A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



twelfth earl. He also was knight of the shire 1774 

 to 1776, and lord lieutenant from 1776 till his death. 

 He married in 1774 Elizabeth, daughter of James, 

 sixth duke of Hamilton, 1 who afterwards separated 

 from him, and died in March, 1797. In the 

 following May Lord Derby married Eliza Farren, an 

 actress of some fame, commemorated by an inscription 

 in Huyton church. ' A passion for horse-racing and 

 cock-fighting was the absorbing one of his life,' and 

 ' Derby Day ' preserves his memory. 



His son and heir Edward, born in 1775, had been 

 member for Preston 1 796 to 1812, and for the 

 county 1812 to 1832, when he was summoned to 

 the House of Lords as Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe ; 

 two years later, on succeeding to the earldom, he also 

 succeeded to the office of lord lieutenant of Lanca- 

 shire. He took a great interest in natural history, 

 and formed a large menagerie at Knowsley,* and also 

 a museum, which he bequeathed to Liverpool, where 

 it is still preserved. He died 30 June, 1851.* 



His eldest son, Edward Geoffrey, the most brilliant 

 and distinguished of the modern earls, after a successful 

 career in the House of Commons, was called to the 

 House of Lords on his father's barony in 1 844, and 

 succeeded to the earldom in 1851. He served in 

 many ministries, being thrice prime minister himself 

 (1852, 1858, 1866), and becoming leader of the 

 Conservative party. He was celebrated as an orator, 

 being known as ' the Rupert of debate,' and main- 

 tained his reputation for scholarship by a translation 

 of the Iliad. He died at Knowsley on 23 October, 

 1869, and was buried there.* 



He was succeeded by his eldest son Edward Henry, 

 born at Knowsley in 1826, and distinguished for a 

 long and useful public career, having filled numerous 

 ministerial positions. He died in 1893,' and was 

 succeeded by his brother Frederick Arthur, the present 

 (sixteenth) earl of Derby, who after being a member of 

 the House of Commons for many years, and holding 

 office several times, was in 1886 summoned to the 

 upper chamber as Baron Stanley of Preston ; he was 

 governor-general of Canada from 1888 to 1893. At 

 home, after the extension of the boundaries of the 

 city in 1895, he was lord mayor of Liverpool. (See 

 Pedigree next page.) 



Leland in Henry VIII's time notices the place 

 thus : ' Knollesley, a park having a pretty house of 

 the earls of Derby, within a mile of Prescot.' 6 

 Camden passes it over. 



Until the Civil War Lathom was the principal 

 residence of the family, but after its destruction 

 Knowsley took its place. Here, as already stated, the 

 children, and then the widow, of the seventh earl 



took up their residence with the permission of those 

 in power, and the dowager countess died there on 

 21 March, 1663-4.' 



The house is |_-shaped, with an east wing some 

 41 5 ft. long, joined towards its south end by a south 

 wing about 290 ft. long, the latter being the older 

 portion, and said by Pennant to have been built ' by 

 Thomas, first earl of Derby, for the reception of his 

 son-in-law Henry VII.' 8 Parts of the walls may be 

 as old as this time, but there are now no architectural 

 teatures which can be older than the latter part of the 

 seventeenth century, with the doubtful exception of 

 the three pointed arches in the kitchen. The entrance 

 to the south wing is on the north side, somewhat to 

 the east of the middle, and is flanked by circular 

 stair-turrets. It opens to a passage running along the 

 whole of the north side of the wing, as far west as 

 the entrance to the kitchen, and opening into a line 

 of rooms on the south. These have a cloister in 

 front of them, and have been completely refaced on 

 the south, a large block of building projecting south- 

 ward from the middle of the south front having been 

 added at the same time. The kitchen measures about 

 50 ft. by 35 ft., and is divided lengthwise by an arcade 

 of three pointed arches with octagonal pillars, which 

 have preserved no ancient detail, if indeed any part of 

 them is of ancient date. It is to be noted that the 

 walls here and for some distance eastward are thick, 

 and may be older than any architectural features 

 which they have to show. 9 The fittings seem to be 

 nowhere older than the early part of the eighteenth 

 century, to which date belongs the staircase opposite 

 the north entrance mentioned above. At the west 

 end of the wing, on the south side, is a modern block 

 built round a small court, containing the estate office, 

 muniment rooms, &c. 



The east wing is of several dates, and for the 

 middle of its length has a thick central wall which 

 may be its oldest part. The south end of the long 

 range of buildings seems to have been begun about 

 1730, and is the work of James, the tenth earl of 

 Derby, who died in 1736. Dates on the rain-water 

 heads range between 1 73 1 and 1 737. The range has 

 a central portion of three stories, about 70 ft. long, 

 flanked by shorter wings which were originally of two 

 stories, but have since been raised to the same height 

 as the central block. 10 It is of red brick with stone 

 dressings, with the characteristic moulded architraves 

 and sash windows of the time, and is finished with a 

 rather dull panelled parapet. On its south front is a 

 two-story portico carried by pairs of columns, and on 

 this part of the building is the inscription which 

 records the ingratitude of the Stuarts to the great 



1 It is interesting to note that she was 

 a descendant of James the seventh earl, 

 and that the present and three preceding 

 earls are descended from the same. 



Described and illustrated in Gleanings 

 from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley 

 Hall, 2 vols. imp. folio, 1846 and 1850, 

 privately printed. 



See Diet. Nat. Bug. 



1 Ibid. 



Ibid. 



6 Leland, Itin. vii, 48. 



7 In Sept. 1688, William the ninth 

 earl was at Knowsley. He had just 

 been restored to office as lord lieu- 

 tenant of the counties of Lancashire and 

 Cheshire. In Oct. he received a sum- 

 mons from the king, which took him to 



London; he was desired to use 'great 

 care to keep his two counties quiet.' On 

 I Nov. he met his deputy lieutenants 

 at Knowsley. On the I 7 th he heard that 

 there was a design on the part of the 

 military at Wigan and at Liverpool to seize 

 upon him at Knowsley, so as to prevent 

 him from acting with Lord Delamere 

 with whom he had in fact concerted mea- 

 suresagainst King James, and so he left 

 Knowsley, going round by Winstanley and 

 Astley to Preston ; Kenyan MSS. 198, 



A letter dated in June, 1697, describes 

 the household at Knowsley ; 'We came 

 to Knowsley on Wednesday last. . . We 

 stayed at Knowsley till Monday last, and 

 now we are ready the first wind (and) 



1 66 



have a ship ready bound for the island. 

 My Lord and Lady Strange are at Knows- 

 ley, keep a very few servants, and no 

 gentlemen came there whilst we stayed, 

 only Mrs. Lyme one day, and Parson 

 Richmond another day. . . My Lord 

 Derby did intend himself to go for the 

 island, but is off that because of the 

 danger of the sea, and the many privateers 

 who are now in St. George's Channel, 

 waiting for the ships that will come to 

 Highlake (Hoylake) for Chester Fair' ; 

 Ibid. p. 418. 



8 Tour from Downing to Alston Moor, 22. 



9 The house was taxed for 72 hearths 

 in 1662. 



1 The northern wing in 1808, the 

 southern at a quite recent date. 



