BURTON SALMON - Key Persons

Kelly Kettling

Today we had the pleasure of Mrs Hall and her Kelly Kettle! A Kelly Kettle is a type of camping stove with ...

Lady Elizabeth Hastings was born in 1682, the eldest surviving daughter of the 7th Earl of Huntingdon. At the age of 23 she inherited a fortune from the estate of her grandfather, Sir John Lewis of Ledston Hall, Yorkshire. Lady Betty, as she became known, took up residence at Ledston and adopted a lifestyle of deep Christianity and enlightened philanthropy. A well known Society figure, she declined all offers of marriage. She saw education as key to the future, built a boarding school for girls at Ledsham and founded schools at Aberford, Collingham, Thorp Arch, and Ledsham. She was also a major benefactor to religious and other charitable causes. A number of primary schools in West Yorkshire still bear her name. In 1738 Lady Betty contracted breast cancer, for which she underwent surgery, without the benefit of anaesthetics. Considering her future, on 14th December 1738 she set up a Trust Deed, providing for the establishment of the charities that would bear her name. For this to be effective, she had to live for at least a year from that date; she survived for a year and a week, leaving a legacy that has helped tens of thousands of people through four centuries. Lady Elizabeth Hastings adopted a lifestyle of deep Christianity and enlightened philanthropy and, before her death in 1739, established the charities which have since helped tens of thousands of people. Class 2 have been researching Lady Elizabeth Hastings in a number of different ways. Gray has been looking at identifying features of a biography and found out that, 'Lady Elizabeth Hastings was the granddaughter of the Earl of Ledston. Her nickname was 'Lady Betty'. Her parents owned Ledston Hall, where she was born in 1682. Her and her brother were the only two children that survived out of nine siblings'. Noah discovered that, 'Lady Elizabeth Hastings believed that education would lead to a happy life and she taught her nieces and nephews. When she was 23 years old, she got a fortune when her grandfather died, so she decided to stay living at Ledston Hall. She loved her Christian religion so much, that they let her into the Society of Christian Knowledge, even though she was a woman and women weren't allowed to enter'. Noah also created the following acrostic poem, based on the facts he had found out: