Any help is greatly appreciated! The parents of Deacon Thomas Hastings are unknown at this time, although there is a book called The Hastings Memorial (1866) that claims he is descended from the Earl of Huntingdon line. The Earl of Huntingdon line has a significant number of lines that descend from Philippa of Hainault and Edward III of England. A lot of people in the genealogy community argue against what the book has stated. There does not appear to be a record that proves that Thomas is a descendant of Henry Hastings, the 5th Earl of Huntingdon.
The current thinking is that Thomas may be descended from a brother of Henry (either George or Edward), with Henry’s father being Francis Hastings (Baron). Another possibility is that Thomas descends from a son of Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon (Henry, William, George, Edward, Walter, Francis).
Here is a link that contains information about the book. Upon scrolling down the page, there is a link to a website from Columbia University that allows people to view the book digitally for free. Pages 11 and 13 on the horizontal scroll bar display the pages that make the claims about Thomas’s descent from the Earl of Huntingdon line and the House of Plantagenet.
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008414301Again, any help is always greatly appreciated!
