1626 Letter from Dorothy Hastings (née Willoughby) to Bridget Willoughby

The 10th May 2026 is the 400th anniversary of a letter in the Middleton Manuscripts, which was written on 10th May 1626 by Dorothy Hastings née Willoughby to her sister, and owner of Middleton, Bridget Willoughby.

Bridget was the eldest daughter of Sir Francis I Willoughby and Elizabeth Littleton and Dorothy was their second surviving daughter, according to the family history account of Cassandra Willoughby. In 1587, Dorothy married Sir Henry Hastings and her marriage dowry included the estate of Woodlands in Dorset. It was one of the main Willoughby estates at that time and had been the birthplace of Sir Francis. Woodlands then became the main residence of Dorothy and Henry for the remainder of their lives.

The Middleton Manuscripts contain many letters before and after their marriage, specifically between Henry and Sir Francis and then between Dorothy and Bridget and her husband Sir Percival Willoughby. These reveal a very personal level of detail about their lives.

In the letter dated 10th May 1626, Dorothy wrote that her daughter Ryves was big with child and intended to lie in at Woodlands and wrote of her wish that Lady Bridget would be at her groaning and help to comfort her.

Dorothy and Henry are known to have had three children: George; Henry; and Dorothy. Their daughter Dorothy first married Sir John Ryves on 13th May 1617. Sir John died on 3rd January 1624. On 2nd September 1625, she married Thomas Tregonwell. Even though legally her name changed upon her second marriage, a widespread social convention was that a woman who had a title, in this case Lady Ryves, would retain it, especially in social discussion, if her second husband did not have a title. Dorothy and Thomas are known to have had at least 6 children: John; Elizabeth; Thomas; Dorothy; Katherine; and Anne. However, only the dates of birth of John and Elizabeth are known as 1632 and 1634 respectively.

In Dorothy’s 10th May letter, she also wrote that she was sorry to hear that Sir George Peckham and his Lady were likely to lose Strelley.

In 1610, Sir George Peckham purchased the lands that were in the possession of the heavily indebted Strelley family in Nottinghamshire after intense litigation with Sir Percival Willoughby, to whom the Strelley family were in debt to. Peckham is described as an asset stripper who made many “devious money dealings”. After purchasing the estates, it is known he was looking for a buyer but he cut and sold the timber assets before the deal was finalised and ended up in lawsuits because of that. About 23rd March 1626, Sir George and his wife, were forced to sell their acquired Strelley lands at a loss.

Finally, in Dorothy’s 10th May letter, she wrote how she feared that her brother Wood would defraud her of her money that he had owed her for the last 10 years. She wrote how she desired Lady Bridget to persuade him to pay her before strangers as she had heard that his land was extended for debt.

Dorothy’s brother Wood was Montague Wood, the husband of her sister Frances. In 1626, his lands had indeed been extended for debt, a legal process in which a creditor took possession of a debtor’s land until the debt was paid. His financial issues are reported to have stemmed from poor management of his own estates and hostile lawsuits against his Willoughby in-laws over his wife’s marriage settlement. However, he is widely described as an “ill” character in the Willoughby papers for various reasons. Dorothy herself wrote in 1619 that she urged Bridget to instruct her tenants not to pay rent to Wood, who had taken the Lady Day’s rent from her tenants intended for her and then not handed it to her afterwards. This was essentially misappropriation of funds or fraud and was what Dorothy had been trying to recover.

Further reading: W. H. Stevenson, Report on the Manuscripts of Lord Middleton, Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1911. p.591.

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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