WEST DERBY HUNDRED 



HUYTON 



In 1647' the six surviving children of the earl 

 had been permitted to live at Knowsley. A little 

 after this the eldest son, Lord Strange, went 

 abroad, and in 1650 married in Holland Dorothea 

 Helena de Rupa,* a maid of honour to Elizabeth, 

 queen of Bohemia. He returned to England early 

 in 1 65 1, and found that two of his sisters (Katherine 

 and Amelia) were in prison in Liverpool,' having no 

 allowance from their father's estate and depending 

 entirely on charity ; the other children were in the 

 Isle of Man. He therefore 'cast himself on the 

 wisdom and the mercy of Parliament,' being ' desirous 

 as well to obedience and his good affection and loyalty 

 to the Commonwealth, as to preserve some small 

 ruins of his unhappy family.' Himself, his wife and 

 child, and the family were quite destitute of means. 

 After taking the engagement he was granted ' two- 

 fifths of the four parts yet undisposed of,' and allowed 

 to live at Knowsley.* 



He appears to have been unacquainted with his 

 father's movements in August, 1 651, but on hearing 

 of his capture and imprisonment at once visited 

 him, made strenuous efforts for his pardon, and 

 attended him to his execution, and then at the 

 burial. He lived at Knowsley, the widowed countess 

 joining him in 1658. He engaged in the premature 

 rising of 1 659 in favour of Charles II. After the 

 restoration he was, of course, restored to his father's 

 honours and to much of his estates ; he bore a sword 

 before the king at the coronation, and was made lord 

 lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire, and (in 1662) 

 chamberlain of Cheshire for life. He wrote and 

 published two controversial tracts in favour of Pro- 

 testantism (1668-9),' and '^'^d at Knowsley 21 De- 

 cember, 1672, being buried at Ormskirk nearly six 

 weeks later.* 



His son and successor was William George 

 Richard, ninth earl, who left two surviving daughters, 

 Henrietta and Elizabeth. He was lord lieutenant of 

 Lancashire and Cheshire from 1676 to 1687, when 

 he was arbitrarily displaced by James II, to be restored 

 in the following year, when the king discovered how 

 much this action was resented. He retained the 

 office till his death. He preferred a county retire- 

 ment to court offices, and set himself to the work of 

 rebuilding Lathom, which, however, he did not 

 finish.' His daughter Henrietta became sole heir by 

 the death of her sister Elizabeth in 17 14. She was 

 twice married — to John Annesley, earl of Anglesey, 

 in 1706, and to John, earl of Ashburnham, in 17 14, 



having a daughter by each husband.^ She died on 

 26 June, 1 71 8, and her second and surviving 

 daughter, Henrietta Bridget Ashburnham, died un- 

 married 8 August, 1732. 



James, tenth earl, succeeded to the title and the 

 bulk of the estates on the death of his brother in 

 1702. He was a member of Parliament for 

 Lancashire boroughs and for the county from 1685 

 to 1702;° served in the campaigns of Flanders 

 under William III, with whom he was in high 

 favour ; had court offices, was a Privy Councillor, 

 lord lieutenant of the county 1702-10 and 1 714 

 to 1736, and chancellor of the duchy 1706 to 1 7 10. 

 He was mayor of Liverpool in 1734. He rebuilt 

 Knowsley Hall, putting up an inscription as to the 

 ingratitude of Charles II, ' who refused a bill unani- 

 mously passed by both Houses of Parliament for the 

 restoring to the family the estates which he had lost 

 by his loyalty to him.' ■" He died on i February, 

 1735-6, at Knowsley without surviving issue." 



The title of earl of Derby, with Knowsley, 

 Halewood, Bury, and other manors, went to the 

 heir male of the second earl, who had died so 

 far back as 1 5 2 1 , through the Sir James Stanley of 

 Cross Hall of whom mention has been made above." 

 He had a numerous family, including Henry Stanley 

 of Aughton, who married Margaret, daughter and 

 heiress of Peter Stanley of Bickerstaffe, and was suc- 

 ceeded in 1598 by his son Edward, created a baronet 

 by Charles I in 1627. His eldest son Sir Thomas, 

 second baronet, strove for the Parliament in the Civil 

 War as strenuously as his great relative the earl of 

 Derby did for the king ; he died in 1653, leaving a 

 son. Sir Edward Stanley, who was succeeded in 167 1 

 by his son. Sir Thomas Stanley (died 17 14), the 

 father of Sir Edward Stanley, fifth baronet, who 

 became eleventh earl of Derby in 1736. He was 

 sheriff of Lancashire in 1722, and knight of the shire 

 from 1727 .till his succession to the earldom ; lord 

 lieutenant 1742 to 1757 and 1771 till his death on 

 22 February, 1776. His widow died two days after 

 him, and they were buried together at Ormskirk. 



Their son James married Lucy, daughter of Hugh 

 Smith of Weald Hall in Essex, and assumed in accor- 

 dance with Mr. Smith's will the additional surname 

 of Smith. He was knight of the shire (1738) till his 

 death, also lord lieutenant from 1757, and chancellor 

 of the duchy from 1762. 



He died in June 1 77 1," and his son Edward, at 

 twenty-three years of age, succeeded his grandfather as 



^ Permission granted 8 Sept. ; Sea- 

 come. 



2 Naturalized by Act of Pari. 29 Aug. 

 1660. 



^ Afterwards at Chester. 



■* Royalist Comp. P. ii, 222-4. This 

 acceptance of the Commonwealth reach- 

 ing his father in an exaggerated form 

 greatly distressed him ; Stanley P, pt. iii, 

 cclxvi. 



^ Local Gleanings Lanes, and Ches. i, 24.1 . 



* On 29 Jan. 1672-3, * deplored by 

 King, country, and Church * 5 Ormskirk 

 Reg. 



7 There are numerous references to 

 him in the Kenyan MSS. (Hist. MSS. 

 Com.), including his diary in Oct.-Nov. 

 1688, and a contemporary character 

 sketch. For his action in 1688 see a 

 subsequent note. 



*• In conjunction with Lord Ashburn- 

 ham she sold a number of the family 

 estates, including the manor of Lathom. 



In 1707 she appears to have held in her 

 own right half the castle of Greenhalgh, 

 the manors of Lathom,* West Derby,* 

 Wavertree,* Everton,* Adgarley, Alston,* 

 Skelmersdale,* Holland,* Bretherton,* 

 Ormskirk, Newburgh, Great and Little 

 Sowerby, and Bispham. Those marked 

 with an asterisk were disposed of as well 

 as other estates and the manors of Child- 

 wall, Much and Little Woolton, which 

 last, however, had practically been lost to 

 the family since the Civil War. With 

 regard to the rest — as also Knowsley, 

 Halewood, Bury, and Pilkington — the 

 then earl of Derby seems to have been 

 able to come to an agreement with her. 

 These have accordingly come down to the 

 present earl, together with Bickerstaffe, 

 Thornley, and Chipping, the inheritance 

 of the Bickerstaffe branch of the family. 

 For details see Pal. of Lane. Plea R. 

 487, m. 4 ; 503, m. 5, 5 </.; Pal. of Lane. 

 Feet of F. bdle. 276, m. 67, 71, 75 ; and 



165 



Pal, of Lane. Plea R. 540, m. 1 1 ; 567, 

 m, 3 ; 623, m. la. 



® He was a decided Whig, and the earls 

 of Derby adhered to the same party till 

 the time of the fourteenth earl, who him- 

 self down to 1 834 was a zealous supporter 

 of it. 



^^ See Stanley P. pt. iii, cclxxv, and note. 



^^ The lordship of Man, the barony of 

 Strange, and a large part of his estates 

 devolved upon the heir of his aunt Amelia 

 Anna Sophia, youngest daughter of the 

 seventh earl. She had in 1659 married 

 John, second earl and first marquis of 

 Atholl ; her eldest son John was created 

 duke of Atholl in 1703, and it was his 

 son James, second duke, who became in 

 1736 heir general of the * Martyr Earl.' 



1^ For a fuller account of this family see 

 Bickerstaffe. 



^^ For his character by a particular 

 friend, ' whose rank puts him above 

 flattery,' see Collins. 



