Eleanor (Welles) Hastings (abt. 1428 - aft. 1490)

Born about 1428 in Lincolnshire, England

Ancestors

Wife of James Lawrence — married 1455 in Methley, West Riding, Yorkshire, England

Descendants

Died after 1490 after about age 62 in Yorkshire, England

Biography

Eleanor Welles was a member of the aristocracy in England.

Eleanor Welles, daughter of Lionel (Leo) Welles, K.G., 6th Lord Welles, by his first wife Joan (or Jane) Waterton, married (1) Sir Thomas Hoo, (2) Sir James Lawrence, (3) Hugh Hastings.^[1]

First Marriage to Thomas Hoo

Eleanor Welles married (1st) Thomas Hoo, K. G., Lord Hoo and Hastings. ^[2]

They had three daughters^[3][4][5]

• Anne (wife of Roger Copley)
• Eleanor
• Elizabeth, (wife of Thomas Masingbeard and John Devenish, Knt.

Through the first marriage of Eleanor de Welles to Thomas Hoo, 1st Baron Hoo, Eleanor became the ancestor of American Presidents George H. W. Bush and his son George W. Bush.^[6]

Second Marriage to James Lawrence

Eleanor Welles married (2nd) James Lawrence, Knt, of Ashton by Lancaster, Lancashire [See Hoo-14] ^[2]

Sir Thomas Hoo's widow married (2nd) before 1461 James Lawrence, Knt, of Ashton by Lancaster, Carnforth (in Warton, Middleton, Overton, Skerton, and Stodday, Lancashire, son and heir of Robert Lawrence, of Ashton, Middleton, Camforth, etc., Lancashire, by Agnes, daughter of Nicholas Croft. He was born about 1428 (aged 22 in 1450). He was knighted in Scotland in the expedition of 1482.^[3] They had at least two children:^[3]

• Thomas, Knt^[7]
• John, who was killed in the Battle of Flodden in 1513^[7]

Sir James Lawrence died 31 May 1490. His widow, Eleanor, is said to have married (3rd) Hugh Hastings. She died before 1504.^[3]

Research Notes

Previously shown son

Eleanor has previously been shown on WikiTree as mother of John Lawrence of Ramsey, Huntingdonshire. This is incorrect. James and Eleanor did have a son called John, but he died at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513, and his IPM the next year shows that he had no male heirs and that his estate passed to a collateral member of his family, Lancelot Lawrence.^[7]

Other suggested children of her second marriage

Douglas Richardson lists three other children of Eleanor's second marriage: Robert (a priest), Jane, and Agnes wife of William Tunstall.^[3] Richardson's source appears to be an 1868 pedigree in Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica which claims to be based on a Lawrence pedigree in the 1567 Visitation of Lancashire,^[8] but no such pedigree exists in the Chetham Society edition of the Visitation.^[9] A reasonably well-sourced 1874 article names only Thomas and John his younger brother, who survived Thomas but, as stated above, died in 1513 with his estate passing to a collateral relative in the absence of nearer heirs.^[7] There is therefore doubt as to whether Robert, Jane and Agnes were children of James Lawrence and Eleanor Welles.

A Robert Lawrence was presented by Sir James Lawrence to the church living of Warton, Lancashire in 1589/90. He was succeeded in 1507/8 by Richard Dudley, so he almost certainly died about then. He was presumably a relative of James, but there is no indication of how they were related.^[10]

Sources

1. ↑ Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham, (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2013), Vol V, p 336 WELLES #13ii
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, 2013, Volume 5, page 336
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, 2013, Volume 3, pp. 308-309
4. ↑ Nicholas Harris Nicolas. Testamenta Vetusta, Vol. I, Nichols and Son, 1826, pp. 272-274, will of Thomas Hoo, Internet Archive
5. ↑ Robert Clutterbuck. The History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford, Vol. III, John Bowyer Nicholls (London), 1827, p. 95, viewable on Familysearch (go to image page 99)
6. ↑ Gary Boyd Roberts, Ancestors of American Presidents (New England Historic Genealogical Society; Location: Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA; Date: 2009), p. 381
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3} John Gough Nichols, Lawrence of Ashton, Co. Lancaster in 'The Herald and Genealogist', Vol. VIII, R C Nichols and J B Nichols, 1874 - includes abstracts of IPMs of her second husband Thomas Lawrence and (in Latin) their son John at pp. 216-219, Internet Archive
8. ↑ Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Vol. I, 1868, p. 199, Internet Archive
9. ↑ The Visitation of the County Palatine of Lancaster made in the year 1567 by William Flower Esq., Chetham Society, 18670, Internet Archive
10. ↑ 'The parish of Warton', in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 8, ed. William Farrer and J Brownbill (London, 1914), pp. 151-161, British History Online, accessed 31 October 2021

See also:

• Benolte, Thomas; Philipot, John; & Owen, George. The Visitations of the County of Sussex: 1530 and 1633-4. London: The Harleian Society, 1905. Vol LIII, p 111.