WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



HUYTON 



The marriage took place about 1385,' for their 

 son and heir was twenty-eight and more in 1414 ; 

 but it was not till 1398 that a dispensation was 

 asked and obtained from Pope Boniface IX, it having 

 been shown by Sir John Massy of Tatton that they 

 were related in the third and fourth degrees.' 



At the beginning of 1386 Sir John de Stanley was 

 appointed deputy of Robert Vere, earl of Oxford, in 

 the government of Ireland,' and subsequently held 

 other offices under the Crown.* In June, 1397, he 

 purchased from John le Strange the manor of Bidston 

 in Wirral, with the adjacent Moreton and Saughall 

 Massie. Soon afterwards he secured an annuity of 

 40 marks.' He received in 1405 a grant of the lord- 

 ship of Man, forfeited by the Percys for rebellion.* 

 In February, 1407-8, the king granted to Sir John 

 Stanley, steward of his household, and Isabel his wife 

 free warren within their manors of Lathom and 

 Knowsley, and their lands in Childwall, Roby, and 

 Anglezark, although the same were within the metes 

 of the forest.' Stanley was again sent to Ireland as 

 lieutenant,' dying there at the beginning of 1414.' 

 His widow Isabel did not long survive him, dying in 

 October, 1 41 4, her son John being her heir." 



The heir, who was soon afterwards made a knight, 

 had several public appointments. Just after his father's 

 death he was made steward of Macclesfield " and master 

 forester of Macclesfield and Delamere ; in November, 

 1 414, he was elected a knight of the shire." He 



is frequently mentioned as justice, &c., in Cheshire." 

 He was at the capture of Rouen in August, 141 8.'* 

 Sir John Stanley died at the beginning of December, 

 1437." He granted the prior of Burscough a buck in 

 the park of Lathom and another in the park of 

 Knowsley in greasetime, and a doe in winter." 



His son Sir Thomas Stanley was thirty-one years 

 of age on succeeding. It was in July, 1424, that 

 he had been attacked in his father's tower at Liver- 

 pool by Sir Richard Molyneux, a dangerous tumult 

 being created. He had taken part in the govern- 

 ment of Ireland from 1429 to 1436," and succeeded 

 his father in his Cheshire offices. In 1446 he re- 

 ceived a grant of the manor of Bosley, near Maccles- 

 field, from Humphrey, duke of Buckingham." He 

 was knight of the shire for Lancashire from 1447 to 

 145 5," and summoned to the House of Lords as Baron 

 Stanley, January, 1455-6. He died in February, 

 1458-9, Thomas his son and heir being twenty-six 

 years of age.'" 



Sir Thomas Stanley, the second Lord Stanley, 

 married Eleanor Nevill, sister of the King-maker, and 

 succeeded to his father's dignities in Cheshire, some 

 additional offices and lordships being added." His 

 first wife, who brought him into connexion with the 

 leading Yorkist family, died in 1472, and soon after- 

 wards he married, as her third husband, Lady Mar- 

 garet Beaufort, mother of Henry, earl of Richmond, 

 the hope of the Lancastrian party .^* In 1475 Lord 



Stanley, who married the heiress of 

 Hooton in Wirral, which remained the 

 chief seat of the senior branch of the 

 family till the early part of last century ; 

 Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 415. 

 The pedigree is not quite satisfactory at 

 this point. 



* Isabel had been married to Sir Geoffrey 

 de Worsley, who died in 1380; see the 

 account of Worsley. 



^ Ormerod, Ches. ii, 415 ; Local Glean- 

 ings Lanes, and Ches. i, 109. 



3 Cal. Pat. R. Ric. II, 1385-9, see p. 

 232 ; also Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 

 444. Thomas del Ryding, afterwards 

 vicar of Huyton, was among those who 

 accompanied him to Ireland. 



■" Cal. Pat. 1385-9, p. 114, &c. ; ibid. 

 1 3 88-92, p. 499 ; Dep. Keeper's Rep, xxxvi, 

 App. 444-6. 



^ Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvi, App. 444 ; 

 Ormerod, Ches. (ed. Helsby), ii, 467. 



^ When the lordship came to be con- 

 tested in 1594 between the daughters of 

 Ferdinando, fifth earl, and his brother 

 William, sixth earl, the crown lawyers con- 

 tended that the grant had been invalid 

 from the first, having been made before 

 the Percy estates had legally come into 

 the king's hands. This was overruled. 



The grant had at first been made for 

 life, but a little later (6 April, 1405), on 

 surrender of this and other grants, was 

 regranted to him, his heirs and successors, 

 with the castle and peel of Man, all 

 royalties and franchises, and the patronage 

 of the bishopric ; to be held of the crown 

 by liege homage, paying the king at his 

 coronation a cast of falcons ; Seacome, 

 Hist, of the Stanley Family ,• Rymer, Foedera 

 (Syllabus), ii, 554. In some later corona- 

 tions the earl of Derby bore the sword 

 called Curtana ,- William the ninth earl 

 based his claim to do so on his lordship of 

 Man ; Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), 

 228. 



' Chart. R. 9 Hen. IV, n. 9. 



The grant included permission to make 



a saltus at Knowsley. The royal patent 

 recites that there had been a park there 

 time out of mind,- and that Henry duke 

 of Lancaster, * our grandfather,' had con- 

 firmed it ; Lanes. Inq. p.m. (Chet. Sec), i, 

 106. In 1406 he obtained licence to 

 fortify his house at Liverpool, called the 

 Tower. The Stanleys were sometimes 

 described as * of Liverpool ' ; Dep. Keeper's 

 Rep. xxxvii, App. 69. 



8 Cal. Pat. 1422-9, pp. 96, 99, 157. 



® In compiling the account of the 

 Stanley family the following works have 

 been consulted : — Bishop Stanley, Family 

 Poem in Halliwell's Palatine Anthology. 

 Dugdale, Baronage (1675), ii, 247-54. 

 This appears to be the basis of Collins' 

 account. John Seacome, Hist, of the House 

 of Stanley, first published in 1741 ; it 

 brings the story down to the death of the 

 tenth earl in 1736. The author had 

 been steward of the household. He 

 prints a number of Civil War documents. 

 Collins, Peerage (ed. 1779), iii, 37-83. 

 G. E. C. Complete Peerage, iii and TJi. 

 David Ross, House of Stanley (1848) ; the 

 author was editor of the Liverpool Chron. 

 William Pollard, Stanleys of Knoivsley 

 (Liverpool, 1868) ; useful for recent his- 

 tory. Baines, Lanes, (ed. Croston), v, 

 81—91. Foster, Lanes. Pedigrees. Bio- 

 graphies of the more prominent members 

 of the family are given in the Diet, of 

 Nat. Biog. A fuller account of the 

 descent will be found in the Pedigree 

 Volume. 



^'' Lanes. Inj, p.m. {Chet. Soc), i, 105. 

 The writs of Diem cl. extr. were issued 

 for Sir John Stanley on 26 March, 1414, 

 and for his widow, 12 March, 1414-15, 

 See Dep. Keeper's Rep. xxxii. App. 12. 



" Cal. Pat. 1422-9, p. 62. 



1^ Pink and Beavan, Pari. Rep. of Lanes. 



18 Bep. Keeper's Rep. xxxvii, App. 666, 

 672. He was not the John Stanley 

 who was constable of Carnarvon Castle, 

 1428, Sec, and living in 1439 ; ibid. 672. 



^■* Peck, Desid. Curmuy vii, 6. 



la Dep. Keeper*s Rep, xxxvii, App. 672, 

 34.3. The writ of D'tem d. extr. was 

 issued on 14 Dec. The inquisition 

 taken in Cheshire has been preserved ; he 

 held no lands in that county in chief ; 

 Ormerod, CA«. ii, 412. 



1^ Inq. after the death of Thomas, second 

 carl of Derby. 



^^ Norman R. {Dep. Keeper's Rep, xlviii), 

 284,294,315. 



1^ Dep. Keeper's Rep. xlvii, App. 672. 

 He was comptroller of the king's house- 

 hold in 1443 and later years ; ibid. 674 ; 

 Rymer, Foedera (Syllabus), ii, 667. A 

 grant of Toxteth Park and the moss of 

 Smithdown was made in May, 1447, at a 

 fee farm of iii. y^d. This was renewed 

 by Queen Elizabeth in 1593. Both are 

 recited in the Inq. p.m. of the fifth earl, 

 referred to later. 



1^ Pink and Beavan, op, cit. 56. 



20 Writs of Diem cl, extr, were sent 

 out on 26 Feb. and 9 and 10 Mar. and 

 two Cheshire inquisitions are printed in 

 the Dep. Keeper^s Rep. xxxvii, App. 676, 

 677. For a further account of him see 

 Diet. Nat. Biog. 



'^^Dep. Keeper* s Rep. xxxvii, App. 680-2. 

 His son John, who became parker of 

 Shotwick in 1475, is not recognized on 

 the pedigrees. He seems to have died in 

 1477, being succeeded by his brother 

 George 5 ibid. 680-1, 653. 



22 Lady Margaret's second husband died 

 before 1472, when she made provision 

 for * the costs and making of a tomb to 

 be made for the said Henry [Stafford, 

 knight] at Plessy [in Essex], where his 

 bones lie.* In 1478 letters of confra- 

 ternity were granted by the prior of the 

 Grande Chartreuse to Sir Thomas Stanley 

 lord of Stanley, and the Lady Margaret 

 his living wife, and the Lady Elinor for- 

 merly his wife, now dead, also to Sir 

 Thomas [i.e. George] Stanley, knight, 

 and Joan his wife 5 see the documents in 

 the Eagle^ Dec. 1894 and Dec. 1897. 



