Born in Watertown, NY, on November 22, 1814. During a title war concerning the land at Point San Quentin and with lack of sufficient funds and legislative support for a new state prison, Hastings was compelled to hold nearly 150 state prisoners on leased ships moored in San Francisco Bay. (The State later bought the land and built San Quentin Prison nearly ten years later.) Hastings became the first chief justice of the California Supreme Court. Died in San Francisco in 1893.