The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. III.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
ADDITIONAL NAMES GIVEN BY LELAND.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Vuasteneys : or Gastineys. "If we may judge from the earliest spelling of the name, the family must have come from the district called the 'Gastinois,' lying to the south of Paris and east of Orleans; thus much is certain, that the first of the English line was a follower of Robert de Stafford, and enfeoffed by that baron both in his Lincolnshire and Staffordshire estates. The generally received tradition would recognise this ancestor as 'Ardulph,' Lord of the Manor of Osgarthorp under De Ferrers, but it rests on no sufficient authority."—Staffordshire Historical Collections. The connection is proved to have been only through the female line, for it was Hardulph's great-granddaughter, Amphelis, who brought Osgarthorp in Leicestershire to Sir Philip de Wasteneys, in the latter part of the twelfth century.
"The true founder of the family was Goisfridus, described in the Lincolnshire Domesday as 'homo Roberti de Stafford,' and who held lands in Brune, Carleby, Braseburg, and possibly in Dentune, besides the Staffordshire fees at Colton, Tixall, &c. being all portions of the great De Stafford barony, which were handed down for some centuries in the De Wastineys line."—Ibid. Sir William and Sir Geoffrey de Wasteneys—presumed to have been his grandsons—possessed these lands in 1165.—Liber Niger. Second in descent from the elder brother, Sir William, was the Sir Philip who married the Leicestershire heiress. He was in arms against King John; and being captured at Mount Sorrel in 1216, was carried prisoner to Nottingham, and forced to surrender part of his Colton estate to John le Mareschal, "as the ransom which should open his prison door." Stephen, his grandson, "was admitted a.d. 1267 into the King's peace on giving security for good behaviour, and gave further proof subsequently of his turbulent character, when sent by his brother William in 1271 to Emma Bagot's house in Hacunby. It appears from the Hundred Rolls that the band under his command, not satisfied with robbing her of property valued at 100s., carried off Simon Bagot her brother and two Hoyland men prisoners. The latter they beheaded summarily in the Park at Brune, whilst Simon was kept in captivity for six years, until Emma Bagot paid Sir William 20 marcs for his release—a strange picture of the lawlessness of those days. Sir William de Wasteneys was himself Sheriff of Lincolnshire at the time."—Ibid. From this tyrannical Sheriff descended another Sir William, fifth of the name, an active, enterprising man, "who inherited a greater estate, and influence in five different counties," followed Edward I. to the Scottish wars, and tilted at the great Stepney tournament of 1309 on the side of the Earl of Lancaster. "In 1333 he was ordered to raise two thousand men in the county of Lincoln; and in 1325 he was sent by Lord Wake in command of a body of troops across the seas; but the climate of Gascony brought on a disease, that proved rapidly fatal, not long after his return to England."—Ibid. His son, Sir Thomas, whom he left a minor, became in his turn a noted soldier, served both in France and Scotland, fought at Cressy, and the year following received a pardon "for all offences that he may have committed, on the ground of his good service against the French. The writ, which is dated at Calais, Septr. 4th, 20 Ed. III., implies that he shared likewise in the memorable siege." All his three sons died s. p., and the estate passed to their sister, Thomasine, the wife of Nicholas de Gresley.[169] The Gresleys in consequence quarter the coat of Wasteneys, Sable a lion rampant Argent, collared Gules.
Though the main line of this ancient house had died out, there remained a Nottinghamshire branch, derived from Sir Nicholas de Wasteneys, believed to have been a younger son of the Lincolnshire Sheriff of 1271. His descendants are mentioned as holding two knights' fees in Notts during the reigns of Henry VI. and Edward IV., and were seated at Heandon for ten successive generations. Sir Hardolph Wasteneys received a baronetcy from James I. in 1622, and was Sheriff of the county in 1636. One of his younger sons was an ardent Cavalier, "memorable," says Wotton, "for slaying five Persons at the Devizes, co. Wilts, on the behalf of the King, in whose Service he lost his Life." The last and fourth Baronet was another Sir Hardolph, who died childless in 1742. There was no male heir; and the estates eventually centred in the Eyres of Grove, representing his only sister Catherine. The baronetcy was unsuccessfully claimed by a collateral in 1887.