His grandfather, Joseph Hasted (1662–1732), had been employed as chief painter at the Royal Navy's Chatham dockyard, but he was also a skilled financier, and amassed a considerable private estate and income.
[1] Hasted returned to his parents' home in Sutton-at-Hone, and, in July 1755, married Anne, Dorman, the daughter of a neighbour.
[2] Hasted acquired The Knights Hospitaller's manor house of St. John's Jerusalem; and it was here that he wrote his magnum opus.
He attended the local church regularly, and also sat on the West Kent Quarter Sessions bench at Maidstone.
Released in 1802, Hasted lived in poverty for five years until he was given the Mastership of Lady Hungerford's Almshouse in Corsham, Wiltshire, by his friend William Bouverie, 1st Earl of Radnor.