♀Hillaria Hastings

Hillaria Hastings (living in 1272) was an English noblewoman, a sister of Henry de Hastings^W and the second wife of Sir William Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt and Ellenhall, who outlived him and went to law for her widow’s share of his lands. She was the twenty-first great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son Richard Harcourt (1256–1293).

Marriage

Hillaria’s brother is named in the pedigree kept by Ronton Priory, which calls her “soror Domini Henrici de Hastingges”. She is said to have been a daughter of Henry Hastings and his wife Ada, a niece of the Scottish kings Malcolm IV and William the Lion.

After Alice la Zouche’s death, William Harcourt married Hillaria Hastings, a sister of Henry de Hastings, and she was most likely the mother of his only son, Richard Harcourt, born on 9 December 1256. William already had two daughters, Orabel and Margery, by his first wife, and the lands settled on that marriage were theirs, not Richard’s. Hillaria is said to have brought William 35 yardlands at Nailstone in Leicestershire.

In the autumn of 1269 Joan, the widow of Henry de Hastings, sued William and Hillaria for her dower^W: a third of £20 of land at Hayleston in Leicestershire. The couple held that land by Henry’s charters, so they called on his under-age son and heir, John, to warrant it, and John’s attorney conceded Joan’s claim.

Widowhood

William died not long afterwards, and before April 1271, leaving Richard a boy; the king gave the custody of his lands and heir to Adam de Monhaut. The prior of Ronton is said to have brought a plea against Hillaria over a hedge thrown down at Ellenhall. In 1272, as William’s widow, Hillaria sued his daughters Orabel and Margery for a third of their lands at Aylestone, with its mills, woods and a share of the patronage of the church, as her dower.

A Staffordshire history published in 1914 records that her dower was Ellenhall, that before 1281 she married Robert de Frankeville and lived there with him, and that the king had given her marriage to Hugh de Beaumys, who sold it to Robert for 93 marks. The marriage of the widow of one of the king’s tenants was the king’s to give, and like a wardship it could be sold on. The same history has Hillaria and Robert claiming the usual franchises of Ellenhall before the king’s justices in 1293, and Hillaria, a widow again, suing her Frankeville stepsons in 1295.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son Richard Harcourt (1256–1293). They part further down the family and meet again in Sarah Dudley (1795–1839), whose parents, Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844) and Anna Smith (1764–1825), both descended from her.

Notes

Parentage and name

The pedigree in the cartulary^W of Ronton Priory (printed in Collections for a History of Staffordshire, vol. 4, pp. 272–273) says that William Harcourt “primo desponsavit Aliciam la Zouche; et post decessum ejusdam Aliciae, idem Willielmus desponsavit Illariam, quae fuit soror Domini Henrici de Hastingges”. Her parents are named only in The Harcourt Papers, vol. 1 (1880), p. 63: “Hillaria, daughter of Henry Lord Hastings, by his wife Ada, daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon, brother to Malcolm the Fourth and William the Lion, Kings of Scotland”. The records write her name Hillaria, Illaria and Hillary.

Her son Richard

No record names Richard’s mother. Because the lands settled on William and his first wife and the heirs of their bodies went to the daughters and not to Richard, the editor of 1883 concluded that “Richard his successor was his son by his second wife” (Collections for a History of Staffordshire, vol. 4, p. 183), and The Harcourt Papers (vol. 1, p. 63) say that “By his second wife, Sir William had an only son, Richard”. J. C. Wedgwood’s “Harcourt of Ellenhall” (Collections for a History of Staffordshire, 1914, p. 194) says that William married her “about 1256” and that “by her he had his son and heir, Richard, and with her he had 35 yardlands in Nailstone”.

The lawsuits

Joan’s dower suit is on the Coram Rege roll for Michaelmas 53–54 Henry III (October 1269), printed in vol. 4, p. 178; Hillaria’s suit against Orabel and Margery (1272) is on p. 188. The plea of the Prior of Ronton “against Illaria, widow of William de Harecourt, respecting a hedge thrown down in Ellenhale” is known from the editor’s note on p. 272, citing the Patent Roll.

Second marriage

Wedgwood (p. 194) writes that “Hillary survived him, was suing for dower in 1272, and had before 1281 re-married Robert de Frankeville. Her dower was Ellenhall, and there they lived. In 1295 Frankeville was dead, and we find her suing her Frankeville step-sons. In 1293, before the Quo Warranto courts, she and Frankeville were claiming the usual franchises in Ellenhall.” In the same volume, the Rev. F. Parker’s notes to Walter Chetwynd’s history of Pirehill Hundred (pp. 83–84) add that “Hillary (de Hastings), widow of Wm. de Harcourt, had land in Ellenhall. Her marriage had been given to Hugh de Beaumys by King H. III., and Hugh had sold it to Robert de Frankeville for 93 marcs.” The date of Hillaria’s death is not known.