134 The Stanley Family. 



tration of the present day, give to Alderley independent 

 and special interest. Like the rest of our oldest and 

 most distinguished aristocracy, the family dates from the 

 time of William the Conqueror, and, through one of the 

 ladies of the earliest ancestry, is identified also with one of 

 the noble old Saxon families that held their ground when 

 on every side there was confiscation. Among the leaders 

 who accompanied William from Normandy was one 

 Adam de Aldithley, so styled from the name of his pater- 

 nal estate. Acquitting himself bravely, he was rewarded 

 with large possessions in England ; his two sons, who 

 had come over at the same time, were also seated sub- 

 stantially ; and in due course, two grandsons that were 

 born to the old knight married into the ancient Saxon 

 family alluded to, namely, that of Stanley of Stoneley, 

 Staffordshire. Certain exchanges and settlements were 

 effected, and William de Aldithley, the younger of the 

 two grandsons, became possessor of the Stoneley pro- 

 perty. In honour of his lady, and of the great antiquity 

 of her family, he now assumed her maiden name, and in 

 these two personages we have the immediate founders of 

 the long lineage that has never sullied its inheritance, 

 and that has made for itself such lustrous annals. The 

 relationship of some of the most celebrated of the Stan- 

 leys will appear from the following table of the de- 

 scent : 



