Note 173 — Chapter XX

The ninth Earl. Theophilus, the eleventh Earl, was the eldest brother of Colonel Hastings; he was the godson of the ninth Earl, and educated by him. He took orders, and obtained the family livings of Great and Little Beke, Osgathorp, and Belton. He was twice married, but died without issue. His first wife, Miss Pratt, died soon after her marriage. His second wife was Betsy Warner, a domestic of Donnington Park, with whom having had some dalliance in his youth, and having promised her marriage as soon as he should get the living of Beke, was reminded of his promise thirty years after it was made. Astonished, but not ashamed of his early choice, he enquired into her character, and finding that clear, he kept his promise. He himself published, in his own village church, the bans between the Rev. Theophilus Hastings and Betsy Warner. “My name (exclaimed the lady from an adjoining pew) is Elizabeth!” And they were married accordingly. He had never legally claimed the title, which, however, he had personally assumed, and to which he had an undoubted right. He died in 1804, in the 76th year of his age.