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NAME
TYPE
MATERIAL
DATE
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Selina Hastings
Relief Bust
Marble by John Rysbrack
Died 1791: Erected about 1747
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This 14 feet high standing wall monument, in the east wall of the Hastings Chapel, is in
the form of an obelisk and a very large urn surmounted by the Hastings' arms. The monument is
of interest inasmuch as it is adorned by the Rysbrach's medallion portrait of the earl's widow,
Selina, and not Theophilus, whose monument this is. Above a skull the mourning relict is
depicted veiled, in a Vandyke dress with her head resting on her clasped hands.
Selina, daughter of Washington Shirley, Earl Ferrers, was born in 1707 and converted to
Methodism in her twenties. After her husband's death she founded a new Calvinist sect
that became known as the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection, an ideal to which she devoted
the rest of her life.
The Countess was a friend of Augustus Toplady (the writer of the hymn
'Rock of Ages') and John and Charles Wesley.
She died at her London home in 1791 and was buried in
the family vault at Ashby de la Zouch.
The epitaph, written by Henry St John Viscount Bolingbroke, reads as follows:
Here lie the remains of
the Right honourable Theophilus Earl of Huntingdon,
Lord Hastings, Hungerford, Botreaux, Moels, Newmarch, and Molins.
If his birth deserved respect, his life deserved it more.
If he derived his title from a long roll of illustrious ancestors,
he reflected back on them superior honours.
He ennobled nobility by virtue.
he was of the first rank in both;
good in every relation of natural duty, and of social life.
The learning he acquired at school, he improved at Oxford,
under the care of that excellent person, the present Bishop of Gloucester.
Acquainted by his Studies with the characters of past ages,
he acquired by his Travels a knowledge
of the men and manners of his own.
He visited France, Italy, and even Spain.
After these excursions into other countries, he settled in his own.
His own was dear to him.
No man had juster notions of the true constitution of her government:
no man had a more comprehensive view of her
real interests, domestic and foreign.
Capable of excelling in every form of public life, he chose to appear in none.
His mind fraught with knowledge, his heart elevated with sentiments
of unaffected patriotism, he looked down from higher ground on a low level
of a futile and corrupt generation. Despairing to do national good,
he mingled as little as his rank permitted in national affairs.
Home is the refuge of a wise man's life; home was the refuge of his.
By his marriage with the Lady Selina Shirley,
second daughter and one of the coheirs of Washington Earl Ferrers,
he secured to himself in retreat a scene of happiness
he could not have found in the world; the uninterrupted
joys of conjugal love,
the never-failing comforts of cordial friendship.
Every care was softened, every satisfaction hightened,
every hour passed smoothly away,
in the company of one who enjoyed
a perpetual serenity of soul,
that none but those can feel in this life,
who are prepared for greater bliss in the next.
By her this monument is erected,
to record the virtues of the deceased, and the grief of the living.
He was born Nov 12, 1696; and married the said lady June 3, 1728.
By her he had four sons, and three daughters;
Francis, the present Earl, born March 13, 1728-9:
George, born March 29, 1730, who died of the smallpox, aged 14;
Ferdinando, born January 23, 1732, who also died of the smallpox aged 11;
Henry, now living, born Dec 12, 1739:
Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, born March 23, 1731;
Selina, born June 1735, who died an infant:
Selina, the third daughter, born December 3, 1737.
The said Earl died of a fit of the apoplexy,
October 13, 1746, in the 50th year of his age.
Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland
Text copyright Max Matthews 2002. Selected text copyright Bob Trubshaw 2025–6.
Images copyright Max Matthews 2002 or Bob Trubshaw 2002, 2025–6.
No copying or reproduction without prior written permission.
Published by Heart of Albion Press
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