Jacob Astley, 16th Baron Hastings

Hastings was the eldest son of Sir Jacob Astley, 5th Baronet, and Hester, daughter of Samuel Browne. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1817 he succeeded his father to the baronetcy and to the family seat of Melton Constable Hall in Norfolk.

Hastings was High Sheriff of Norfolk between 1821 and 1822. In 1832 he was returned to Parliament for Norfolk West, a seat he held until 1837. In 1841 the House of Lords announced that Hastings was one of the co-heirs to the barony of Hastings, a peerage which had been dormant since 1389 and technically abeyant since 1542, as a descendant of Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh Hastings, de jure 14th Baron Hastings. At that time he lived in Melton Constable. Later the same year the abeyance was terminated in his favour and he was issued a writ to the House of Lords.[1]

Lord Hastings, while still a baronet, married Georgiana Carolina, daughter of Sir Henry Dashwood, in 1819. They had two sons.

In 1835, Georgiana gave birth to a daughter, named Georgiana, fathered by Captain Thomas Garth of the 15th Hussars. She died in June of the same year, aged 39.

Lord Hastings died in December 1859, aged 62, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Jacob.

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Jacob Astley