Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby

“ By her Derby had issue Henry Stanley, fourth earl [q. v.] , Sir Thomas Stanley (d. 1576) , and Sir Edward (d. 1609) ; and four daughters. His second wife was Margaret, daughter of Ellis Barlow of Barlow, Essex, by whom he had one son and two daughters. She died on 23 Feb. 1558–9, and an epilogue on her death, by Richard Sheale, is printed in the ‘British Bibliographer,’ vol. iv. (cf. Stanley Papers, i. 14) . His third wife was Mary, daughter of Sir George Cotton of Combermere Abbey, Cheshire, who afterwards married Henry Grey, earl of Kent, and died without issue on 16 Nov. ”

“ Edward Henry Stanley, 15th earl of Derby (1826–1893) , eldest son of the 14th earl, was educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a high degree and became a member of the society known as the Apostles. In March 1848 he unsuccessfully contested the borough of Lancaster, and then made a long tour in the West Indies, Canada and the United States. ”

“ That plain looking man who with a slight inclination to the Speaker and doffing his hat, passes out to the Division Lobby, is Lord Stanley—now Earl Derby, since the death of his father. Lord Stanley, who is now in the House of Lords, was one of the ablest members of the House of Commons, a forcible debater, a logical reasoner, and a thorough gentleman in all respects. ”

“ VII., to Sir Edward Stanley, a younger son of Thomas, first Earl of Derby, popularly known as the hero of Flodden Field, and in consequence of his good services created Lord Monteagle, who eventually married the heir to his own daughter Elizabeth. ”

“ His speeches are all the speeches of a steady, respectable, thoughtful sort of Liberal, inclined to study carefully both or all sides of a question, and opposed to extreme opinions either way. He will never, it is quite clear, be guilty of the audacity of openly breaking with his party while his father lives; and perhaps when he becomes Earl of Derby, there may be nothing distinctively Tory worth fighting about. Lord Stanley is indeed totally devoid of that generous ardor which makes men open converts. He is no longer young, and he will probably remain all his life where he stands at present. ”

“ He explained his position in the House of Lords on 28 Feb., not without expressing some bitterness at his followers' want of courage. As yet, however, his party had hardly a sufficiently definite policy to have justified their taking office. Stanley himself was still in favour of moderate protection, though prepared to abandon any return to it, if the next verdict of the constituencies should prove to be unmistakably against it. In June his father died, and he succeeded to the earldom. On 21 Feb. 1852 Russell again resigned, and Lord Derby formed a ministry ”

“ The nephew of Sir John (who was a younger son) removed the chief seat of the elder line of Stanley to Hooton in Wirral by marriage with its heiress (Dugdale ii. 247; Ormerod ii. 411) . A still more fortunate alliance (before October 1385) with Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Latham, made Sir John Stanley himself lord of great part of the hundred of West Derby in south-west Lancashire, including Knowsley and Lathom (Rot. Parl. iii. 205; cf. Wylie, ii. 290) . ”

“ If there was one man more distinguished than another by the royal favour in that august circle, he was Stanley, Lord Chamberlain. Sir William Stanley had burst upon Richard III. at Bosworth Field, at the critical moment, slain his standard-bearer, and, by his followers, killed the tyrant. His brother, Lord Stanley, had put the crown of the fallen monarch on Henry's head. For this he had been created Earl of Derby, and had been allowed to ally himself to the throne by the marriage of Henry's mother, the Countess of Richmond. ”

“ One source from whence we have derived some information, though well known to the comparative few who have explored these by-paths of history, may not be thought uninteresting to the general reader, especially as it is connected with the most eventful portion of our narrative.
An ancient metrical account of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, is contained in some uncouth rhymes, written about the year 1562, by Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Sodor and Man, [12] and son of that Sir Edward Stanley, who, for his valour at Flodden, was created Lord Monteagle. ”

“ He was secretary of state for war and for the colonies and president of the board of trade; and was governor-general of Canada from 1888 to 1893. He died on the 14th of June 1908, when his eldest son, Edward George Villiers Stanley, became earl of Derby. As Lord Stanley the latter had been member of parliament for the West Houghton division of Lancashire from 1892 to 1906; he was financial secretary to the War Office from 1900 to 1903, and postmaster-general from 1903 to 1905. ”

“ Sir Edward Stanley, of the noble house of Derby, lived at Tong Castle, County Salop. He married the daughter and co-heir of the Earl of Northumberland, who brought him two daughters, ‘the divine Venetia’ being the youngest. Her mother died when she was a few months old. The widower gave himself up to grief, shunned the world, and could not even derive comfort from the society of his children. ”

“ He remained in London three years, deriving great benefit, as he always fully acknowledged, from the personal supervision of Kneller, and returned to Warrington in 1721 upon an express commission to paint the portrait of Sir Edward Stanley. The success of this portrait led to his introduction to James Stanley, tenth earl of Derby, and the earl was so pleased with Winstanley's work that he ordered him to come and paint for him at his seat at Knowsley. ”

“ Here he became intimate with many men who afterwards rose to great eminence, among others Edward G. G. S. Stanley, afterwards Lord Stanley and fourteenth earl of Derby. After leaving Oxford he travelled for some years on the continent, but married in London (15 April 1828) , and in Aug. 1830 entered parliament as representative, with his friend's father Lord Stanley, afterwards thirteenth earl of Derby, of his native county of Lancaster. ”

“ STANLEY, FERDINANDO, fifth Earl of Derby (1559?–1594) , son of Henry, fourth earl [q. v.] , was born in London about 1559. He matriculated in 1572, at the age of twelve, at St. John's College, Oxford, and graduated M.A. on 17 Sept. 1589. As a boy of fourteen he was called to Windsor by Queen Elizabeth, though he does not appear to have held any office. In 1585 and afterwards he acted as deputy lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire on behalf of his father, and during the time of the alarm of the Spanish invasion in 1588 he was mayor of Liverpool, and raised a troop of horsemen. ”

“ The unquestioned leader of the royalists was the head of the great house of Stanley, James Stanley, Lord Strange, afterwards 7th Earl of Derby. Though not actually succeeding to the title until September, 1642, his father William the 6th Earl had resigned all his estates in his son's favour five years before, and Strange had been since then the leader of the county. Born on January 31, 1606‐7, he was educated in Bolton and at Oxford, and entered public life very early, becoming member of Parliament for Liverpool in 1625. ”

“ Edward Stanley, third Earl of Derby, to which title he succeeded in 1521, and died in 1574. The first entry is of 3l. 6s. 8d. paid at the christening of his lordship's son on the 4th October, 1531. The Earl had issue four sons, but as the date of their births does not occur in the peerages, it is impossible to say to which this item referred. ”

“ Sir John Stanley transferred a great deal of ecclesiastical power into the hands of the deemsters, and established other wise regulations.
Thus the Isle of Man became the brightest jewel in the possessions of the Earls of Derby; and now, in the opening year of the English Revolution, James, the seventh Earl, became Lord of Man. ”

“ The Earl of Derby and his Family, 1843; Cummings's The Great Stanley, 1847, and in the Lives of his wife [see art. Stanley, Charlotte, Countess of Derby] . See also the numerous tracts catalogued under his name in the Brit. Mus. Cat., and those printed in Ormerod's Civil War Tracts in Lancashire (Chetham Soc. vol. ii.) ; The First Blood drawn in the Civil War, Manchester, 1878 ”

“ Whither, the majority of the men were far from being certain. The attachment of the Northerners of Derby, Cheshire, and Lancashire was very strong for the ancient race of Stanley. To go against an Earl of Derby was hardly less than actual laying of rough hands on their anointed King, and to that pass only the fiercest malignants had as yet desired; thus for a while the soldiers were permitted to suppose that they were bound for Westmoreland. ”

“ Encouraged by this exhortation, Clifford accused Stanley, then present, as his chief abettor; and offered to lay before the council the full proof of his guilt. Stanley himself could not discover more surprise than was affected by Henry on the occasion. He received the intelligence as absolutely false and incredible; that a man, to whom he was in a great measure beholden for his crown, and even for his life; a man, to, whom, by every honor and favor, he had endeavored to express his gratitude; whose brother, the earl of Derby, was his own father-in-law ”

“ KING EDWARD.
Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed.
RICHARD.
But he, poor man, by your first order died,
And that a winged Mercury did bear;
Some tardy cripple bore the countermand,
That came too lag to see him buried.
God grant that some, less noble and less loyal,
Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood,
Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
And yet go current from suspicion!
Enter Stanley Earl of Derby.
STANLEY.
A boon, my sovereign, for my service done!
KING EDWARD.
I prithee, peace. My soul is full of sorrow. ”

“ Disraeli has his weaknesses of manner and of action; but he is a keen talker, and can make such show of brilliant repartee as will terribly irk the leaders of the Left.
The Earl of Derby, notwithstanding his fine and gentlemanly bearing, comes in for his share of the Punch caricature. Few British statesmen are so accomplished and graceful speakers as the Earl of Derby; and, with the burden of the Government upon his shoulders, to spur his efforts, we shall confidently look for such strong pleading, as will surpass any thing yet heard from Lord Stanley. ”

“ Brown-haired, hazel-eyed, fresh-cheeked, serene rather than gay, he seems the very incarnation of the ideal for which many others, less fortunate, hungered in that vexed England: the man ‘innocent and quiet,’ whose ‘mind to him a [xix] kingdom is,’ whose ‘treasure is in Minerva’s tower,’ and ‘who in the region of himself remains.’ Through the Civil struggle, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, he had followed a way of peace, without blame, and he is almost the only poet of the stormy time who is absolutely unaffected by it. ”

“ Sir John Stanley was a natural son of James Stanley, warden of Manchester, and afterwards Bishop of Ely, a younger son of that Thomas, Lord Stanley, who placed the crown of the vanquished Richard upon the head of the victorious Richmond on the field of Bosworth. ”

“ While Stanley was its patron it was known as ‘Lord Strange's company.’ After his death it passed to the patronage of Henry Carey, first lord Hunsdon, the lord chamberlain, and became known as the ‘Lord Chamberlain's company’ (cf. Fleay, History of the Stage, p. 41) .
On the death of his father, on 25 Sept. 1593, he succeeded to the earldom of Derby and the sovereignty of the Isle of Man, with other titles and dignities, including the lieutenancy of Lancashire and Cheshire. ”

“ Alban’s Court, Nonington, near Canterbury. Following the almost unbroken law of the heredity of genius, Stanley derived his chief mental qualities from his mother; and through her he was nearly related to the poets George Sandys, William Hammond, Sir John Marsham the chronologer, Richard Lovelace and his less famous brother; as, through his father, to a fellow-poet perhaps dearer to him than any of these, Sir Edward Sherburne.
His tutor, at home, not at College, was William Fairfax, son of the translator of Tasso. ”

“ The struggle between Richard II and the baronial opposition began in the parliament of October 1386, when Henry was not of age to receive a summons. Yet when, after Easter 1387, Richard withdrew to Wales to take counsel with Robert de Vere, duke of Ireland [q. v.] , Derby was one of the persons obnoxious to the king and his favourites (Walsingham, Hist. Anglic. ii. 161) . Derby now definitely joined his uncle Gloucester, Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel (1346–1397) [q. v.] , and Thomas Beauchamp, earl of Warwick [q. v.] . Thomas Mowbray [q. v.] ”

“ To name his familiar associates is to call up a bright and thoughtful pageant, for they include, besides Lovelace and Suckling and Sherburne, the Bromes; James Shirley; John Davies of Kidwelly; John Hall of Durham, better remembered now as the friend of Hobbes than as the prodigy his generation thought him; and the genial Edward Phillips, the nephew of Milton. Though Stanley knew how to protest manfully when the profits of his mental labours were in danger of being withdrawn from him, yet he sought none of the usual awards of life, and never increased his patrimony. ”

“ The Queen hopes Lord Derby will not consider that she intends, by this letter, unduly to influence his free consideration and decision as to the advice he may think it his duty to [page 317] offer, but merely to guard against his being taken by surprise, and to prevent, if possible, an unseemly public difference between herself and Lord Stanley. ”