SWAG about Henry's ancestor

One of the most frequent annotations in my genealogical notes is "SWAG." It's shorthand for a "silly wild-assed guess," and it's how I mark facts that are unproved, but based on plausible circumstantial evidence.

Henry Hastings' parentage has not been proven, at least in my opinion (and the opinion of another very knowledgeable Hastings researcher, Ruth Hasten Walsh).

So here's a SWAG that needs more research. The 1755 Orange County tax rolls (a list of "tytheables") contains an entry transcribed as William Harten. I have not been able to find a copy of the actual list, so I don't know what the handwritten entry looks like.

Then, in 1766, the will of William Asten was proved in Orange County court. In his will, William names his two sons-in-law (Peter Downey and Archibald McLeroy -- but not his daughters, and he does not mention a son.

William Asten is not listed on the 1755 list of tytheables. Could William Harten and William Asten be the same person? And could this person be a Hastings?

According to the LDS genealogy website, William Asten was born around 1709 in Prince Edward County, Virginia. (That website is a mine field of misinformation, by the way, but it's the only source I can find for him.) Virginia is certainly a plausible birth place for Henry's parents.

The first problem with this theory (besides the absence of any evidence) is that William Asten doesn't mention Henry Hastings in his will. That's not conclusive proof either way, but it's certainly impossible to ignore. (Perhaps William Asten was Henry's uncle.)

The second problem is that none of the confirmed descendants of Henry Hastings has any known connection to the Downey or McLeroy families. In fact, I can't confirm that Peter Downey ever lived in Orange County; he died in Surry County, North Carolina, on 15 Nov 1803.

I do note that, according to the LDS website, Peter Downey was born in Amelia County, Virginia, which is where another line of Hastings lived in the eighteenth century. Some researchers say that our Henry descends from the Amelia County line of Hastings, but nobody has proven it.

Remember that when Orange County was formed in 1752, it was huge, and comprised a good chunk of east-central North Carolina. So William Asten could have lived thirty or forty miles from the Hillsborough Hastings, and had no connection to them.