The younger Thomas married Anna Hawkes a year later after moving 150 miles west to the Connecticut River Valley and settling in the village of Hatfield, Massachusetts. He became a respected doctor which must have been a relief to his father who was to say later, "I have been at great charge to bring him up to be a Scholar and I hope he will live well by his arts and learning." Dr. Thomas practiced medicine for some 40 years and served as town clerk for two decades. His was a frontier practice and as such, he treated many injuries sustained in skirmishes with the Indians and also wrote one of the best contemporary records of the devastating 1704 attack on nearby Deerfield. In Watertown, Massachusetts, where the American town meeting first took form, Thomas Hastings was repeatedly called to leadership positions inside and outside the church. At one time or another, he held virtually every office to include multiple stints as Selectman, Moderator and Town Clerk. His public service spanned five decades and he was last elected to public office (Selectman) in 1680. As a Freeman, he owned property and would have been a devoted Puritan and believer of the Gospel as conveyed in the Geneva Bible. Certainly one of the town's most influential citizens, later historians have called him one of the "old war-horses" of Watertown. Many of the surviving records from his time were written in his hand and often the government meetings were held in his home. The descendants of Thomas & Margaret are numerous and many have risen to positions of great importance or notoriety. Although no marker remains, he almost certainly lies among his many descendants in Watertown's Old Burying Ground (Arlington St. Cemetery). Margaret Hastings survived him by about five years. The old property locations are well established, but no 17th century Hastings family structures remain. Grandsons of Thomas Hastings, Daniel and Nathaniel Hastings were among the early settlers of the Town of Boylston, Massachusetts. The Hastings of Boylston Massachusetts by Gordon H. Hastings: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform: . Copyright 2016 Gordon H. Hastings