136 The Stanley Family. 



proceeds from the right shoulder to the sword-hold, while 

 the ground or shield is silver. Heraldry calls them argent, 

 upon a bend azure, three stags' heads or. The second 

 Sir John, marked t in the above table, marrying Isabel, 

 daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Lathom, of Lathom, 

 near Ormskirk, not only acquired that property, but 

 would seem to have been the individual who intro- 

 duced the curious crest that surmounts the arms. This 

 consists of a peculiar kind of coronet, crimson and er- 

 mine, heraldically termed a chapeau, and containing an 

 infant over which stands an eagle, as if about to devour 

 the child. The allusion is to the circumstance of an in- 

 fant having once been found in an eagle's nest by one of 



the Lathoms, and being adopted into the family as if 



\ 



one of their own offspring. 



Thomas Stanley (marked % in the table) was the fa- 

 mous soldier who figured so prominently at the battle of 

 Bosworth Field, October 27, 1485, completing his great 

 service by placing the crown upon the head of Rich- 

 mond, thereafter Henry VII. : 



" Courageous Richmond ! well hast thou, acquit thee ! 

 Lo, here, this long-usurped royalty, 

 From the dead temples of this bloody wretch 

 Have I pluck'd off, to grace thy brows withal ; 

 Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it ! " * 



In consideration of the important part he had taken 

 in the battle, the result of which was that the Planta- 



* King Richard III., Act V., Scene last. 



