabeth Hastings's letters survive in the Hastings collection of the Huntington Library (HA 4809-4854). Hastings's letters, from c. 1605 until late 1632, include heartful epistles on missing her husband in the early days of their marriage, letters concerning her lack of a jointure which she is forcing her husband to provide after 14 years of marriage, descriptions of a visit to court to watch the rehearsals and final production of a masque (at which she was kissed by both the king and queen), and descriptions of her actions on behalf of her husband's suit with the Lord Treasurer. An early letter complains about an untrained nurse; later letters outline her illness and its treatment. She writes passionately to her husband, particularly in the early letters, before their debts caused problems. One letter requests that the bed and bed linen they pawned be returned to them since they now have the money. Other letters are to her daughter-in-law Lucy Davies and Lucy's father Sir John Davies concerning, among other matters, Lucy living with her mother-in-law while her husband Ferdinando is at Cambridge.

James Knowles notes that Elizabeth Hastings danced in ""The Masque of Queens"" in 1609, and that she was known for her learning, patronage, and piety (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). According to her funeral certificate dated 20 January 1633 (Huntington Library, Hastings Personal, Box 18, Folder 6, and MS EL 6839) she died at Whitefriars on 20 January 1633 at her brother-in-law, the Earl of Bridgewater's house. A procession took the body to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where she was buried on 9 February. Her funeral sermon, by ""I.F"" was printed in 1635 (A Sermon Preached At Ashby De-La-Zouch In The Countie of Leicester: At the Funerall of the Truely Noble and Vertuous Lady Elizabeth Stanley one of the Daughters and Coheires of the Right Honourable Ferdinand late Earle of Derby, and late Wife to Henrie Earle of Huntingdon the Fifth Earle of that Familie. The 9. of February. Anno Dom. 1633.) In this sermon, the minister praised her piety in conventional terms, particularly when she was faced with her final illness, but he does mention her literary activities as well: ""For this respect she did with exceeding diligence search, and with great Iudgement choose, whatsoever the Scripture could afford her for the establishing of her Spirit, and the building up of her assurance in the Lord Iesus, committing with her owne hand, even in that weaknesse, to writing what she had observed, and continuing that practise till within very few dayes before her death..."" (p. 41). If this account can be believed, the four manuscripts of her religious writings represent her thoughts right up to her death. In three of the four manuscripts, the final meditation is ""Of Death"" (Hastings Literature, Box 1, Folder 6 is the exception).

Huntington Library: MS HM 15369
Prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, 1633 (1633)
Elizabeth Hastings (author)

Huntington Library: MS EL 6871
Prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, 1633 (1633)
Elizabeth Hastings (Author)

Huntington Library: Hastings Literature Box 1, Folder 6
Prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, 1633 (1633. This copy was presented to a later Elizabeth Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon (the wife of the seventh earl; the author of the manuscript was the wife of the fifth earl) on 20 July 1676, but the manuscript itself was copied by the same scribal hand which copied out the other three copies of this work. Two of those other copies are dated 1633, the year of the writer's death, and so 1633 must be the date of transcription. Hastings may have compiled the materials in the manuscript years earlier. )
Elizabeth Hastings (Author)

Huntington Library: Hastings Religious Box 2, Folder 8
Prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, 1633 (1633. The manuscript may have been dated 1633 on fol. 1r, just as two other copies of the volume are (HM 15369 and EL 6871), but the leaf has been torn right where the date would be. On the other hand, the manuscript which it most resembles in terms of the order of its contents (Hastings Literature, Box, 1, Folder 6) does not list the date 1633 on fol. 1r and so perhaps this manuscript omitted it as well. It is highly likely that since all four manuscripts are in the same scribal hand, all of them were transcribed in 1633, the year of Hastings's death. Hastings may have compiled the materials in the manuscript years earlier.)
Elizabeth Hastings (Author)

Huntington Library: MS HM 15369
Prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, 1633 (1633)
Elizabeth Hastings (author)

Huntington Library: MS EL 6871
Prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, 1633 (1633)
Elizabeth Hastings (Author)

Huntington Library: Hastings Literature Box 1, Folder 6
Prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, 1633 (1633. This copy was presented to a later Elizabeth Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon (the wife of the seventh earl; the author of the manuscript was the wife of the fifth earl) on 20 July 1676, but the manuscript itself was copied by the same scribal hand which copied out the other three copies of this work. Two of those other copies are dated 1633, the year of the writer's death, and so 1633 must be the date of transcription. Hastings may have compiled the materials in the manuscript years earlier. )
Elizabeth Hastings (Author)

Huntington Library: Hastings Religious Box 2, Folder 8
Prayers, biblical extracts, and meditations, 1633 (1633. The manuscript may have been dated 1633 on fol. 1r, just as two other copies of the volume are (HM 15369 and EL 6871), but the leaf has been torn right where the date would be. On the other hand, the manuscript which it most resembles in terms of the order of its contents (Hastings Literature, Box, 1, Folder 6) does not list the date 1633 on fol. 1r and so perhaps this manuscript omitted it as well. It is highly likely that since all four manuscripts are in the same scribal hand, all of them were transcribed in 1633, the year of Hastings's death. Hastings may have compiled the materials in the manuscript years earlier.)
Elizabeth Hastings (Author)

Huntington Library: Hastings Religious, Box 1, Folder 13
Sermon notes, biblical extracts, meditations, and a prayer (c.1625-1633. Dates occasionally appear in titles in this manuscript (1625 and 1631). One of her sources was printed in 1633 (John Preston's "Sins overthrow"). Hastings died in 1633.)
Elizabeth Hastings (Author, scribe)

Huntington Library: Hastings Religious, Box 1, Folder 13
Sermon notes, biblical extracts, meditations, and a prayer (c.1625-1633. Dates occasionally appear in titles in this manuscript (1625 and 1631). One of her sources was printed in 1633 (John Preston's "Sins overthrow"). Hastings died in 1633.)
Elizabeth Hastings (Author, scribe)